I've been collecting points (or award miles) with AA, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Amex for a while now. We plan on using them next year for a couple international trips. Specific airlines haven't been determined yet. We have a couple questions - as UR and Amex are in my name only, and we have to transfer it to a FF program of the airline we choose (or a partner of that airline), do we both need to be part of that airline program? Putting it another way, I just joined Air France FF program, but my wife hasn't. If we decided to use one of our points programs (UR or Amex), can i transfer the points from UR to Air France and book 2 reward tix for my wife and I, or does she need to have her own FF program with Air France?

And also, is this allowed with every airline FF program?

Thank you.

You're fine booking two Flying Blue award tickets out of one account for you and a spouse. In fact, it's better to do it that way because it keeps you on the same PNR (passenger name record- which is like a virtual folder containing all the tickets for a party traveling together) and people flying on the same PNR are rebooked together as much as possible if your original flight is cancelled or you have a connecting ticket and a flight delay means you would miss a connecting flight.

You booking tickets for you and your spouse out of your own is pretty much ordinary and normal practice for any FF program you're likely to use.

There are just a few exception to this being standard procedure. Some of the Asian carriers (KE & NH for example but not a full list) have requirements on who a trip can be booked for beyond the account holder.

Even if there is such a requirement, booking a trip for your spouse is always within the rules. He or she does not have to be a member of the program.

My wife and I both have AA AAdvantage accounts. All AA awards are one way. We generally prefer to book our (transatlantic) AA awards (the return is on a transatlantic repositioning Cruise) from one account. In addition to the reasons provided by beachmouse, If awards have to be redeposited, AA charges $150+$50 for redepositing two awards from the same account; separate account awards would cost $150+$150 to redeposit.