Points and miles can play a key role in making family travel more affordable, whether for yourself or as a gift for someone else. In this article, we’ll explore how you can use your rewards points to book airline tickets, hotel rooms and even offer travel experiences for your friends and family.

Some airlines make it very easy to use your miles to book a ticket for someone else, even if you’re not flying with them. This is useful when you have a lot of points and want to give them to someone else.

An important tip is that you don’t need to transfer your miles to book a ticket in their name. Transferring miles can be expensive, so avoid it if possible. For example, Aeroplan offers the possibility of transferring points at a cost of 2 cents per point.

This means that if you find a 12,000 Aeroplan point flight to New York and want to transfer the points to your loved one, it’s going to cost you $240 to do so!

Instead, you can book the ticket directly from your account. You will need to provide personal information such as date of birth and legal name as it appears on the ID document. Booking a ticket for another passenger is as easy as booking for yourself.

Some credit cards like the TD^® Aeroplan^® Visa Infinite* Card give plenty of points when you sign up; you’ll have enough points to spoil your loved ones, especially since there are plenty ofgreat getaways for under 25,000 points!

Note, however, that if you have status or credit card benefits (such as free baggage, for example), they will not apply to someone else.

However, your friend can sign up for their own credit card to benefit from these advantages, regardless of how the trip was paid for or the method of payment.

Secondly, by booking for another person, the latter cannot benefit from insurance. However, if you have a credit card such as the National Bank World Elite Mastercard^®, you will be covered for emergency medical care.

When it comes to other types of travel insurance, such as flight delays or lost luggage, think about offering them coverage. The soNomad company offers affordable products!

Most hotel loyalty programs allow you to use your points to book a hotel room for someone else. In fact, it’s easier when the payment method is points versus credit card, since the latter can be more prone to fraud and cause problems at check-in.

Marriott Bonvoy, for example, authorizes up to five reservations per year for another person using your points. This is called a “Gifted Award Reservation” and can only be made by telephone. Details of the process can be found on this page.

However, if you book for someone else, you won’t get the elite nights. What’s more, the benefits of your status, if any, are not transferable.

According to several feedbacks in our Facebook community, it seems to be possible to use your free night certificate for a friend or family member by indicating the person’s name on your reservation. However, this is not officially permitted by Marriott, so we don’t recommend opting for this avenue.

Marriott Bonvoy free night certificates renew annually if you are a Marriott Bonvoy^® American Express^®* Card or Marriott Bonvoy^® Business American Express^®* Card holder. These cards also come with generous welcome bonuses.

Hilton Honors simplifies the process even further by allowing you to add your friend’s name to your reservation before confirming it. To do this, simply search for rooms for two adults on the Hilton website. Once the room has been selected, the confirmation screen displays a section for designating a second guest.

What’s more, you can group your points together, enabling your friends and family to use them directly from their account.

Similarly, to use travel points for another person, you can simply make the booking on their behalf.

In fact, my partner once used his TD Rewards points to book a hotel room for me while I was travelling in Morocco with a friend without him. The booking was made from his Expedia for TD account, where he was able to use his points to their full value.

The same goes for CIBC Aventura points, where I was able to redeem a statement credit for an all-inclusive trip in the Caribbean for my parents. The financial institution doesn’t know the nature of the purchase, and it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s a “travel” purchase to be able to use the points.

On the Booking.com side, I’ve never had a problem booking for friends and getting a preferential rate thanks to my Genius discounts. Then I used travel points to reimburse this gift.

Airbnb also allows reservations for another person, but it would be better to offer an Airbnb gift card that you’ve bought in the grocery store at 5 times the points with your American Express Cobalt^® Card. Your friend will receive a beautiful gift, and you’ll collect lots of points in the process!

Marriott Bonvoy authorizes transfers of up to 100,000 points per year, while Hyatt allows free transfers, but the process is manual and requires a completed form.

On the other hand, it’s possible to buy points for someone else; this is preferable to transferring points, since the fees are almost identical whether you buy them for your friend or transfer them!

So they can book as they like, and use their own credit card for insurance cover. If so, take advantage of purchase bonus promotions that apply to points donations too!

Donating a travel experience can be a very special way to spoil your loved ones. Consider using your points to bring your scattered family together for big reunions, or offer airline tickets to ease the financial burden some may feel during the vacations.

Whether it’s a trip to an exotic destination or simply tickets for your loved ones to visit you, the gift of travel can be truly unforgettable.