Absolutely, You Can Use Points and Miles to Arrange Travel for Others. Here’s How

While some individuals guard their treasured points and miles, others are eager to share their bounty with friends or family. One method is through transferring or pooling points and miles. Another is directly booking an award ticket or hotel stay for someone else using your own points. Since the realm of points and miles can be intricate, the latter option often raises the question: Can you utilize points and miles for someone other than yourself? Generally, yes, and it’s quite straightforward. Airline loyalty programs tend to be simple for redeeming miles for another traveler, while hotel loyalty programs can be a bit more complex. Here’s how to redeem points and miles for a friend or family member across all major programs.

Using Airline Miles for Another Person

Accumulating miles in frequent flyer programs can be complicated, but redeeming them is a breeze. Once you have sufficient miles, booking an award seat is as simple as a few clicks on the airline’s site. After locating your preferred award seat, you can enter the details for any traveler. Yes, the traveler doesn’t have to be you. Be aware that if you’re logged into your frequent flyer account, your information may automatically populate the passenger fields, so ensure you clear that and input the correct details if booking for someone else.

The reality is: All domestic airlines permit you to book mileage tickets for anyone—a family member, friend, or even an acquaintance. Most major international airlines’ frequent flyer programs, including popular ones like Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, British Airways, Emirates, and Qatar Airways, also allow this. (A few Asia-based airlines limit redemptions to family members, but these are generally smaller programs.) When booking for others, it’s vital to follow program guidelines; trading or selling miles is not allowed and may result in account cancellation. (Remember: Don’t post on Reddit offering your miles to the highest bidder and then book a ticket in their name—you’ll likely get caught.) Mileage tickets should only be for people you know and treated as gifts. Keep in mind that you will also be liable for paying taxes and fees for these award tickets since many airlines only accept credit card payments for taxes and fees from the frequent flyer account holder.

Over the years, I’ve booked numerous airline tickets for my family and friends—it's almost become a tradition to gift award tickets for birthdays or special occasions. (In one instance, I financed a $21,000 family vacation primarily with points and miles.) Make sure to inform your recipient that once you input their details, like their email and phone number, all subsequent communication regarding the ticket will be directed to them. If they need to make any changes or cancellations, they’ll require a record locator to ensure everything proceeds smoothly or that the miles are returned to your account promptly—the record locator is typically found only on the ticket. While you might attempt to find it on your profile, most programs don’t show it when deducting miles, so you'll need to get it from the ticket itself. To avoid complications, keep your own digital copy of the gifted ticket and the record locator.

Using hotel points for someone else’s benefit

While redeeming airline miles for someone else usually follows a consistent process across airlines, redeeming hotel points can differ significantly by program. The same goes for redeeming free-night certificates, which are often provided as part of welcome bonuses on hotel-branded credit cards or as rewards for annual spending.

The IHG One Rewards program provides the most straightforward way to redeem hotel nights for others: You can reserve rooms using points or free-night certificates directly on its website and add the name of the guest to the reservation. Your recipient can then check in using the reservation number—simple as that. Your name will remain the primary name on the reservation, but the other person will be included as well. Keep in mind that this functionality is only available on the desktop version of the IHG One Rewards site, not on the app.

On the other hand, Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy, and World of Hyatt have different processes. For Hilton Honors, booking points for someone else requires a phone call, but I prefer to transfer Hilton Honors points directly to the recipient’s account, which is free and can be done online via the website (Tip: Transfers may not always work on SDinogoi, so use Google Chrome instead.) Each year, up to 500,000 Hilton points can be transferred between members, with a maximum of six transfers allowed per calendar year. A Hilton Honors account can be set up in about 60 seconds, but it must remain open for at least 60 days to facilitate transfers. Although transferring points with Hilton Honors is straightforward, Free Night Award certificates cannot be transferred between accounts.

Marriott Bonvoy permits members to transfer up to 100,000 points each year at no cost, with recipients able to receive up to 500,000 points annually. Since 100,000 Bonvoy points typically won’t cover much (for instance, a night at the Miami Beach Edition costs 91,000 points in mid-December), it’s advisable to reach out to Bonvoy customer support to book the stay with your points. Request them to note the reservation as a gifted room for a friend or family member. Your name will be the primary one on the reservation, but the recipient will also be listed and can check in under their name. (If your guest encounters any issues at check-in, they should mention your name, and there should be a note in the system that may not have made it onto the hotel’s manifest.) Such gifted reservations are capped at five per account each calendar year. As for free night Bonvoy award certificates, they can only be used by the certificate holder, and the program tends to enforce this rule strictly.

In contrast to other major hotel loyalty programs, World of Hyatt allows for the direct transfer of free-night certificates between accounts. This can be done online once you’re logged in and have the recipient’s account information. To reserve a room for someone else using your points, simply call World of Hyatt customer service to finalize the booking. Alternatively, you can transfer your hotel points to the recipient. However, unlike the typically instantaneous transfers of Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt transfers may take a few weeks. Any World of Hyatt member can transfer points to another member free of charge, in any amount, with no annual limits on giving or receiving; however, transactions are restricted to once every 30 days and require submitting some paperwork via email.

Key Takeaways

It is indeed possible—and often quite simple—to use your points and miles for others. For mileage tickets, you merely need to enter the passenger’s information in the appropriate fields during booking, understanding that you are gifting these miles and must use your own credit card for taxes and fees. For hotel points reservations, the processes differ by loyalty program, but ultimately, each program allows members to book hotel nights for others (often necessitating a phone call).