Which points can be shared, transferred, or pooled?
Tl;dr: Several major points programs let you share your points with other members, often freely.
You don’t need to keep your points all to yourself, or rely on your points alone to book trips with your friends, family, or partner. Pooling or sharing points is one of the simplest ways to unlock better redemptions without needing extra points. From topping up an award to preserving orphaned points or maximizing elite benefits, pooling can turn fragmented balances into cleaner, more powerful redemptions. In this post, we’ll discuss why you might want to pool your points, and which credit card, airline, and hotel programs make it easiest.
Why combining points could be a good idea
The most obvious reason to combine points is to have enough for a redemption. This could just be a small amount to top up a redemption, but combining points can help travel partners book awards that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to book on their own. For example, two spouses with 40k and 60k points, respectively, would only be able to book one 50k-point award ticket on their own, but could book two with a combined points pool.
But there are less obvious benefits too. By sharing points, you can:
Earn and use elite status. Points are often more desirable or useful if you have elite status. You could transfer points to allow a status holder to redeem them more efficiently, or, if someone is coming up on earning status, for a mileage or mattress run to the next status threshold (assuming the award redemption would count for status, which is not always the case).
Combining points can help you maximize your rewards and travel more.
Maximize transfer bonuses. If you frequently rely on a given loyalty program, you and your partners’ various cards might have different transfer bonuses throughout the year (e.g. a 50% transfer to Aeroplan on your Bilt card one month and a 30% bonus on your spouse’s Amex card another month.) Having more people and accounts linked together will maximize your chances to take advantage of those opportunities.
Avoid stranding points. Have an amount too small to redeem that is going to expire? You may be able to share them with a partner to redeem them or extend their life, depending on program rules. Even if they might never expire, if they are just sitting idle in your account and you have no plans to earn more, it may make more sense to share them.
Centralize booking (“let the nerd do it” 🤓). It may be more practical to have one person combine all the points and make everyone’s booking than having to coordinate multiple people making their own redemptions on separate bookings, and then having to coordinate things like seat assignments. This may also be the way to go if you have one nerdy points enthusiast in a group of lazier travelers.
How to share credit card points
Of the major credit card issuers, Wells Fargo and Capital One offer the easiest points sharing: you can share points with anyone else enrolled in Wells Fargo Rewards or holding a rewards-earning Capital One card, respectively.
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Chase lets you combine points, but with a big limitation: you can only share with other members of the same household (sharing the same address).
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Citi also allows you to share or receive up to 100k Thank You points with any other Thank You member, but with a big catch—they will need to be redeemed within 90 days, or else they will expire.
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Amex has an indirect option to share points, but it is fairly limited. You cannot share Membership Rewards points with another member, but you can transfer points directly into someone else’s linked loyalty program (e.g. their Delta SkyMiles account), but only if they’re an authorized user on your account and have been for at least 90 days before the transfer.
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Bilt doesn’t have the option to transfer your Bilt points to anyone else (yet?).
How to share airline points and miles
US airlines
Among major U.S. airlines, United and JetBlue have the most generous and straightforward policies, with United allowing pools of up to 5 people to share points, while JetBlue allows pools of up to 7.
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Alaska’s Atmos Rewards program allows points sharing, but only for credit card holders. If you have an Atmos Summit or Hawaiian Mastercard, you can exchange points freely with up to 10 other Atmos members.
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Frontier Airlines lets you share points with up to 8 other members, but only once you reach elite status.
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American Airlines, Delta, and Southwest all charge for points sharing.
Useful foreign airline programs
A few foreign airlines have frequent flyer programs that are popular transfer destinations for points enthusiasts. Most allow points pooling, but limit pools to close family members, people who share a physical address or both. These include Air Canada, British Airways, Flying Blue, JAL (note: JAL has some small fees), Qatar and Virgin.
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Virgin goes a step further, allowing you to transfer points to any other Flying Club member. There is a $15 fee, but that is low compared to domestic options like Delta or Southwest, and does not require elite status or a co-branded credit card.
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How to share hotel points
Most, but not all, of the big hotel chains offer a way to transfer points to others.
Marriott allows you to send up to 100,000 points and receive up to 500,000 points per year (accounts must be open for a certain amount of time to be eligible). Hilton allows you to send up to 500,000 points and receive up to 2 million, although you are limited to a maximum of 6 transactions per year.
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Hyatt points can be combined, but unfortunately there’s paperwork involved.
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Choice will offer points sharing in 2026, but the details haven’t been released yet. IHG offers points sharing, but only for top-tier Diamond Elites. Best Western allows points transfers, but only between accounts sharing a physical address. Accor and Wyndham do not offer points sharing, as far as I could find.
Lazy take 🦥
Points pooling and sharing programs are a great option to plan and boost travel, whether for you or for your friends and family. And the flexibility that they offer is something worth considering when evaluating credit cards or loyalty programs. Just be sure to check the fine print and know that terms are always subject to change (so double-check before transferring!).