Planning ahead for your MileagePlus miles
Lifetime transfer options and steps to take now for United Airlines miles
Transfer of miles after death is not guaranteed under United Airlines's terms. Lifetime planning offers a more reliable way to manage and share miles while the account is active.
MileagePlus launched free miles pooling in March 2024, becoming the first major U.S. airline to allow members to combine miles into a shared pool. Up to 5 MileagePlus members can join one pool at no cost. The pool leader must be a MileagePlus member age 18 or older and invites up to 4 others (related or not) who have an active MileagePlus account. In June 2026, United expanded pooling so that pooled miles can now be redeemed on United and United Express flights and across more than 40 airline partners (including Star Alliance carriers such as Lufthansa, ANA, and Singapore Airlines, plus select non-alliance partners), with a few route-specific limits (for example, Hawaiian Airlines pooled redemptions are limited to interisland flights). Each member can only belong to one pool at a time, and once contributed, miles cannot be withdrawn. Separately, members can buy or transfer miles to other MileagePlus members through the Buy or Transfer Miles program, which charges roughly $15 per 1,000 miles ($7.50 per 500 miles) plus a $30 processing fee per transaction.
How to protect your MileagePlus miles
3 steps for managing your MileagePlus miles during your lifetime:
- •Redeem for flights on United, Star Alliance, and partner airlines
- •Book award flights for family members using your miles
- •Use miles for seat upgrades, hotel stays, car rentals, or experiences
- •Transfer miles to family members through the Buy or Transfer Miles program (fees apply)
Should you save your passwords for your family?
Some people store account passwords so a family member can sign in later. The practice has three practical limits:
- Two-factor authentication often blocks it. Most accounts require a second factor — a code sent to a phone, an authenticator app, a passkey, or a physical key. A saved password alone frequently does not grant access, and the recovery codes that would are easy to lose or let go stale.
- It usually conflicts with the platform's terms. Most operators prohibit account sharing and signing in as another person, including after a death. Stored credentials are not the operator's recognized access path, and using them can violate the terms of service.
- Operators provide other paths. Where an operator offers a designation tool — Apple's Legacy Contact, Google's Inactive Account Manager, a beneficiary designation — that mechanism grants access the operator recognizes. A password manager's own emergency-access or legacy feature passes credentials through a controlled process. Digital assets named in a will or trust give a fiduciary authority under each state's Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA).
Frequently asked questions
No. MileagePlus does not support beneficiary designations. Miles cannot be formally assigned to a beneficiary. The only mechanism for post-death transfer is the discretionary process requiring estate documentation.
Miles pooling, launched by United in March 2024, allows up to 5 MileagePlus members to combine miles into a shared pool at no cost. While not designed for estate planning, contributing miles to a pool with family members during your lifetime puts those miles within reach of other pool members. As of June 2026, pooled miles can be redeemed on United and United Express flights and on more than 40 airline partners (with a few route-specific limits). The main caveat for estate planning is that once contributed, miles cannot be withdrawn from the pool.
Use your miles for flights, upgrades, or transfers to family members while alive. Since transfer at death is discretionary and not guaranteed, spending or transferring miles during your lifetime is the safest approach. Consider setting up a miles pool with family members or transferring miles directly through the Buy or Transfer Miles program.
Yes. MileagePlus members can transfer miles to other members through the Buy or Transfer Miles program, which charges roughly $15 per 1,000 miles ($7.50 per 500 miles) plus a $30 processing fee per transaction. Members can also gift miles by purchasing them for another member. The free miles pooling program (launched March 2024) is usually a cheaper alternative for sharing miles among up to 5 members; as of June 2026, pooled miles can be redeemed on United and United Express flights and on more than 40 airline partners.
An inventory listing the MileagePlus account lets a fiduciary identify it and act on it through the operator's official channels.
There is no beneficiary designation option for MileagePlus. This account type does not support naming a recipient the way bank or investment accounts do.
Sources
Data sourced from United Airlines primary sources (7 pages reviewed). How we research.
