Short on miles? This workaround might save the trip

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Have you ever found the exact award flight you wanted — at a great price, no less — only to realize you don’t quite have enough rewards?

Even if you maximize your earnings in all the most important ways, including credit card sign-up bonuses, shopping portals, and transferring flexible rewards, you might still come up a bit short, especially if you’re booking for a larger group.

So what do you do if you have almost enough miles for your dream redemption? There’s a workaround that can help boost your balance: points pooling.

Many frequent flyer programs let you pool rewards with family members, friends, or both, often without any fees or charges. For example, if you have 70,000 miles and your partner has 30,000 miles, pooling your balances could make it possible to book two 50,000-mile award seats on the same itinerary.

Just note that the rules for these programs vary quite a bit.

For example, the JetBlue TrueBlue program offers points pooling among groups of up to seven family members and friends. All members in the group can pool their rewards together, and a designated “Pool Leader” administers the account.

Air France and KLM’s Flying Blue program has a similar feature called Flying Blue Family that lets a lead member invite up to seven other Flying Blue members to pool points together, with a maximum of two adults and six children. This can be great for premium Flying Blue redemptions or getting multiple family members on a single itinerary.

Plenty of other frequent flyer programs let members pool their rewards, including these popular options:

• Air Canada: Aeroplan Family Sharing
• British Airways: Household accounts
• Emirates: My Family Account
• Frontier Airlines: Family Pooling
• Spirit Airlines: Points Pooling
• United Airlines: Miles pooling
• Virgin Atlantic: Household accounts

Some other airlines don’t offer true points pooling among family members but do let you transfer rewards between accounts. With these programs, there’s usually a maximum number of miles you can transfer, and fees apply.

• American Airlines AAdvantage: Transfer miles
• Delta SkyMiles: Transfer your miles
• Singapore Airlines: Share miles as a family
• Southwest Airlines: Share points

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Combining your points could be worth considering in the following scenarios:

• Big redemptions: If you're working with several family members or friends to build rewards for a premium redemption, being able to pool several balances into one account can be incredibly useful.
• You're short on rewards: While having 12,000 or 15,000 miles in different loyalty accounts won't get you far, pooling rewards across several of these accounts could be enough for a free flight.
• Elite status perks: If someone in your travel party has a higher status with you, pooling points and having them book all the flights can help all of you get perks like early boarding and free checked bags.

While points pooling can make sense in a range of different scenarios, make sure you understand how your program works and if any fees apply. For example, American Airlines lets members give their rewards to other people in the program, but fees apply. There's also a maximum number of miles that can be transferred and received.

Also note that most points pooling programs have an "administrator" or lead guest that gets to decide how the miles are used. This means any miles you transfer to another person largely fall out of your control.

Make sure you read over the fine print for points pooling programs, know how they work, and only pool points with someone you trust.

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