Which frequent flyer programs allow pooling of status credits?

Question

I know the Virgin Australia Velocity frequent flyer program allows pooling of travel into a single beneficiary for a whole family. This can be useful where one person travels a lot while the rest does only occasionally, as the frequent traveller can get a bit of a boost to their "status" in the program.

Are there any other frequent flyer programs that offer this ability to pool status increases? We're investigating other options for frequent flyer membership for our upcoming trips.

Answer 1

Many if not most frequent flyer programs offer some sort of "friends and family" program, either through pooling miles or allowing family members to transfer miles, which has the same net effect. For example...

• Qantas lets you do free Family Transfers of points to family members
• Air NZ lets you "gift" miles to anyone with the same address as you
• Emirates has both transfers and a "Family Bonus" scheme
• Etihad has family pooling with 100% credit
• Qatar has a "Family Programme" that pools miles (although at a penalty if you're not an elite member)
• SAS Eurobonus has both family pooling and transfers (for a fee)

I suspect the list of major airline FFPs that don't allow this in some form or another is shorter! Off the top of my head, I know of only Singapore Airlines' Krisflyer.

Beware that, nearly universally, family member travel/miles transfers do not count for status qualification. So if it takes 50,000 miles for Gold, and four people in your family fly 15,000 mi each, you're not going to qualify even if your FFP allows 100% gifting and there are now 60,000 mi sitting in your account.