ethanwa

I have an Alaska Airlines milage account. I just booked a trip for me, my wife, and two kids. Do they each need their own Alaska Airlines account, or can I have all of their miles go into my single account?

Ethan

ANC

quick short answer would be no

baliktad

Mileage Plan Conditions of Membership

Don't despair, though, earning miles through flying is actually not the way the majority of miles are earned these days. Focus more on the lucrative credit card deals than earning by flying if you're interested in mileage accumulation.

eponymous_coward

You can pool your child and spouse's earned miles on Alaska into one account if you credit to British Airways and use a Household Account:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...t/public/en_gb

Alaska is a partner of BA. Also, BA Avios can be used in many fruitful ways to redeem on AS because of their distance-based chart (SEA-SMF is 9K Avios round-trip in Y, SEA-LAS/LAX/SAN or SAN-SJD is 15K, SEA-HNL/SJD/MCO is 25K miles r/t, and while hotel redemptions are probably not the best use of miles, they are available as well). BA Avios can also be used on American, Cathay, and other oneworld partners.

FlyerChrisK

The fuel surcharges for BA awards booked with those partners may make this an unfavorable option.

AKLifetimeFlyer

That depends. BA awards are often easier to get, and to some, the quality of product justifies the fuel surcharges. I would have no issue paying an $800 surcharge for BA F award.

eponymous_coward

Uh, BA doesn't charge a fuel surcharge for Alaska, American, LAN, Royal Jordanian, Air Berlin, a number of other partners. The Cathay surcharge is something like $40 USD for a route like BKK-HKG or even JFK-YVR. Only on longhaul is it more like a couple hundred dollars (and it's still a lot less than BA's YQ; there's a thread on the CX forum that tracks it). BA and IB are the ones where you'd get hit badly with surcharges.

So, no, not so much. That's a somewhat misleading statement- Avios are very useful for domestic flights in the United States when you're in a city with lots of AA/AS flights, without surcharges. The one catch is Avios are segment based (so SEA-PDX-LAX costs more than SEA-LAX- though a single flight number should still work...)

SquarePeg

Why not just transfer the miles w/in AS program?

Transfer Miles

While you can always redeem a full award out of your own account for a friend or family member, there may be times where you just want to move miles from your account into theirs. Our Transfer Miles program allows you to take miles from your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan™ account and transfer them into the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account of a friend or family member.

Transfer up to 30,000 Mileage Plan Miles in increments of 1,000. Transfers in or out are limited to 100,000 Miles per calendar year, per account.

link: http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...ePlan-transfer

Finkface

I am guessing because he was hoping he could just have them put into his account for free at the outset rather than having to pay to have them transferred. Three times, in his case (wife and 2 children).

"Our Transfer Miles program allows you to take miles from your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan™ account and transfer them into the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account of a friend or family member. You can transfer 1,000 to 30,000 miles in increments of 1,000 miles at a cost of $10.00 per 1,000 miles, plus a $25.00 processing fee per transaction."

SquarePeg

Not sure how I missed that part! Especially since I was looking for a fee and didn't see one... must be losing it.

FlyerChrisK

It depends on what you intend to use the miles for.

AA operated TATLs on BA award tickets are going to see similar YQs to BA operated flights.

eponymous_coward

Still better than a handful of AS miles orphaned in a minor child or spouse's account, no?

Really, there are a lot of ways to use Avios that don't get you stuck with fuel surcharges- especially in AS's route network, and the household account for BA works pretty much as the OP wants.

Waitlisted

That's expensive though. $250 to move enough miles for a saver round trip (25,000 miles) plus $25 fee so $275. When a fare sale is on, many times paying for the fight is less.

ranman1973

It takes a long time to build up points for kids, since they can't and won't earn points for holding a credit card account. I'm in the same boat.