Family account question
 

Hi - I have been researching a family account for a relative. Would appreciate if anyone has info on the following scenario.

Mother and son (6yo) will be traveling a lot on US. They would like to know if they can pool their miles in a single DM account in the mom's name.

Additionally, the family will be applying for two US AIrways CC's (one for grandad and one for grandma) and want to know if the grandparents can have their miles deposited into the DM account referred to above also. In other words, they want to give their daughter their 30k sign up bonuses and any miles generated from card use.

Thanks for any info.

No. What you propose can't be done.

Thanks. Both are impossible? The 6yo has to have his own DM account?

If you want to collect the miles for the 6 yo's flights, he needs his own DM number.

The other thing you propose is high risk. The grandparents could very well put the same DM numbers on their cc apps, but name matching is done. So it's more likely than not that the miles won't post.

OK, thanks for the helpful information!

Yes, but the 6 year old can generously use his miles to give you an award ticket. :-)

While it's risky for the grandparents to sign up for cards and put someone else's DM number on the application, it is possible to book tickets for someone else using their own accounts. So if grandma opens a DM and CC account in her name, she could use the miles to book a flight for someone other than herself. Depending on your goals (domestic awards for whole family, international awards for one person, etc), this could work out just as well as pooling the miles. With 25k low level domestic awards, the CC signup bonus is plenty for a roundtrip domestic ticket, and each account can book a ticket for a different person, if that's the goal. So there are options, just not necessarily in the manner you proposed.

You definitely can't do #1 but most miles credit cards will let you designate anyone you want as the mileage # for all miles -- names don't have to match, but *usually* that person has to be an authorized user. At least that's my experience.

A3 is usually a better choice for kids than US/UA.

Thanks everyone for the info. We're going with the advice suggested.

I have a related question. I'm' an existing DM member and long-standing CC holder. I decided to apply for another CC in my name and put another family member as a secondary cardholder so she can use it. I now see that I've been assigned a new DM number in my name as a result of this application.

Question: is it "legal" for me to have two DM accounts in my own name? If not, presumably I can ask them to attach my original DM account to this new CC? If so, where do I put in that request? US or the CC company?

I see the US website has the option to merge 2 accounts but basically I don't want to do anything which is going to jeopardize my current account, where I've got a lot of miles still sitting. On the other hand, if it's possible to maintain two accounts, I can see the advantages of that for family travel. Thanks in advance,

Matt_DC

What is the advantage of having two accounts? If you split your miles among multiple accounts you will achieve status more slowly and thus miss out on bonus miles.

You should merge the accounts and notify the CC company that you have a different DM number.

Maybe you should also consider cancelling the the first CC since it is of no value to you now?

Thanks. For my own travel, I'll only ever put my original DM account so I can continue to qualify for preferred status. However, I could envisage purchasing miles during offers on both the 1st and 2nd accounts, effectively allowing me to benefit twice from the offers, *provided that* it's not a violation of the program in any way because I don't want to get into hassles with them.

That double use of the purchase bonus is really the only benefit I see in maintaining two accounts. My preference would be to put the account in the name of the second cardholder, but that seems problematic or possibly contrary to the rules.

I believe the official rules are "one person, one DM account." If the Barclays people opened a second account for you, you should ask Barclays to reassign the destination for the miles you generate, then ask US to merge them. Given the many ways the various buy/share/gift promos have been "maximized" by others, there seems to be closer scrutiny on accounts only used for credit card/promo/purchased miles, and keeping the extra account around just for the sake of doubling up on promos would (at least in my logic) increase the chances that you'd attract some of this additional scrutiny.

Have every person have their own account; have the credit card holder's miles go into the cardholder's account, even if the cardholder holds more than one card. When it comes time to make redemptions you can ticket your party of 3 (or however many) each from their own account, assuming of course each has enough balance to cover a single ticket.

If it's in another person's name don't forget you can gift the miles as well and still receive the promotion bonus