Originally Posted by
Amarante
Newbie question...
If I go on vacation with my wife and kids do I earn mileage for them or would my wife have to get her own account? What about friends (different last names) if I am making the booking? Do all airlines work this way?
AFAIK, most US carriers require each individual to create their own frequent flyer account should they want to earn miles. So yes, your wife, kids, and your buddies need to have their own numbers created if they don’t have one themselves yet.
OTOH, some foreign carriers have an optional annual fee based family pool system, provided that they are your immediate family members. Many Asian carriers do this like
JAL Family Club,
ANA Family Account, and
Korean Air Skypass Family Plan (see "Skypass Family Registration Form"). Respectively you can pool all your familes’ AA and OW flights into JAL, UA/CO and *A into ANA, and DL and ST flights into Korean. Whether or not this may work out for you though is a different story.