Miles for spouses? Need help.
 

Hello,

First I want to thank everyone that helped me to decide what card/s to get on my WorldPoints topic! Since I'm new to earning air miles my mind is brimming with new questions, some of which I find online by searching, but others I don't have much luck. It's also hard to know what info. is outdated. Here's my latest, new question...

What do you married folks find to be the best way to earn miles for travel with your spouse? IOW, if you want to earn tickets for the both of you, do you each need to apply for separate cc accounts? (I'm going w/the Starwood and Amtrak.) Or, if your spouses' name is on the cc account jointly or as another card holder, can you transfer points to each of your ff accounts? (I'm assuming that airline miles go only to the name holder of the ff account.)

I hope that my question is clear. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and your time!

Julie

IT depends we generally hold separate accounts so we can get double the promotions as if you have a joint acct you only score once. Good example was Hilton 4 for 50,000 points last year we scored 100,000 vs 50,000.

On the other hand we do have some accounts in only one persons name because the spouse never participates (especially business activities) we can request 2 awards if we have the credits and it avoids having a small number of credits in account and paying transfer fees if available or getting more magazines. So sometimes when we fly I will be getting NWA credit while my husband will get CO credit as it rounds out an award.

Hope this was helpful ..it really depends on your habits and level of activity.

I vote for separate for the same reason, taking advantage of multiple promotions.

Ahhh, true it would depend on our level of activity... Well, all we plan to do is stick with the Starwood and Amtrak. I don't want to apply for every promo and clutter our perfect credit reports with excess credit cards. Now knowing this would you say the same? And if the cards were both under my husband's name for example, would we be able to earn miles for my ff account or would they only be transferable to his? Once again, I'm assuming that ff programs only allow the account holder name to fly with earned tickets.

Julie

It's not just the credit card promotions, I've got hundreds of thousands of points and miles from promotions and not a single one of them from credit cards.

When Hilton runs it's stay 4 times and get 50,000 bouns points, you can do it twice with two accounts, not once if it was a joint account. When the airlines offer bonus points for using the kiosks to check in, again, you get twice as many miles.

If you are only earning points through the credit cards, then it won't matter. Two people spending $500 equals the same amount of points as one person spending $1,000.

But if you are both taking Amtrak, then two accounts will get you points for both of you, things like that.

Julie--If I understand your question correctly, you don't each need to have a FF account to get FF tickets for both of you. If all of the FF points go into one account, and you have enough points there for 2 tickets, you issue 2 awards from that account, 1 for you and 1 for spouse. We do that all the time with ours, issuing up to 4 FF awards for us and the kids from my accounts.

Djlawman

But be careful. I tried to redeem a bus class award on DL to Hawaii - 60K each. Together, spouse and I had 120K points, but 90K were in my account and 30K in hers. DL said no dice, and we are in coach instead.

Another drawback is if the spouse travels alone, spouse won't enjoy elite status for upgrades/earnings bonus.

So here's what I'm gathering (bare with me!)... The cardholder can transfer points to the ff account of their chosing whether it be yours or your spouses. So each having their own card is not mandatory.

Yes?

BTW, I don't know if it makes a difference, but now I'm thinking I'll go with Starwood and Alaskan as opposed to Starwood/Amtrak. One of these days I'll make up my mind! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif Soooo much to consider when one is getting started!!!

Julie

that's actually NOT correct Julie - and it's good you're asking NOW rathern than after you have all the points!


With FF miles, you need to have enough in ONE account to get whatever award you ares seeking. For ex, if you want 2 coach awards at 40K each, you have to have at least 40K miles in each accoint. If you have 60 and your spouse has 30, you can't do it. - with MILES you CANNOT transfer miles from you to spouse - you can only get the AWARD for someone.

So if you had 80K and your spouse had 20K, you could do it because you could book the whole award for him.

Clear as mud?? Ask more questions! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I think that there are two issues here and we are confusing them.

For arguments sake lets say the award you want is 50,000 miles or points or whatever.

You either have to have two accounts with 50,000 points or miles in them or have one account with 100,000 points or miles in it and get the two awards from that account. You can not have one account with 50,001 and one with 49,000 and combine them to get the two awards.

Either each account has to have enough to get it's own ticket, or one account has to have enough to cover both (and I don't believe that there is a program that doesn't let you get two awards from one account people correct me if I'm wrong), you can't combine two on the fly to make up the total.

I think what Julie is asking is if the credit card is in hubbies name can she transfer those "miles" to her FF account. The answer is usually - hubby will just have to authorize it

Julie

There are a few ff accounts that allow you to transfer miles but there are catches ($)

for example HA allows you to transfer currently if you have a HA Wells Fargo CC
Problem here is they are selling to Bank of America next month so this opportunity will be gone

AA, UA, NW, allow you to transfer 10,000 miles a year but charge $25 fee and $0.01 per mile so its cheaper to buy miles for small amounts then transfer

Probably more information than you needed to start and the big concern is that these options vanquish quickly and may not be there in 2-3 years when you want them

Thanks you guys! It is clearer than mud... it's probably about like chai tea so we're almost there! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

There was more than one aspect to my question/s and I think all of them were answered.

I'm going to sate some points. Let's see if I have them straight...

1. My hubby can transfer Starwood points to my ff account.

2. ff miles can be gifted to your spouse (or anyone you wish to gift them to).

3. Thus, gifting them is much easier and more cost effective than transferring, esp. in some cases where transferring isn't allowed.

4. Of course when we fly together and earn miles with a paid ticket, we will wind up having two ff accounts.

Hmmm... so when it comes to transferring Starwood points, how do you determine whether to concentrate on filling one ff account or equally distributing to both? (I had imagined us 'storing' the points in the ff account as opposed to the Starwood account.) I guess knowing a specific award goal would be helpful! All things considered I imagine keeping the points stored in the Starwood account as opposed to being stored in the ff account would be wise. That way when we know what we want to do we can divvy them out as needed.

As far as storing points/miles, who do you think is most stable, Starwood or UA or AA? Ha-ha, likely Starwood, eh?

I added what is below after doing some research on the Starwood board. Apparently w/Starwood you cannot transfer points to a ff account under another person's name. This puts a little different spin on things: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Posted by Lurker:

Due to security restraints, the airlines insist that the name on the Starwood Preferred Guest account and the airline frequent flyer account be exactly the same. This is the number one cause of transfer rejection by the airline.

If the person has the same address as you and is not a Starwood employee, you can do an internal transfer between Starwood Preferred Guest accounts. Then the person could transfer to the airlines on their own.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide


[This message has been edited by Julie the Newbie (edited 08-17-2003).]

It seems that very few people realize that you can do an internal transfer between the Starwood accounts for spouses. It really doesn't matter where you leave them. You can just leave them in the original cardholders account until you see how you need them. If it is the spouse's account that needs miles, you do an internal transfer, then a transfer into the FF account. If you transfer 20K, you get a 5K bonus. If you just want to top off an account, then you transfer what you need with some minimum increments - I forget how much since I usually transfer 20K at a time. This helped me achieve my lifetime platinum status. I think this internal transfer feature is one of the best feature of the starwood program.

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Ms.DtG

However, I would really rather not have to have both of us apply for separate Starwood accounts. So, what if both of our names were on one Starwood account... then could we transfer to either ff accounts?

Maybe that question is better left for Starwood themselves... or AS?

At least I think I understand the basics now thanks to all of you. We are getting somewhere!

Julie

Julie--you cannot (under the programs with which I am familiar) gift the MILES to your spouse or others. That suggests that the miles go from you to them. They don't. The only thing you can gift is an actual AWARD TICKET. You can get that issued in anyone's name. The importance of this distinction is, as mentioned above several times, that if you have less than the amount necessary in one FF account for a ticket, you can't "gift" miles from some other account to get that account to an award level of miles.

(There are some exceptions, such as the AA, UA, NW transfers, which are mentioned above, but for which the fees are so high that you shouldn't use it unless there is no other way you can do it. I don't consider this "gifting" because of these high fees. More like buying the transfer from the airline.)

Djlawman

Oh yes, I did understand that I just didn't use the right words. Thanks for making sure it was clear to me.

Julie

Being a new at this myself this topic brings a questions to mind...
Curently I have a UA Gold Visa, I got the gold status and the extra 6 cards to take advantage of the promotion. Now if I understand what has ben posted I should have the wife also apply for a seperate account and do the save thing. This will however cost $90/year for the additional seperate account. Is it still woth it?

As a related note, my wife has status (Global services, a step above Premier Exec 1K) on United, but I've got nothing. Every time we fly, she would get upgraded, but I hold her back. Aside from me personally flying thousands of miles, any other options to increase my status? Can she transfer "miles flown" so I can get enough to be at least Premier (25,000 flown)?

Are you making a distinction between two starwood account, one for each of you and your spouse, and two credit cards. Opening a second starwood account is a two minute operation which you can do on-line. You do not have to open a second credit card in the spouse's name (you can continue to just use a secondary card). The starwood account allows you to transfer the cardholders points that get posted to his/her account into the spouse's account, and then the spouse can put those points into his/her ff#. I am puzzled as to why you wouldn't want to do this as this is such a simple solution to getting points one spouse earns at starwood to spouse.

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Ms.DtG

dgordon... thanks for clarifying! I thought we were talking about needing two different cc's and didn't realize that a person could have a Starwood acct w/o a cc. You're right, that would be the way to go and solves everything! Thanks.

No - miles flown must be flown by the person whose account they are going into

Julie,

I am in similar situation as you, new and don't travel much. I try to stick to the following:
1. Get individual FF and hotel accounts for each person to earn miles/points for paid tickets and hotel stays.
2. Try to credit most of the points to 1 account, which means all cc points go to 1 account.
3. Try to keep points in the hotel accounts. To me, they are more flexible than airline miles. (Exception: if the airline account gives more for each $ spent.) I use hotel points for free hotel rooms and to round out the airline miles. For example, if I have 23,000 miles in my ff account and need a coach ticket, I can transfer enough hotel points to make up the 2,000 miles. So far, I have not been able to move my CO or NW miles without paying a fee. I have no idea how to get a free hotel room with my airline miles.
4. When traveling with hubby, always use the same hotel account(s) to keep points consolidated and to get the elite status.

I am not certain if my system is good. May be someone can improve it for me.

Nancy

Remember you can join any program without getting an affinity credit card. You can join Hilton and not have a hilton card. You can belong to all the airline ff programs and not have a cc that earns UA, CO, DL miles etc. Starwood is the only program that allows this internal transfer. BA has family accounts but limits you to BA. That beauty of starpoints is that they can be put into so many airline programs - when you need them in either spouses ff account. I have mainly used them to transfer 20K at a time to get the 5K bonus to achieve my lifetime platinum status with AA. Now that I have achieved that I will leave the starwood points in my account and use them for hotel stays unless an airline needs topping off.

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Ms.DtG

I'll throw this in the mix.

My boss & his wife have United MP Visa deal.
(A) Joint Account w/MP Visa
Card #1 on this account. Wife's name on card. Her MP # listed on the card to accrue miles
Card #2 same account # as Card #1 Husband's name on card. Wife's MP # listed on card to accrue miles
(B) Second Account w/MP Visa
Husband has second card for work purposes (again United MP Visa). Different account number. Husband's name on card. Wife's MP # listed on card to accrue miles.

All miles dump into her account so she can horde them for family trips to France.

Typical scenario.
Husband buys UA tix on this card.
(1) Miles equivalent to purchase price go into wife's MP account
(2) Miles flown on UA go into his MP account
(3) Check-in @ Kiosk miles go to husband's MP account since this is not linked to the credit card MP # but the travelers MP #