Kids Frequent Flyer Miles Earned in the Parents Account
Wouldn't it be awesome if frequent flyer miles earned by your young kids went straight into your frequent flyer account? That would be so much better to me than having extra accounts with small balances here and there to worry about so the miles don't expire and go to waste.
As you probably know, in most programs that is just a pipe dream. With many programs kids can earn their own frequent miles when flying on paid tickets, but those miles sit in their own individual accounts. With some programs you can pool those points, or move them to your account without a fee. JetBlue's Family Pooling program and the British Airways Household Accounts are good widely known examples of when this is possible, but they aren't the only ones. Virgin Australia, ANA, Qantas, Etihad, and several more (mostly foreign) programs also allow you to pool or transfer points between family members for low or no fees.
However, maybe the pipe dream of having kids' miles funnel directly into the parents' frequent flyer accounts isn't so crazy after all. In fact, at least one program does exactly that. The MilleMiglia program from Alitalia allows for the miles of children aged 2 - 13 earned on Alitalia flights to go directly into one parent's frequent flyer account. When the child turns 14 the link automatically ends and the child can earn miles in their own account.
Can you image how cool and useful it would be if your kid's United or American or Delta miles went right into your account instead of theirs? Right now that isn't possible with the major US programs, but you should still be sure that your little travel is earning their own miles on paid flights...they may even wind up with their own elite status!
Do you participate in any programs that allow the parent to earn or at least pool the children's frequent flyer miles?