Use miles and points to book flights and hotels for others

The holidays are a time to be with loved ones and, for many, a season of giving. Points and miles can play an important role by making family travel cheaper and more attainable, whether for yourself or as a gift for someone else.

As you might expect, some travel agencies make it much easier to book trips for others than others. Luckily, there are a few tips to make things go smoother. See how to use your points and miles to book tickets for your loved one.

Book award tickets for others

Many airlines make it easy to use your miles to book someone else’s ticket. The most important detail to note is that you do not need to transfer your miles to someone else to book in their name.

Although many airlines offer mileage transfers, the service is often expensive. For example, unified airline charges $7.50 for every 500 miles transferred plus a $30 transaction fee. That means if you find a 25,000-mile bonus flight for someone, you’ll spend a total of $405 just to pass those miles on to them.

Instead, you can book tickets directly from your account. You’ll need personal information such as date of birth and legal name as on their ID, but you can book another passenger’s ticket almost as easily as if you were booking for yourself. Most airlines make it fairly simple to book award tickets online. Sometimes, your elite status or your credit card can help a family member secure a better price on an award flight.

For example, United offers additional bonus inventory for MileagePlus elite members. And if you’re sure United co-branded credit cardyou also get access to more prize inventory even when booking for someone else.

This can be crucial to saving miles on award tickets. Unfortunately, your elite status won’t extend you benefits like free extra legroom seats (e.g. Economy Plus on United) or free checked baggage, because you also have to make a reservation before you fly with your loved one for those perks to extend to others.

When you can’t always share your perks and memberships

Although rare, some airlines restrict bookings to immediate family members. An example that comes to mind is Club ANA Mileage, which only allows you to book tickets for yourself and family members with up to two degrees of kinship. In other words, you can book tickets from your account for your spouse, children, parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. Unfortunately, that means you can’t book award tickets for your best friend or third cousin.

Some low-cost airlines such as border and MoraleOffers member discounts. Frontier Airlines Den discount program can be a great deal for families thanks to the “Kids Fly Free” program available only to Den Discount members. Spirit’s Saver$ Club can also save you money on some flights. Both programs work great for booking cheaper flights for a group of people.

Unfortunately, both programs require you to be one of the pre-booked passengers to take advantage of their discounts.

Related: Everything you should know before flying Spirit Airlines

Book someone else’s hotel with your hotel points

Large loyalty programs often allow you to use your points to book hotel rooms for others.

In some cases, they even allow you to use a free night certificatesuch as those who earn on an annual basis with a co-branded credit cardto book a room for a family member or friend.

Marriott allows you to use your points to book someone else’s room up to five times per calendar year. To make this registration, you need to work with a phone agent to set up the subscription. Once you have booked with a phone agent, it will appear in Marriott Bonvoy account like any other booking, but you won’t be able to modify it in the app. The phone agent will ask for a credit card to secure the reservation, although it will normally not be charged unless you cancel ahead of time. You won’t earn any elite points or nights for your friend’s stay.

Hilton Hotel makes booking for friends a little easier. Before confirming your reservation, you can add your friend’s name to your Hilton reservation. To do this, you’ll need to make sure you’ve searched for rooms for two adults on the Hilton website. Once you select your property, the confirmation screen will have an area where you can assign a second guest. This method works well if your friend arrives at the hotel before you.

If you want your friends to use Hilton title point for a vacation without you, we recommend sum up your Hilton points so your friend can redeem points directly from their account.

Hyatt supposedly in the best interest of booking a bonus room for others, even though the gift is only available to holders Top Globalization status in the World of Hyatt program. Hyatt allows you to book rewards online, but you’ll need to get a participating phone agent to add someone else to the booking. For Globalist members, you Guest of honor Benefits can turn a gift into a great experience for a family member or friend.

When you book someone’s Guest of Honor, they get virtually all of the same benefits you would get if you stayed. This includes free breakfast, guaranteed late check-out, and even free standard suite upgrades when available.

One of the few limitations of Guest of Honor bookings is that you cannot apply the Globalist suite upgrade bonus to bookings. However, you can use the free night certificate for someone else along with the Guest of Honor reservation. On top of that, your “Guest of Honor” will receive elite credit for your stay.

It’s hard not to agree that Hyatt Globalist members enjoy one of the most rewarding benefits of using your points for friends and family.

Related: When and how to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to World of Hyatt

Similar to airlines, some hotel chains charge you a transfer fee. For example, IHG One Rewards charge $5 for every 1,000 points. Other chains, such as Marriott and Hyatt, are willing to allow transfers with some caveats.

Marriott will allow you to transfer up to 100,000 points per calendar year for another member. You can get up to 500,000 points per year. Unfortunately, Marriott has removed its award rankings earlier this year, and now, that is it’s not uncommon to find hotels north of 100,000 points in famous cities of America and Europe.

Hyatt allows point transfer no charge. You can transfer or receive points every 30 days and you will be asked to fill it out this sample (PDF file) and emailed or mailed, so please allow some time for the transfer to take place as it is manual.

While it may be easier to transfer points to someone else, consider the outcome if you have to change or cancel your reservation. The amendments mean it will be more difficult to get points in your account. The best reason to transfer points would be to top up a friend or relative’s account so they can afford to book the room themselves.

Marriott Bonvoy’s Moment started as SPG Moments before Marriott acquired Starwood. Months ago, when it was still active under that name, I exchanged my SPG points for my wife to take a tennis lesson with Andre Agassi at the US Open. Nearly 10 years later, my wife still has not forgotten that moment. It could very well be my best redemption ever.

Earlier this year, TPG’s Katie Genter exchanged 20,000 Hilton points for one Hilton Honors Experience in India. It includes a couples massage and a four-course dinner for two.

When using points and miles for someone else

The gift of a travel experience can be special.

First, think about ways that you can use them to bring your loved ones closer together. If you’re hosting an extended family get-together, consider using your mileage to bring in some distant family members to spend time with the extended family. After all, plane tickets around the holidays tend to be very expensive. If you can remove the financial burden of traveling a few miles together, it can be very helpful for them.

While changing the standard rewards chart to dynamic rewards pricing also increases the mileage required to book during the holidays, there are still gems out there. TPG readers were able to score some great redemption points for more time with family, even if flexible pricing was volatile.

Another great way to use points and miles is to give as gifts to others. For travelers craving relaxation and sunshine, a Hawaii The holiday can be the perfect gift for someone you love. Or, keep it simple and give them a note that says, “for two tickets anywhere in the world.” That might be one of the best holiday gift reactions you’ll ever see.

Related: How to give a surprise trip as a gift