We are a family of four. We travel once a year and we have a few frequent flyer miles in a lot of different accounts. This year we'll be flying to Europe, each of us will get another 5,000 frequent flyer miles scattered in individual accounts. Are there airlines that allow you to combine family miles?

No

I know USAirways will not let you do this - I suspect other airlines will not let you either. If you are only a few miles short, most will sell you miles to make up the difference, but unless it is only a few miles, it is not worth it.

British Airways allows families that live in the same house to merge their miles. It's a great feature for families.<BR><BR>It's especially nice, if you have a Diners card. Each year Diners has a promotion that allows you to transfer double miles from your Diners award program to BA. Normally, you can get 1 mile for each dollar you spend on Diners. During the promotion, you get 2 miles for each dollar spent. Coincidentally, the promotion is on now.<BR><BR>Additionally, during the promotion you can transfer your AA miles into your Diners award account and transfer the miles to BA without any loss of miles.<BR><BR>So lets say that you don't have a Diners card. Well, if you get one now and use it in Europe, next year you'll probably have a free ticket to Europe, one way or the other.<BR><BR>Even if you don't do anything, you'll have 20,000 miles in one BA account toward an award.<BR><BR>Be sure to buy your ticket through their website if the price is competitive. They usually offer cash off, or bonus frequent flyer miles if you book direct through their website.<BR><BR>If you use a travel agent, no bonus.

My mistake. UA, Delta and AA miles can be transfered into your Diners award account and transfered out to BA during the promotion without any loss of points. Usually, when you "launder" points, the middle man takes a big cut.

Thanks Vic, I checked into British Airway fares and it works fine. The only thing I regret is that I had a travel agent look for some tickets. Her's are cheaper, but they are consolidator tickets. For the small difference, I'd rather have regular tickets. And when I factor in the $20 per person discount by booking on British Airways website and the consolidated frequent flyer miles, the difference is insignificant.

Let me ask another question. Are there frequent flyer programs that let you combine miles.

We seem to get the lion's share of our miles from credit cards. We have a citibank Visa for American miles, and American Express Rewards program lets you put the points in several different programs. We've only used the Mexicana transfer, but I know there are others.

If you're asking how to add to your BA miles without flying, here's a few.<BR><BR>One way is to get a Starwood (the hotel chain) AMEX credit card. It's not the standard AMEX travel card, but one that is similar to VISA. You get 1 point for each dollar sent which accrues in you Starwood account. You combine all your Starwood points including those earned on hotel stays. When you collect 20,000 points you can turn them in for 25,000 frequent flyer miles. That's a 25% bonus. Starwood allows you to transfer to virtually any airline including BA. The downside is that the card isn't as readily accepted as VISA. The upside is that the annual fee is $35.<BR><BR>The other card is the Diners. Diners has had a promotion for the last few years allowing members to transfer double miles to BA. That is, for every dollar spent on the card, you get 2 BA miles. That's a great deal. The obvious downside is that the card is not widely accepted in North America. Strangely, it's very popular in Europe.<BR><BR>And as I said above, you can transfer AA or UA or DL miles into your Diners Club award account and transfer them to BA. They will come out intact during the BA promotion.