Gift Travel to Your Kids: How Parents Use Points to Give Experiences
Meta Title: Gift Travel to Your Kids: How Parents Use Points to Give Experiences | WanderWise Meta Description: Looking for a meaningful gift for your adult children or grandchildren? Learn how to use your credit card points to give the gift of travel — flights, hotels, and trips they'll never forget. Target Keywords: gift travel to family with points, can I use credit card points for my kids flights, use points to book travel for family Word Count: ~2,200 Category: Points Strategy Cluster: Retirement Travel Planning / Multigenerational
A few months ago, I received an email from a woman named Patricia in Scottsdale. She'd been reading our guides, figured out she had over 200,000 points across two credit cards, and wanted to know something specific:
"Can I use my points to fly my daughter's family to visit us for Thanksgiving? She and her husband can't really afford the tickets right now, and I'd rather use these points on them than on another set of luggage tags from the rewards catalog."
The answer was yes. And when I walked her through how to do it, she was quiet for a moment and then said, "This is the best use of anything I've ever earned."
That sentence has stuck with me. Because Patricia isn't unusual. Across our community, one of the most popular uses of points isn't a trip to Paris or a business-class upgrade. It's something simpler and, in many ways, more meaningful: giving travel to the people you love.
Yes, you can use your points for someone else
Let's start with the practical question, because it stops a lot of people before they begin: Can you actually book travel for other people using your credit card points?
Yes. With every major points program, you can book flights and hotels for anyone — your children, your grandchildren, your friends, your neighbor's kid who's studying abroad. The points are yours; you decide how they're used.
Here's how it works by program:
Chase Ultimate Rewards: You can book flights and hotels for anyone through the Chase Travel portal. You can also transfer your points to an airline frequent flyer account in your name, then call the airline to book a ticket in someone else's name using those miles.
American Express Membership Rewards: You can book travel for anyone through Amex Travel. You can also transfer points to airline programs and book tickets for others. Amex additionally lets you add authorized users to your account, who can then transfer points to their own frequent flyer accounts.
Capital One Miles: You can book travel for anyone through Capital One Travel. You can also transfer miles to airline programs and book for others.
Airline frequent flyer miles: If you have miles directly with an airline (United, Delta, American, Southwest, etc.), you can book award tickets for anyone. The miles come from your account; the ticket goes in their name.
Hotel loyalty points: Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG all allow you to book rooms for other people using your points. Some programs also let you transfer points directly to another member's account.
The one thing you generally cannot do is transfer credit card points (Chase, Amex, Capital One) directly to another person's credit card rewards account. The points need to flow through a travel booking or through an airline/hotel program as an intermediary. But that's a minor logistical detail, not a real limitation.
The kinds of travel gifts people are giving
When I talk to people who use their points for family, the gifts tend to fall into a few categories. Each one solves a different problem and creates a different kind of joy.
Bringing the family together
This is the most common one. You have children or grandchildren who live across the country, and getting everyone in the same place for holidays, birthdays, or summer visits costs real money — money your kids may not have in their budget right now, especially with young children.
Using your points to cover their flights removes the financial obstacle entirely. They don't have to choose between visiting you and their other financial priorities. You don't have to worry that they're stretching their budget to come.
What it looks like: 25,000–50,000 points for a round-trip domestic flight. For a family of four flying cross-country, that's 100,000–200,000 points — which sounds like a lot until you realize it replaces $1,500–$3,000 in airfare. If you've been earning points on a good travel card for a few years, there's a reasonable chance you have exactly this amount sitting unused.
A trip they couldn't give themselves
Maybe your daughter has been talking about taking the kids to Disney World but the flights and hotel make it prohibitive. Maybe your son and his wife haven't had a real vacation — just the two of them — since their youngest was born. Maybe your grandchildren have never been on an airplane.
Points can make these trips happen. And the beauty of giving travel — rather than cash — is that it comes without any of the complicated feelings that cash gifts can carry between parents and adult children. It's not money. It's a specific, tangible, experiential gift. "I booked you a week in Orlando" lands differently than "Here's $2,000."
What it looks like: Book the flights through your travel portal. Book the hotel with hotel points or through the portal. Hand them an itinerary — or better yet, wrap it in a card and watch their faces.
A multigenerational trip you take together
This is the one that creates the stories your family tells for decades. A week at the beach with three generations. A road trip through the national parks with your grandchildren. A trip to the country your parents or grandparents came from. A cruise where everyone has their own space but comes together for meals and excursions.
Multigenerational trips are among the fastest-growing segments of the travel industry, and for good reason: they combine the people who have the time (you) with the people who have the energy (the grandchildren) and the people in the middle who desperately need someone else to plan the logistics (your adult children).
Your points can cover some or all of the travel costs, making it financially feasible for everyone to say yes.
What it looks like: This varies enormously depending on the trip. But here's a framework: you cover the flights for the whole family (the most expensive piece), and everyone splits the accommodations and activities. Or you cover everything, and the gift is the trip itself. There's no wrong structure — just the one that works for your family.
How to plan a travel gift, step by step
1. Check your points balance
Log in to your credit card account and your airline/hotel loyalty accounts. Write down what you have and where. If you're not sure which programs you're in, check our guide to understanding your rewards accounts.
2. Figure out the trip
Talk to your family — or plan a surprise. Either works. If you're planning a surprise, you'll need to know their preferred travel dates and any constraints (school schedules, work commitments, passport status for international travel).
For family visits, you just need their home airport and your preferred dates.
3. Search and compare
Check your credit card travel portal for flights and hotels. Note the points price. Then check airline award availability to see if transferring points gives you a better rate.
For a family gift, the portal route is often simplest — you can book everyone's tickets in one transaction, and you manage the entire reservation from your account.
4. Book the trip
Book through whichever method gives you the best value. Make sure you enter each traveler's legal name exactly as it appears on their ID or passport. This is especially important for flights — airlines are strict about name matching.
For hotels, book under either your name or your child's name. If they're checking in themselves, put the reservation in their name and note that it's being paid with your loyalty points.
5. Present the gift
This is the fun part. Some people wrap a printed itinerary. Some create a card that says "Check your email." Some announce it at the dinner table. I've heard of people framing a photo of the destination with the flight details written on the back.
However you do it, the reaction tends to be the same: genuine surprise, followed by "Wait, really?" followed by something that makes the whole thing worth it.
The numbers: what different gifts cost in points
To give you a sense of what's possible, here are some common gift scenarios and approximate points costs:
| Gift | Approx. Points (via portal) | Approx. Cash Value |
|---|---|---|
| Round-trip flight for one, domestic | 20,000–40,000 | $250–$500 |
| Round-trip flights for a family of four, domestic | 80,000–160,000 | $1,000–$2,000 |
| Round-trip flight for two, to Europe (economy) | 80,000–120,000 | $1,200–$2,000 |
| 3 nights at a hotel near Disney World | 60,000–120,000 hotel points | $450–$900 |
| Weekend hotel stay for your kids' anniversary | 30,000–60,000 hotel points | $300–$600 |
| Full family week at the beach (flights + hotel for 4) | 200,000–350,000 total | $3,000–$5,000 |
These are approximate ranges — actual costs depend on specific routes, dates, and programs. But they show that points balances in the range many people already have (100,000–300,000) can fund genuinely significant gifts.
A few practical things to know
You can book for them without them being present
You don't need your family members' credit card accounts or loyalty program logins. When booking through your portal or transferring miles to book, the transaction happens in your account. You just need their full names, dates of birth, and (for international travel) passport numbers.
Taxes and fees still apply
Award flights typically carry small taxes and fees — usually $5.60 per person for domestic flights and $50–$200 per person for international flights. These must be paid with a credit card. You can pay them yourself, or let the recipient know they'll see a small charge.
Consider timing
If you're planning a holiday gift of travel, book the actual flights and hotels as early as possible to ensure availability and the best points pricing. You can still wrap the itinerary and present it on the holiday itself, even if the trip is months away. In fact, that's ideal — it gives everyone time to plan, request time off, and build anticipation.
International travel requires passports
If you're gifting international travel, confirm that your family members have current passports. US passports take 6–8 weeks to process (or 2–3 weeks with expedited service). Nothing dampens a travel gift like discovering someone's passport expired.
Southwest points deserve special mention
If your family flies Southwest frequently, Southwest Rapid Rewards points are exceptionally easy to use for gifts. Points can be used to book flights for anyone, there are no change or cancellation fees, and if plans change, the points go back to your account immediately. For domestic family travel, Southwest is one of the most flexible options.
Why this matters more than the math suggests
I want to end with something that goes beyond the logistics.
We talk a lot about cents-per-point valuations and optimal redemption strategies. And those things matter — they're how you stretch your points furthest. But the value of giving travel to your family can't be measured in cents per point.
When you book flights so your grandchildren can spend Christmas morning at your house instead of on a FaceTime screen — that's not a 1.5-cent-per-point redemption. When you send your daughter and her husband on their first solo trip in three years — that's not an "average value" booking. When the whole family stands together at the rim of the Grand Canyon and your eight-year-old grandson says, "Grandma, this is the best day of my life" — there is no spreadsheet for that.
Points are a tool. And like any tool, their worth depends on what you build with them. You can build a more comfortable flight for yourself. You can build a luxury hotel stay. Both are excellent uses. But you can also build something that doesn't have a price tag — a memory, a reunion, a trip that becomes a family story.
Patricia in Scottsdale figured this out with her Thanksgiving flights. Her daughter's family came. Her grandchildren ran through the door. And 200,000 points that had been sitting in an account doing nothing became the best gift she'd ever given.
Your points can do the same thing. They've been waiting.
Want to see what your points can do for the people you love? Take the WanderWise Travel Score Quiz — 60 seconds to discover what's possible.