threeoh

Buying other people tickets with your miles is permitted and commonplace.

findark

This is absolutely fine -- do not worry about it.

The letter of the law is that you can book travel for whomever you wish, as long as you are not receiving any form of compensation for it. The actual ground truth is that unless you deal with complete strangers and thereby end up with a United agent as a counterparty to a quid-pro-quo transaction, or have some wildly strange pattern of booking (e.g. booking travel for 50 different people over six months with no apparent connection to each other), you will not hear anything from United. People book awards and give upgrades to family, friends, and co-workers all the time.

RNE

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's commonplace, but it's definitely allowed. I just used miles to send someone to Ireland to be with her son on his birthday (he was studying abroad). United didn't bat an eye.

RNE, saying I wouldn't make a habit of it, though.

threeoh

You say that it's not commonplace but yet you've done it recently, and others on this thread (including me) do it all the time. If that's not commonplace I don't know what is. It is not something one is getting away with and unlikely to get caught (like throwing away a return leg of a r/t ticket), it's a totally normal thing to do and is both explicitly permitted and unlikely to raise any red flags.

Why not?

RNE

To avoid the appearance of wrongdoing.

SFOrunner

I agree - I fail to see how using my miles to book travel for other people is suspicious / not common place.

Aussienarelle

I do this all the time for friends and family. I have the miles and the ability to find great Saver availability. You are specifically asked for the name of the pax when making the reservation. The only payment involved is my love for them.

The thing that annoys me is the recent change where their reservation is no longer automatically populated in My Reservations. Since it was my miles/RPU/cash that was used I think it should populate (great internal control) to ensure I legitimately used my miles/cash/certs, etc.

It would make sense that I not automatically see the reservation if I did not know the person (i.e. had "sold" my miles), but these are my friends and family and I babysit their reservations until they have taken the flight.

I do not understand why anyone thinks you need to limit the sharing of giving trips to friends and family. I also give my friends and family rides in my car and I am not an uber/lyft driver and receive no payment.

RNE

Let's not be naive. While good people (you and me) use miles to help others, bad people also use miles to sell to others. United cannot tell if a money transaction facilitated our largess or not. If these "gifts" happen a lot (nobody knows what "a lot" is) United may smell a rat, even when there isn't one.

RNE, intending to continue to use my miles to help others, but not going to be Pollyanna about the risk of United misconstruing it; it can.

BullishGS

It is perfectly normal to book flights for others, UA actually allow you to save traveler information for future bookings. If you're not selling your miles, there is nothing to be worried about..

narvik

The risk is minimal. Not sure why you seem so frightened that United somehow would suddenly think there is something untoward going on, when this is just business-as-usual.
One could also be scared that United out of nowhere suspects that your credit card used for the purchase of a ticked is stolen, and that ones name resembles one on the do-not-fly list, and subsequently cancel your tickets.
Can't recall any such reports here on FT of this happening.

If you don't sell your GPUs on eBay, you're just fine!

And yes, I also book award flights for others (where UA has no knowledge whether those persons are related to me or not)

stefang

Do I run any risk in giving away GPUs? I know people have had their MileagePlus accounts closed who tried to sell GPUs, but I am willing to give them away for free, without anything in return. Do I still run a risk in doing so?

DBCme

Hi. If you haven't seen this already, it's a pretty good read on the use of GPU's.
https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...-upgrades.html

In summary: Sponsoring someone else for an upgrade with your GPU is fine. Only if money or bartering comes into the conversation do you create a problem.

IMHO, the "risk" becomes sponsoring someone then the GPU doesn't clear and you don't have enough time to apply it to a new reservation before the expiry date.
So chose your donee's wisely.

Kacee

If it's truly for friends and family it's not a problem. I've given away a whole bunch. People get in trouble when they expand "friends and family" beyond its reasonable limits (usually in connection with some sort of scheme involving payment of compensation in one manner or another).

villox

If you give it away, make sure the person knows who you are and can explain why they got the upgrade. Do not under any circumstances accept any payment, even for "advice on how to use it".

Kacee

I would amend that to say, if you don't know who you're giving it to, don't.