Question on Separate accounts for spouses
 

Hello

After reading a few post and recommendations on how to obtain more miles or points faster. I have this question, which I could not find; I might not have search well enough.
Anyway, is it possible to open separate accounts for spouses for same type of credit card and get bonus mile on each account, and then combine these miles when obtaining tickets?

Or in another case, some cash back cards have annual cash dividend limit. Is possible to open separate accounts for spouses and double cash dividend since everybody would be using their own card?

thanks

Getting two cards in two different names should result in getting bonuses on each card. There are other issues, such as your credit rating, costs, etc., but you should get all the miles and bonuses that come with each card. If you have adult children and they can qualify for a credit card, they can get their own also.

I am a OnePass member and, as far as I know, CO has no idea who my wife is. Nor should they care. A mile earned is a mile earned, no matter which account it goes into. A mile purchased, as by a credit card issuer, is a mile purchased.

The airline should not care either how miles are redeemed or by whom. A mile redeemed is a mile redeemed. If a seat is available for rewards, the airline will trade it for x number of FF miles. Why should they care who gets it?

Did you mean by household accounts where everyone's miles are pooled into one place? If that is what you mean then technically you can do that in BA. I did not apply for two seperate accounts at the same time but first I applied and then my wife applied after six months and we both got the bonus miles into the same household account.

On the hotel side, Marriott (at least) will let you combine accounts up the the amount needed for an award. So, if you have 100K in your account, your wife has 50K, and you want an award for 135K, they will take the needed 35K out of your wife's account.

In general, outside of the now-defunct Mutual Account with Hilton, most hotel and/or airline programs do not allow you to pool miles/points, even with spouses. BA is a notable exception, and the members of your household account (up to 7 now, IIRC) don't even have to be related -- just residing at the same address.

Starwood will also let you combine miles as long as you know each other's password and account number.

Hawaiian Airlines actually does it one better :) , if you have a HA Visa you can transfer points FROM ANY HA MILES ACCOUNT into the account of the card holder, doesnt have to be at all related or have the same address.

mike

Did you mean by household accounts where everyone's miles are pooled into one place? If that is what you mean then technically you can do that in BA.

yes, that's exactly what i meant. I tried to do a search on “BA” but search engine had problem with it. I assume this translates to British Airways. i am still new and don’t now all the slang yet.
What about other programs. I guess the best thing is to call customer service and ask them? I though perhaps some one had any experience with similar situation.

Thanks all for your input.

I just got this in the mail from NWA. I don't know if it's new, but I never saw it before.

NW World Perks will allow miles to be transferred from your account to up to three other accounts. Miles must be transferred in 1000 mile increments, and you can do 5,000-10,000 at a time. Up to 50,000 miles from one account per calendar year.

The cost is 1 cent/mile, plus a $25 processing fee.

So, to transfer 10,000 miles, it will cost you $100 + $25 equals $125.

I'm not sure whether it's a good deal or not, but at least that option is available.