Recruit-A-Friend

The Recruit-A-Friend, often referred to as RaF, program is a referral system, through which players can recruit friends or family members into World of Warcraft. When a player chooses to recruit someone, the recruit is emailed an activation link for a starter edition account. Accounts created through this referral system become "linked" with the recruiter's account for 90 days. If the trial account is upgraded to a paid subscription, both the recruiter and the recruit gain benefits when they play World of Warcraft together.

Since patch 7.3.5, the XP boost was reduced from 200% to 50% and Heirloom gear no longer stacked with the boost.

The current Recruit-A-Friend program will be closed on June 11 and be replaced by a newer program in the future.

With patch 8.2.5, the program was re-opened with new Explorers' League-themed rewards.

How to recruit a friend
Log into a character in-game. Open the "Social" tab. Click the "Recruit A Friend" button. Enter your friend's email address, and a custom message if desired. Now, your friend must open the email sent by Blizzard, and follow the link to create an account. Once the account is created, they need to verify it with Blizzard, through a follow-up email. Then they can follow the link in the invitation email again, and they will be prompted to choose which account to RAF link. Typically, this is WoW1. After this point, the accounts should be linked.

Lasts for 90 days after the recruitment

 * Both the recruit and the recruiter can summon each other while partied. This "Summon Friend" ability has a 30-minute cooldown. The summoned character must be level 89 or below and on the same realm as the summoner.
 * Both the recruit and the recruiter gain triple experience points (up to level 90) while partied and within 100 yards of each other. Unlike rested EXP, this applies to experience from quests and kills.
 * This does not stack with rested XP, however killing mobs and farming nodes does not consume rested XP, either.
 * This does stack with the 5-10% XP bonus from heirloom items, and said items can be shared between WoW accounts if they're tied to the same Battle.net account.
 * If both characters are not within 4 levels of each other, only the lower-level character will gain extra experience.
 * If a mob or quest is trivial (grey) to either character, neither will receive triple experience.
 * Recruit characters gain one "grantable" level for every two levels earned (up to 44 levels per character). Recruit characters may then grant these levels to the veteran's lower-level characters. When the characters are grouped, the recruit may target and right-click on the veteran character's nameplate and an option "Grant a Level" should appear in the context menu.
 * The character receiving the levels must be lower than the granter's level, and below level 90. In other words, a level 65 recruit can grant levels to get the veteran up to level 65, but no higher.  A level 92 recruit can grant levels to get the veteran up to level 90.
 * The character receiving the levels may decline the grant when prompted and then nothing happens.
 * Any levels not already granted when the account link is broken are lost. However, unlike the early version of RaF, the recruit does not lose the ability to grant levels simply because he/she has reached level 90.  Those levels can still be granted any time during the 90-day period.
 * The level grants grant a complete level. The XP bar remains the same in the new level, so a good strategy is to gain experience on the veteran character until they are at 99%. The character will then be 99% of the way to whatever level he reaches after the granted levels. Eg: A level 2 who is 99% of the way to level 3 will then be 99% of the way to level 91 when granted 88 levels.
 * Recruits can grant levels to any character on the veteran's account, and one veteran may accept granted levels from multiple recruits. The veteran can start a level 1 character and receive free levels from multiple recruits up to the RaF cap, as seen here.
 * Levels are granted one at a time, and may be distributed among veteran characters; the recruit may grant 26 levels to Veteran Character A and 18 levels to Veteran Character B, or any combination desired.
 * The 44 grantable level limit applies to each character on the recruited account. If the recruit levels multiple characters to 90, each character can grant 44 levels, to the same player or different players (within the above limits, of course).
 * Granted levels are earned regardless of whether the recruit and veteran were adventuring together when the levels were earned.
 * The 90 days starts from the day the R-A-F invitation is accepted, not when the account is upgraded, so be certain when the link ends. This can be done from the recruitment status page under Account Management.

Time-independent rewards

 * The recruiter receives a 30-day game credit for each recruit who purchasing two months of game time.
 * The recruiter receives a special mount or pet of their choice after the recruit pays for a third month of game time.
 * Mounts: Swift Zhevra, X-53 Touring Rocket, Heart of the Nightwing, Emerald Hippogryph, and Cindermane Charger
 * Pets: Golden Pig Coin, Silver Pig Coin, Enchanted Jade, and the Enchanted Purple Jade

Trivia

 * RaF used to last only until level 60. However, with the release of Mists of Pandaria, this was changed to 85 (with grantable level maximum increased from 30 to 42) and again changed to 90 with Warlords of Draenor (with grantable level maximum increased from 42 to 44). This would continue to increase with each new expansion release, being changed to the previous expansion's level cap, e.g. Legion increased it to the Warlords of Draenor level cap of 100.