"I am a graduate student finishing my final year of study...in Indiana. I am returning there the weekend after Thanksgiving and my wife and four children are staying in...Montana, which is our home. Some members of my church have expressed a desire to give to me their unused frequent flyer miles so that I can return home a few times during the six months I¹ll be gone.
Can I use frequent flyer miles from other people? How would one redeem these? There are many different airlines. Is there a clearinghouse where I can place these miles in exchange for tickets?"
Answer: Other people can indeed use their miles for you to travel in most cases. Few airlines restrict who you can actually use your miles for (but they should check with the rules of the program).
The frequent flyer member will need to book travel for you, and there are usually delivery fees and taxes. Some airlines blackout holiday periods, but not always as long as it is not international travel. It can be very difficult to try and secure a Thanksgiving ticket on miles. Often seats for this and Christmas travel are booked up to a year in advance. That being said, it does pay to check to see if space opens especially after midnight as any reservations that are set for an auto cancel will do so at the midnight mark.
There are sites that allow limited mile consolidation, such as points.com but there are several restrictions that make it difficult to use and there are additional fees.
Thus the bottom line is that the member will need to book the travel for you. If they are registered online, and provide you with access to their account with their membership number and password, then you will be able to check space online. Just get them to try and book asap as seats on miles are limited to about 10% per flight.
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