My Experience With Setting Up and Dissolving United MileagePlus Pool

A few months ago, United made an unexpected announcement on creating a mileage pooling feature for its frequent flyer accounts. You can see all the details and FAQ here.

Some highlights:

1. You can pool miles between a maximum of 5 accounts (members don’t have to be related)
2. You can choose how many miles you can contribute to the pool
3. You won’t have access to the miles for 72 hours (prevents selling of miles)
4. Members can leave at any time
5. The pooled miles can only be redeemed on United-operated flights (major bummer)
6. If the pool leader chooses to dissolve it, all miles will be split evenly between remaining members

That last point presented an intriguing possibility. What if all the members left first and then the leader would dissolve the pool? Would they get to keep ALL the miles that could then be redeemed on any Star Alliance flights? I set out on a quest to find out. In this hobby there is a saying: “Be the data point you want to see.” I couldn’t find any definitive answer on the blogs or Reddit, so decided to test it out myself.

Long time ago, I set up mileage accounts for my mom and dad who live in Belarus. A few times I flew them here to US on paid Lufthansa tickets, and they each had 12k or so miles. My husband had some orphaned United miles, and I had a small stash as well. Not to say that these balances were worthless, they just were not particularly useful. But if I pooled them all together, that would be another story.

After I linked the accounts, I let a few weeks go by. Afterwards, one by one my pool amigos left. Or rather, I helped them to leave. There was only one thing left to do: dissolve the pool. Unfortunately, it looks like you have to contact United for that. However, you  don’t have to call, a chat option will suffice.

I did confirm with the agent that I would get to keep the miles and she said Yes.

Voila, I’m now the proud owner of 48k United miles that I can use on any award flights, not just those operated by United.

It’s not really a whole lot in view of all the devaluations that United has bestowed upon us in the last few years. Still, it’s enough for one economy flight to Europe, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

P.S. If you are looking to apply for any United co-branded credit cards,  Nancy has a personal referral link with the best current offers.