Originally Posted by
Efrem
With AA, at least, there's no penalty for doing this. They don't even offer round-trip awards. I think there are airlines that offer both, with a one-way award requiring more than half the miles of a round trip.
The "penalty" for one-way awards is that they don't allow stopovers. For example, UA offers one-way awards (at 50%), or round-trip awards that allow a stopover.
Originally Posted by
FlyingBoat
I believe BA allows you to combine miles into a family plan, if I remember correctly.
They do, and I believe there are a couple of others as well.