Can I get miles for someone else's flight?
 

I'm booking flights for my parents. Can I accrue their miles onto my Mileage Plus number? The system seemed to bawk when I booked it for my dad saying the name didn't match. But it didn't have a problem when I booked for my mom.

Nope. The points belong to the traveler. sometimes if the names match enough it could work

Regardless of the names being close / matching, it can easily result in the loss of all of your miles and the closure of your account if it was discovered that you were doing this intentionally.

Great! Just leave your dad at home and send your mom all over the world to accumulate mileage for you :-)

Seriously, you can't do that for MP, mom or dad.

It's a frequent flyer program, not a frequent buyer program.

The closest legitimate thing you can do is purchase them with a United Airlines credit card. Some earn as much as 3 RDM for each $1 spent, which could easily be more than the flight miles on some routes.

Hi! Why don't you ask them to sign-up for the frequent flyer program and then transfer the miles to you?

Have you looked at the costs of mileage transfers?? Not in general a wise use of money.

+1 and why? It is FREE to have them book tickets for you out of their accounts. No need to move the miles if you are going to use them for travel.

althought that does require enough miles in the account to do the booking, potentially an issue for an infrequent traveler.

However, United DOES have a frequent buyer program, but its not nearly as straightforward or rewarding as Mileage Plus. Search for threads about "Perks Plus" for info. Its only intended for legitimate businesses purchasing tickets, so you'd also have to convince them you are a business.

Only way I've discovered to benefit in this sort of situation.

Pre 9/11 the airlines didn't check names so thoroughly when you put in your FF# on the ticket. If your last name matched the member's name, you could sometimes get away with it with using the parents/offspring (assuming they weren't flying with you). Now it's impossible, unless possibly you are a Jr. buying a ticket for your dad (and neither of you used Jr., Sr. in your name).

I've often wondered if there's a whole underground economy built around people with common named (Jim Smith) who could trade non-refundable tickets with each other. With a name like mine, it's not something I'd have much luck with. :eek:

Another problem is that the you would be spreading flying miles over multiple accounts and can't get the elite status

This IS possible!
 

I had the same question as the OP......googled it, and came across this page and one from United:


https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...ghtsearch.aspx

Relevant section:
Can I book a ticket for someone else with my MileagePlus miles?
Yes, you may request to have a MileagePlus award ticket issued in someone else’s name.

FWIW


EDIT: oops, I misread the OP's situation, and relied too much on google's search result. Never mind then. Two different things.