United MileagePlus Adds Miles Pooling Feature

Update: Shortly after launching the ability for family pooling, United pull the option because of some tech issues. However, it seems they have fixed the issue and it's now on the site again.

While United doesn't have great award rates relative to its competitors, the ability to pool miles among friends and family (for free) could be quite useful. Neither American nor Delta have this feature, but Air Canada Aeroplan does.

Important Details

• Pool leaders must be at least 18 years old
• Pool leaders can invite up to 4 MileagePlus members to join a pool regardless of age
• You can contribute an unlimited number of United miles to a pool
• You can redeem pooled miles via United's site or mobile app for United award flights only (no partner award bookings)

Joining And Leaving A Pool

• If you leave a pool, the miles you've contributed will stay with the pool
• If you leave a pool, you must wait 90 days to join another pool
• If a member else leaves your pool, you must wait 90 days to add another member

Direct link to miles pooling page

Points Wire Note:

If there's one thing that disappoints me about this new feature, it's that you're restricted to booking flights operated by United. It would be much more useful if you could book award tickets on partner airlines.

For example, this restriction will prevent you from booking a United flight to Europe and connecting on a Star Alliance partner such as Austrian, Lufthansa, or Swiss. Since United doesn't fly to a ton of cities in Europe, that really restricts your options.

As for the restrictions on joining and leaving a pool, I think it's clear that you shouldn't join a pool unless you're about to book.