United MileagePlus Explorer Card and existing Mileage Plus Account

[MommyBryn]

We are planning another large family trip (there is always about 12-14 of us flying cross country) and this time are trying to fly all together. Last time my husband and I both did the Southwest Visa and got four free roundtrip flights, and we'd planned on doing that again except we couldn't reapply until this summer. However, the United card has a 50k promo right now and other than a higher required minimum, is basically the same as far as what we need- we won't keep it past using it for this benefit, as we don't fly often enough to make it worth the annual fee anyway (same as what we did with the SWA Visa...we basically "milk" credit cards for their benefits as far as they apply to us since we don't carry a balance). My question is, as far as the MileagePlus account the points will go into... My parents always have a ton of United flights because they earn a lot on their farm purchases, so it would simplify things a lot if we were able to just buy our flights all out of the same MP account. Is it possible to link our new cards to THEIR existing MP account? Would the 100k bonus points (50k on two cards) make it there without issue?

 

[shamrock30]

I've been doing the frequent flyer thing for a long time, and I don't believe there's any way to do what you're asking with Mileageplus. You can pay a (large) fee to transfer miles to your parents later on, but I can't see how it would be worth doing so unless they needed a small amount to top their account off.

Also, the chances of finding 12-14 FF seats on the same flight are unfortunately small to nonexistent. Hopefully, you don't all need to fly together.

 

[AmyAnne]

I don't have experience with this particular question, but I would be very surprised if United allowed any number on the account except the cardholder's number. But Chase's customer service is pretty helpful - I would just call and ask.

 

[MommyBryn]

Okay thanks! I just know that with the Southwest card, people on here were saying to just connect them to one SWRR account for the points to be together, so I wasn't sure if that could be done the same way with the United card.

And we have actually been able to fly several times all on the same flights with the miles, from Boise! The last time was the first time my family (6 of us) have flown Southwest, and only because we did their sign-up promo for 100k points. Otherwise we've all flown United on my parents points.

 

[shamrock30]

I didn't see the Southwest posts you're talking about, but people may have been talking about opening multiple Southwest credit cards to qualify for the companion pass—such as a business card and a personal card at the same time. I don't think there's any way for two people to each get a Southwest bonus and filter it into one account either. I had to pay Southwest to move a few points to my husband's account in November.

Southwest is a different animal when it comes to frequent flyer seats. They don't limit them as long as you have the points for them. That's not the case with most other airlines unfortunately, but hopefully you'll get lucky.

 

[MommyBryn]

I didn't see the Southwest posts you're talking about, but people may have been talking about opening multiple Southwest credit cards to qualify for the companion pass—such as a business card and a personal card at the same time. I don't think there's any way for two people to each get a Southwest bonus and filter it into one account either. I had to pay Southwest to move a few points to my husband's account in November.

Southwest is a different animal when it comes to frequent flyer seats. They don't limit them as long as you have the points for them. That's not the case with most other airlines unfortunately, but hopefully you'll get lucky.

Yeah, it was for when two people in the same household (in my case my husband and I) applied for the card, when it asked for your RR account number (if you didn't have one they assigned you one), people said you can put in the same number for both cards since the rewards program is separate from the Chase visa.

 

[shamrock30]

From what I just read on Flyertalk, Southwest considers this to be a violation of terms, but it's true that some have gotten away with it. The ones who got caught had their accounts closed and lost all the points, but some people got lucky.

 

[MommyBryn]

From what I just read on Flyertalk, Southwest considers this to be fraud, but it's true that some have gotten away with it. The ones who got caught had their accounts closed and lost all the points, so you were one of the lucky ones.

I did not do it. My husband and I both had our own Rapid Rewards accounts, though it would have been a thousand times more convenient to have the same, but it worked out anyway. I didn't hear about combining them until afterward, hence the reason I asked before applying for the United card. It doesn't matter now though anyway, I applied with both of our own Mileage Plus accounts.

 

[shamrock30]

Oh, I see. I'm sure other people were doing it for the companion pass, which I think costs 110K points. Best of luck on your frequent flyer tickets!