An update to United’s mileage rewards program may change the way the entire airline industry runs these programs in the future. United announced that it has launched the MileagePlus miles pooling feature. This new way to manage airline miles will allow program participants to share the miles they’ve racked up with family and friends, potentially lowering the costs of family vacations or even trips with friends with air travel booked through this airline.
The idea is simple enough: program members can now create groups of up to 5 people with whom they can directly share their benefits. Essentially, the rewards that one member racks up could be accessible to everyone within the “pool.” At this point, there’s no requirement that people within the pool be related or show that they’re in some type of work relationship. That means that groups of friends could create their own pool and share the benefits. Anyone who has a friend who uses United to travel plenty for work could benefit greatly from being part of their shared rewards program.
United was reportedly keen on making this change due to the results of a recent survey conducted by Family Travel Survey. In it, up to 81% of parents mentioned that they intended to travel with their children at some point throughout the year. At least 60% of them, though, were very concerned about the potential costs of those trips. With the update to the rewards program, people who travel for work often will be able to share the benefits that they’ve racked up through these trips. This means they could end up paying less for their companion’s airfare, plus everyone in the group may have access to other benefits the airline offers.
Luc Bondar, Chief Operating Officer of MileagePlus talked about the company’s focus on targeting families as one of the main reasons behind this update. He mentioned,
“MileagePlus miles pooling further reinforces United’s position as the leader in family and group travel and gives our members more flexibility to use their miles while making it easier to connect to the destinations and moments that matter most, with the people that matter most.”
To emphasize that the program is indeed aimed at families, United also announced that there is no minimum age requirement to enter one of these pools. That means that even the youngest family members can join the rewards program. To create a pool and start sharing rewards with friends and family, active program members just have to log into their accounts.
Once there, they’ll be greeted with an updated interface that can walk them through the steps of creating a pool or joining one. When they have all that setup, they can start sharing rewards with the members of their pool. If this experiment works out well for United, it’s likely that other airlines will mimic the concept. Meanwhile, travelers who aren’t members of the United MileagePlus program could look to fly United now to enjoy the benefits that the airline is offering.
