United MileagePlus Pooling Adds Partner Award Flights
United has quietly made a significant improvement to its MileagePlus pooling feature.
When MileagePlus pooling launched, members could combine miles with family and friends, but pooled miles could only be used for United and United Express award flights. One of the biggest limitations was that pooled miles couldn’t be redeemed for partner airline awards. That has now changed.
United now allows pooled miles to be used for award bookings on dozens of partner airlines, greatly increasing the usefulness of the feature for travelers looking to book international awards. The new was first reported by ToP.
Eligible Partner Airlines Include:
- Aer Lingus
- Aegean
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air Dolomiti
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- Airlink
- ANA
- Asiana Airlines
- Austrian
- Azul
- Avianca
- Brussels Airlines
- Cape Air
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- Discover Airlines
- Edelweiss
- EgyptAir
- Emirates*
- Ethiopian Airlines
- Eurowings
- EVA Air
- Flydubai
- Hawaiian Airlines
- ITA Airways
- JetBlue
- Juneyao Air
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- Lufthansa City Airlines
- Lufthansa Express Buses
- Olympic Air
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- SWISS
- TAP Air Portugal
- Thai Airways
- Turkish Airlines
- Virgin Australia
Some restrictions apply to certain partners and routes. You can see full terms here.
Guru’s Wrap-up
This is how MileagePlus pooling should have worked from day one. The ability to combine miles was nice, but being restricted to United flights made the feature far less valuable. Adding partner award redemptions turns pooling from a niche feature into something that could actually help families book aspirational international awards.
