You have a healthy MileagePlus balance and someone close to you needs a flight. Or a family member is a few thousand miles short of an award ticket. Either way, the question is the same: how do you get your United miles to another person?

United gives you three ways to do it. One costs money, one is free but takes a little setup, and one doesn’t move any miles at all. This guide explains each option, what it costs and which one makes sense for your situation.

Your three options at a glance

• Transfer miles to another MileagePlus account. Simple, but United charges a fee.
• Pool miles with up to four other people. Free, and now more flexible than when it launched.
• Book an award ticket for someone else using your own miles. Free, and often the easiest choice.

Option 1: Transfer miles to another member

United lets you send miles from your account to another MileagePlus member through its Buy, Gift or Transfer Miles page. The miles post straight away, and the transfer can’t be reversed.

At the time of writing, United charges $7.50 for every 500 miles transferred, plus a $30 processing fee per transaction. That works out to roughly 1.5 cents per mile before the processing fee.

To put that in perspective, sending 30,000 miles would cost around $480. That’s a significant price for miles you already earned, and in many cases it’s close to what you’d pay to buy the miles outright.

There are also limits:

• Each transfer must be between 500 and 100,000 miles
• An account can send up to 100,000 miles per calendar year
• An account can receive up to 100,000 transferred miles per calendar year

United occasionally runs promotions that discount transfers or waive the processing fee. If you aren’t in a hurry, it can be worth waiting for one.

How to transfer United miles to another person

1. Log in to your MileagePlus account.
2. Go to the Buy, Gift or Transfer Miles section.
3. Choose the transfer option and enter the recipient’s MileagePlus number and name.
4. Select the number of miles and review the fee.
5. Pay with a credit card and confirm.

Double-check the recipient’s details before confirming. Once miles leave your account, United won’t send them back.

Option 2: Pool miles for free

Miles pooling is the cheaper way to share miles with people you travel with or help regularly. Any MileagePlus member over 18 can create a pool for free and invite up to four other people, so a pool can have five members in total.

Here’s how pooling works:

• Members don’t need to be related or live at the same address
• Children can join, as long as they have a MileagePlus account
• Each member decides how many miles to contribute, and there’s no annual cap
• The pool leader controls who can redeem the pooled miles
• Contributing miles doesn’t affect your elite status

In June 2026, United expanded what pooled miles can be used for. When pooling first launched, the miles could only book United and United Express flights. They can now be used for award flights on United’s airline partners too, including Star Alliance carriers. Pooled miles still need to be redeemed on united.com or in the United app.

The catches with pooling

Pooling is generous, but it has rules worth knowing before you join:

• You can belong to only one pool at a time
• If you leave, the miles you contributed stay with the remaining members
• After someone leaves, they can’t join another pool for 90 days, and the pool can’t add a new member for 90 days
• Contributions can only be reversed within a short window, so treat them as permanent

That makes pooling best for people you trust and travel with often, such as a partner, children or close family.

Option 3: Book an award ticket for someone else

If the goal is simply to get someone on a flight, you may not need to move any miles. United lets you book award tickets for anyone using the miles in your own account. You enter the traveller’s name and details during booking, and the ticket is issued in their name.

This option is free, has no annual limit and keeps your miles under your control until the moment you book. For a one-off trip, it’s usually the simplest and cheapest solution.

Which option should you choose?

• For a single trip for a friend or relative, book the award ticket yourself.
• For a household or group that travels together often, set up a miles pool.
• Use a paid transfer only when the other person needs the miles in their own account, for example to top up a balance for a booking they’re making themselves, and the fee still makes sense.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Paying the transfer fee when an award booking would do the same job for free
• Joining a pool without understanding that leaving means giving up your contributed miles
• Sending miles before checking that the recipient can actually find award space
• Entering the wrong MileagePlus number on a transfer that can’t be reversed

Is it worth transferring United miles to someone else?

Sometimes, but rarely as a first choice. A paid transfer is quick but expensive. Pooling is free and now works for partner flights too, which makes it a strong option for families. And booking an award ticket in someone else’s name is often the easiest route of all.

Start by asking what the other person actually needs: a seat on a plane, or miles in their own account. The answer usually tells you which option to use.

Fees, limits and pooling rules can change. Check the current terms on united.com before you transfer or pool miles.