I’m a fan of loyalty programs that allow you to pool your points. This lets you build up a significant points balance and get rewarded more quickly. For example, some programs allow an entire family or household to pool the miles they earn, so you can potentially earn a free ticket that way after just one trip.
It looks like another program will soon be introducing points pooling. Lufthansa Miles & More is celebrating their 25th anniversary, and has a press release about how they’re celebrating. In May 2018, Lufthansa will introduce mileage pooling, allowing up to two adults and five children to bundle their award miles. Miles earned can be redeemed by both adults on an equal basis for any Miles & More redemption.
Lufthansa thinks that increased redemption opportunities through their program will increase member engagement, which is probably true. We’ll have to wait another couple of months to learn the full details of how this points pooling will work (will this really be “family” pooling, or will they allow people registered at the same address to pool points?), though it sounds fairly promising.
There are quite a few loyalty programs that already let you pool points, though the terms associated with it vary significantly. Possibly my favorite program in this regard is Hilton Honors, as they straight up allow you to combine points with up to 11 other Hilton Honors members, for up to 500,000 points per year. Through this feature you can transfer your points to someone else’s account at no cost, and then they can redeem the points however they’d like.
As far as airlines go, British Airways allows household accounts, where you can pool Avios with up to six other people registered at the same address as you. This is a solid program, though the major downside is that you’re limited in terms of the people outside of your household that you’re allowed to redeem Avios for.
I look forward to seeing how Lufthansa’s points pooling will work. I’m excited about the concept, though hopefully they don’t add too many unnecessary restrictions.
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