How to Keep Your Miles and Points from Expiring

Few things in life spike a traveler’s adrenaline as much as the dreaded “Your Points are About to Expire” email. Having your hard-earned points and miles go to waste simply because you forgot about their expiration date is a true travel tragedy.

But with a little strategy and organization, this is entirely preventable.

While many travelers focus their attention on how to earn points, it’s equally important to understand how to keep them. There are many ways to avoid having your points and miles expire, beyond spending with a co-branded credit card.

Let’s dive into point and mile expiration policies and strategies you can enact right now to keep your points alive and ready for lucrative redemptions.

Do Points and Miles Expire?

Generally speaking, points and miles come with an expiration date.

However, expiration policies differ not only between credit card vs. airline and hotel rewards programs, but also between the rewards programs of each airline.

Some miles expire after just six months while others are valid for as long as 10 years (or never expire). Many programs enable you to reset the expiration clock on your miles through qualifying activity, such as earning or redeeming miles, although not every rewards program offers this as an option.

Let’s look at the differences between credit card, airline and hotel rewards programs’ expiration policies.

When Do Credit Card Rewards Points Expire?

Credit card rewards points never expire.

As long as you continue to hold the card, pay its annual fee and pay off your balance on time, you can hold credit card rewards points indefinitely.

If you’re ever late with a balance payment, you may lose the points earned on that month’s statement. Likewise, if you cancel a credit card and have no other card open with the same issuer, you’ll lose any points you haven’t yet redeemed. Certain card issuers offer a grace period after canceling a card to avoid this nasty situation.

Aside from these instances, credit card points never expire as long as you uphold your end of the card agreement.

Certain Citi cards used to apply either a five or three-year expiration date on points earned. However, none of the current Citi ThankYou Point-earning-cards have expiration dates on points earned.

Therefore, you can rest assured that your credit card points will remain ready for your next award booking, as long as you uphold your end of the card agreement.

When Do Frequent Flyer Miles Expire?

Frequent flyer miles expire after between 12 to 36 months. Certain frequent flyer programs allow the expiration date of your miles to be extended through account activity while others maintain a strict expiration date.

Account activity typically includes redeeming and earning miles, especially through spending on co-branded airline credit cards. That means each time you use your co-branded airline credit card, the expiration clock is restarted, making these cards a highly convenient way to protect your stock of miles.

Frequent flyer mile expiration policies vary between airlines. For instance, Southwest Rapid Rewards, United MileagePlus and JetBlue TrueBlue miles don’t expire at all while Frontier miles expire after 12 months of inactivity. In some cases, such as with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles, your account will be deactivated after two years of inactivity. Thankfully, you can reactivate it without losing your miles.

With some airlines, having a certain level of elite status prevents your points from expiring.

When Do Hotel Loyalty Points Expire?

Hotel loyalty points typically expire after 12 to 24 months of inactivity.

In some cases, elite status can prevent your points from expiring.

As of now, Best Western Rewards are one of the few hotel loyalty points to have no expiration date.

How to Extend the Lives of Your Points and Miles

Typically, any account activity will reset the expiration dates on your points and miles in most (but not all) rewards programs. All you have to do is earn or redeem points to reset the expiration clock in your account.

Here are a few easy ways to generate activity in your rewards account, as well as strategies to protect your hard-earned points and miles.

1. Know Your Expiration Dates and Stay Organized

There are few organizational problems in life that a good spreadsheet can’t solve. Having all your ducks in a row is key to everything in the points and miles game.

Staying on top of expiration dates for different award currencies is crucial to avoiding lost points and miles. However, this is often easier said than done.

Figure out a system that works well for you, whether it’s a spreadsheet or an all-in-one app designed to track credit card rewards, such as My10x.

With an app like My10x, you’ll also be able to stay on top of all things credit card-related, including your eligibility for new cards’ welcome offers as well as your credit score and 5/24 status.

2. Consider Opening a Co-branded Credit Card

From free checked bags to complimentary elite status, co-branded airline credit cards come with a range of benefits for the frequent flyer. If you can commit to earning the rewards currency of a single airline, opening a co-branded credit card could play a key role in your wider points and miles strategy.

This line of approach can also be one of the easiest ways to help prevent your miles from expiring.

Every time you spend using a co-branded airline credit card you’ll earn frequent flyer miles. This qualifies as account activity, meaning each purchase will reset the expiration clock on your stock of miles.

Spending with a co-branded airline credit card is a convenient, low-effort way of preventing your miles from expiring.

3. Give Priority to No Expiration Programs

Depending on your travel goals and spending habits, it can make sense to prioritize rewards programs with no expiration dates on their points currency.

For instance, miles earned with Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and JetBlue Airways don’t expire.

That means transferring your miles from other airlines into these rewards programs can make sense if you’re uncertain when you’ll redeem them. That’s especially the case for miles earned on one-off flights with foreign carriers that you’re unlikely to fly with again.

4. Book a Flight

Using your points and miles is the easiest way to prevent them from expiring, and what better way is there than to use them than to book an award flight?

Whether it’s an impromptu weekend getaway to explore a new city or a points redemption for your dream vacation, using your miles is a form of account activity and will reset the expiration clock on all of your remaining miles.

Alternatively, booking a cash fare and entering your frequent flyer number also counts as account activity, which in turn the expiration clock. If cash prices are low, this can be a great way to save your miles for future redemption while preventing your stock of miles from expiring.

This is also a ripe opportunity to look into airline partnerships and alliances. In most cases, booking a cash or award fare with a partner airline, and crediting your miles to the airline with whom you have points (in the event of a cash fare), will also count as qualifying account activity.

5. Look Into Partners

Airlines have partners that offer bonus miles on all kinds of everyday purchases and activities. For example, you can earn miles when you book a cruise through American Airlines. Airlines also partner with rental car agencies and hotels, enabling you to earn frequent flyer miles when you book a rental car or hotel stay through the airline.

Each airline’s frequent flyer program will have a list of participating companies. Just make sure you aren’t overpaying for any of these services in your quest to earn miles.

6. Donate to Charity

If you want to do something good with your miles, consider donating them to charity. Many programs allow you to donate miles to charities like the American Red Cross, Make-a-Wish Foundation and others.

This is a form of account activity, resetting the expiration clock.

7. Dine Out

If you thought that dining out to save your miles sounds like a win-win, you would be right.

Most airlines and hotels offer dining rewards programs. These programs include a large network of restaurants with whom you can earn extra points and miles every time you dine with them.

You’ll need to register for the program and connect a credit card to your account. Then simply dine your way to extra points and miles.

If you connect a card that earns a lucrative points multiplier on dining purchases, such as the American Express® Gold Card or Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you’ll be able to double-dip on your earnings.

Earning miles in this way also extends the expiration date of all your current miles.

Whether it’s IHG One Rewards Dine & Earn, American AAdvantage Dining or one of the many other dining programs, you can enroll today and start earning extra miles while protecting the ones you already have.

8. Use Shopping Portals

Many travel rewards programs offer shopping portals that allow you to earn points and miles on your typical shopping purchases. Portals include anywhere between hundreds to thousands of merchants you can complete your purchase with.

By beginning your shopping journey through the portal, you’ll earn points on your spending and keep your account active. Just make sure you have cookies enabled in your browser, otherwise it won’t be registered that you navigated to the merchant’s site through the portal.

Using a shopping portal to make everyday purchases is a great way to boost your mileage balance too.

When you are buying something through the portal, you can use any credit card. But if you use a credit card that earns a competitive rate of points or miles, you can double-dip on your earnings.

Mileage Expiration Policies for Frequent Flyer Programs

Here’s a list of frequent flyer programs and their mileage expiration policies.

Keep in mind that these policies can change with very little notice. If you think you’re nearing the expiration date of your miles, double-check with the airline.

Final Thoughts

There are several ways to avoid losing your points and miles, so you can rest assured that you don’t have to worry about losing them. These simple steps will also allow you to start amassing points for long-term use, even if you can’t imagine just yet how you’re going to use them.

If you do find yourself with some expired miles, it never hurts to call and ask to reinstate your account. This process usually involves paying very high fees, so it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it or not. However, if the miles just recently expired and you find a sympathetic agent, they might be willing to do this as a one-time courtesy.

To avoid this situation, consider a points and miles management tool, such as My10x, to prevent a travel tragedy and stay on top of your game.