How to Transfer United Miles to Another Person, or Pool Them Free

United will move MileagePlus miles into another member’s account for $7.50 per 500 miles, plus a $30 processing fee, up to 100,000 miles a year. That works out at 1.5 cents a mile before the fixed fee, which makes it the most expensive account-to-account transfer among the US majors. Delta charges 1 cent a mile, Southwest charges 1 cent and skips the processing fee entirely.

Before you price that up, read the next section, because on United it usually makes the question go away.

Pool the miles instead. It is free

United runs MileagePlus Pooling, and it costs nothing. Any member over 18 can start a pool and invite up to four others, five people in total. Family, friends and travel companions all qualify, children included. Miles contributed to the pool can be redeemed by the pool for award travel, and as of 2026 pooled miles work on United’s partner airlines too, which was the change that made the feature genuinely useful rather than merely convenient.

United was the first of the big four US programs to offer this. Delta, American and Southwest have nothing equivalent. So the single most useful fact about transferring United miles is that on United, most people should not.

A pool covers the common case completely: a household with miles spread across several accounts and one trip to book. No fee, no cap of the kind the paid transfer carries, and nobody has to hand their balance to anyone.

The other free route: just book their ticket

You can book a United award ticket for anyone from your own account at no cost. The passenger does not have to be the account holder. If what you want is “my miles, their seat”, this has always been the answer and it remains the answer.

Between pooling and booking for others, the paid transfer is left with a narrow job: moving miles permanently into someone else’s control, when that person is not someone you would put in a five-person pool.

What the paid transfer costs when you do use it

The $30 sits on top of every transaction regardless of size, so small transfers are hit hardest.

You move	You pay	Per mile
2,000 miles	$60	3.0¢
10,000 miles	$180	1.8¢
30,000 miles	$480	1.6¢
100,000 miles	$1,530	1.5¢

Even at the top of the range it never gets cheap, because the per-mile rate itself is the expensive part. That is the structural difference from Delta, where a large transfer eventually becomes reasonable.

And as with any transfer, the fee is only the visible half of the cost. Move 30,000 miles and you are also 30,000 miles poorer; replacing them means buying them, which is the honest way to value what left your account. A 30,000-mile transfer is a $480 decision plus 30,000 miles of your own travel.

When buying into their account is the better trade

Pooling solves the household case. It does not solve this one: the account that needs the miles is short, and yours is not overflowing. They need 90,000 for a business-class booking, you hold 50,000, and moving yours across leaves two accounts that both fall short.

Buying miles directly into the account making the booking fixes that from the right side. Your balance stays where it is, the miles arrive where they will be spent, and there is no transfer fee stacked on a per-mile price.

Two things worth saying plainly:

• Our minimum order on MileagePlus is 100,000 miles, the highest on our roster. For a small top-up we are simply the wrong tool, and pooling or the official transfer is the right one.
• United prices its own flights dynamically, so what the miles are worth depends on the fare. The MileagePlus calculator prices an amount against a real cash fare and tells you when paying cash wins outright.

The live rate and delivery window are on the United MileagePlus page. Your exact cost is confirmed before anything is agreed, and nothing is charged on this site.

The one thing not to do

Do not move miles by sharing logins and booking from inside someone else’s account. MileagePlus terms are explicit about unauthorised access, and a frozen account with a large balance costs far more than any fee here. Pooling exists precisely so that families never need to.

Transfer pricing, pooling rules and annual limits checked against United’s published MileagePlus terms in August 2026. These change, so confirm the current schedule before committing.