How to Gift Your Credit Card Rewards, Points, or Miles

If you have a significant amount of credit card rewards points or miles, you can give them to your family and friends as a fabulous gift for any occasion—potentially without having to spend another dime. To do this, you may have to first redeem them for airline or hotel points or miles, and then transfer them to the person if they have a loyalty membership with the same company. Keep reading to learn how to turn your credit card rewards into memorable gifts.

Gifting Credit Card Airline Miles to Someone Else

Rewards credit cards are great for helping to pay for personal travel. However, it can be tough to use them all every year. Whether it's points, miles, or cash back, if they're sitting in your account waiting to be used, then you have the opportunity to turn them into a thoughtful gift for a loved one.

In most cases, you can’t transfer credit card miles or points directly to someone else; instead, you have to redeem them for airline frequent flyer miles or hotel points and transfer those to the person of your choice if they are a member of the same loyalty program.

Some airlines allow you to transfer miles, but charge a fee. For example, United Airlines charges $7.50 per 500 miles transferred to another MileagePlus member plus a $30 processing fee.

Here are a few airline rewards programs that do not charge fees:

JetBlue

JetBlue’s credit cards allow you to earn points that you can redeem for flights. And with JetBlue’s Points Pooling program, you can create a pool of up to seven friends or family members. As you earn points, 100% of your points are entered into the pool, and the designated pool leader can redeem those points for award flights with zero transfer fees.

However, if you wish to transfer or gift JetBlue points to another JetBlue member outside of a pooling partner there may be a fee involved. To gift points that are not yours in your account, JetBlue says in its TrueBlue portal that the fee is approximately $32.08 per 1,000 points. To transfer points, you must have at least 1,000 points in your account, and it was unclear in the portal as to whether there's a fee to transfer points.

Hawaiian Airlines

If you or the recipient have a Hawaiian Airlines World Elite MasterCard, Bankoh Hawaiian Airlines Visa check card, or Hawaiian Airlines Visa credit card-Japan, you can share your miles with other people without paying transaction fees. To do so, log into your credit card account and click on the “Share Miles” option. Enter the recipient’s name and the number of miles that you want to transfer. 

Spirit Airlines

Like JetBlue, Spirit Airlines has a Free Spirit Points Pooling program where you can pool points with up to eight friends or family members. And if you have the Free Spirit Travel More World Elite Mastercard, you can earn miles and pool them even faster. Points can be redeemed with as little as 2,500 miles.

Gifting Credit Card Hotel Points

If you have Marriott, Hilton, or Hyatt points, you can transfer them to another member at no cost.

Marriott allows you to transfer points in increments of 1,000, up to a maximum of 100,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points per year.

Hilton allows you to transfer unlimited points to another Hilton Honors member in increments of 1,000 points, up to a total of 500,000 points at one time. People can only receive up to 2 million points in total.

Hyatt allows individuals to transfer World of Hyatt points with no published limit. You'll need to call or fill out a form to make the transfer. You can also purchase points as a gift for a cost.

Other Ways to Use Your Credit Cards Rewards for Gifts

Because most airlines charge fees for transferring your points or miles to another person, it’s not always the best use of them. However, there are other ways that you can use your rewards to give meaningful gifts: 

1. Make Travel Arrangements for Them

While transferring miles can incur a fee, you can avoid that by booking another person’s travel arrangements for them. You can give them a handmade gift certificate that says you’ll cover the cost of their flight or hotel stay. Once they’ve made their plans, you can go ahead and book their travel through your credit card rewards redemption page, using your rewards as the payment method. 

2. Use Your Rewards to Purchase Gift Cards

Most rewards cards offer multiple redemption options, and many include gift cards as one of them. You can use your points for cards that you give as gifts, or you can get cards for popular retailers and use them as your payment method when you do your holiday shopping. 

3. Redeem Your Points for Merchandise

Many cards have the option of redeeming your rewards for merchandise, such as jewelry or electronics. For example, you could use your rewards to purchase a tablet, necklace, or new luggage for your gift recipient. 

4. Request a Bank Deposit or Statement Credit

If you use your card to buy holiday gifts, you can redeem your credit card rewards for bank deposits or statement credits and pay yourself back for those purchases. 

5. Donate to Charity in a Loved One’s Name

Many credit card companies offer the option to donate your rewards to select charities, so you can make a donation in someone’s name as a gift. For example:

• American Express: You can use your Amex points to make charitable donations through JustGiving. 
• Citi: You can redeem your points for charitable donations to organizations like American Red Cross Disaster Relief, Unicef USA, Susan G. Komen, Smile Train, and World Central Kitchen. 
• Discover: Discover allows cardholders to donate their rewards to charities like the American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, ASCPA, Make-A-Wish, or the World Wildlife Fund.
  

The Bottom Line

The points, miles, and other rewards that you’ve built up in your rewards credit card and related travel program loyalty program accounts are a resource worth considering when you do your holiday gift shopping this year. But check on the rules for transferring miles or points as a gift, and watch out for any costly transfer fees. Rather than transferring points or miles, you might find that redeeming accumulated rewards directly for travel reservations for family or friends could yield the most value. Otherwise, redeeming points or miles for gift cards or merchandise can be a more convenient gifting option, even if the maximum points or miles redemption value potential isn’t fully realized.