You have miles sitting in your account, and someone you care about needs them for a trip. The obvious move seems to be transferring the miles into their account, but that is usually the most expensive way to help. Most airlines charge a fee to move miles between members, and the fee often costs more than the ticket is worth in miles terms. The good news is that there are almost always cheaper ways to get the same result.

The simplest alternative is also the one most people overlook: book the ticket from your own account in the other person's name. Most airlines let you redeem miles for anyone, and the traveller does not need to be the account holder. They still fly on their own ticket, with their own frequent flyer number attached, and you spend exactly the same number of miles as you would on your own trip. There is no transfer fee, because no miles move anywhere.

Transfer fees vary by program, but they follow a consistent pattern. Delta charges around one cent per mile plus a processing fee per transaction, which means moving 30,000 miles to a friend can cost well over 300 dollars. United charges per block of miles plus a transaction fee, and American charges per thousand miles. Southwest, Alaska, and several others charge similar amounts. A few programs, such as British Airways and some Asian carriers, do not allow transfers between members at all.

Do the maths before you transfer anything. Compare the transfer fee against the cash price of the ticket, and against the cost of simply booking the award yourself. In almost every case, booking directly wins. The only common exception is when the other person needs a small top-up to reach the miles required for a booking they are making themselves, and even then it is worth checking whether buying a small number of miles from the airline is cheaper than a transfer.

Family pooling is the best free option where it exists. United allows pooling for up to five members, JetBlue allows pooling for up to seven people, and several other programs, including Air Canada Aeroplan and Air France-KLM Flying Blue, offer household or family accounts. If you travel as a family, setting up a pool before anyone books means everyone's miles work together without a single transfer fee.

Bank points offer another free route. Capital One allows cardholders to transfer miles to another cardholder for free with a short phone call, regardless of whether they live together. Chase allows points to move for free to one household member with their own rewards card. These options move bank points, not airline miles, so they work best before you transfer points into an airline program. Once points become airline miles, the airline's rules and fees apply.

There are a few situations where paying for a transfer is reasonable. If the other person is booking a complex trip that you cannot book for them, such as a multi-city itinerary that requires changes after booking, having the miles in their own account gives them control. If you are topping up a small shortfall, the fee on a few thousand miles may be modest. And if an airline runs a promotion that discounts transfer fees or waives them entirely, the maths can change in your favour.

Watch for those promotions, but do not wait for one if a trip is time-sensitive. Award availability disappears, and a discounted transfer fee is no help if the seats you wanted are gone. If the trip matters, book it directly now rather than hoping for a better transfer deal later.

Before you move any miles, run through three questions. First, can you book the ticket from your own account in their name? If yes, do that and stop. Second, does your program offer free pooling, and are you both eligible? If yes, set up the pool. Third, is the transfer fee less than the value of what the miles will buy, and is there no cheaper alternative? Only if the answer to the third question is yes should you pay to transfer.

Miles are a currency, and like any currency, moving them around usually costs money. The programs that let you pool or book for others exist precisely because travellers asked for a fairer way to share. Use those routes first, keep your miles where they are, and spend them on the trip itself rather than on the fee to move them.