Most miles and points will eventually expire after a certain period of account inactivity. The problem is that these programs all have differing expiry rules and methods of extending the validity of your points.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be running a 2-part series detailing the different expiry rules of major loyalty programs. I’ll also include various ways to reset the expiry date on those points.

This week’s edition will be looking at hotel loyalty programs.

When do your points expire?

As you will see from the list below, hotel programs, in general, are much more stringent than airline programs in terms of points expiry. While British Airways for example, only requires you to have some activity on your account every 36 months, some hotel points expire after just 12 months of inactivity.

Le Club Accor: 12 months of inactivity

Best Western: Points do not expire

Choice Hotels: 18 months

Radisson Rewards: 24 months

Hilton Honors: 12 months

World of Hyatt: 24 months

IHG Rewards Club: 12 months

Marriott Bonvoy: 24 months

How to know when your points are expiring

OK so you now have a list of expiry dates, but who wants to manually keep on top of all those dates every time you have some activity that resets your points expiry.

I have written before about the benefits of using AwardWallet to keep track of your loyalty accounts.

I use Award Wallet daily and it takes no more than a couple of minutes to refresh the balances in the 29 active accounts I currently keep tabs on. It would take far too much time to log-in to each of these accounts each day.

Once logged in, there is a tab within each program that shows you the date your points are due to expire. AwardWallet Plus will also email or send push notifications to warn of expiring points. However, the free version only displays the expiry dates of 3 balances and so I find the Plus version, which offers unlimited expiration dates, a worthy investment.

It has saved me on at least two occasions in the last 18 months where I had a small amount of points in a particular program that I rarely used.

You can register for a free AwardWallet account here

Tricks of the Trade readers can also get a free 6 months of AwardWallet Plus by using the code “xexectricksofthetrade”  when signing up for a new account.

How to stop your points expiring

Say you get to a point where you receive a notification from the likes of AwardWallet that some of your points are set to expire. How can you go about resetting the clock?

Of course, the easiest way to reset your points is to book a stay at any of the chains’ hotels. The options listed below assume you can’t/would prefer not to do that. 

Here are some suggestions that I’ve come across for each program. This list certainly isn’t exhaustive and I’ve omitted some of the options that are really poor value.

If you have a method that’s worked and I haven’t mentioned it, make sure to leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list!

AccorHotels

  • Crediting a car rental – Hertz/Europcar
  • Completing surveys – e-Rewards or Club Opinions
  • Subscribe to The Economist
  • Convert Finnair Plus points – you can generate some Finnair points if necessary by transferring Amex Membership Rewards (MR) points at 1:1 ratio.
  • Convert Qatar Airways Qmiles

Choice Hotels

  • Buy points – via this link
  • Refer a friend to the Choice Privileges program
  • Book meetings at Choice hotels
  • Completing surveys – e-Rewards
  • Car rentals – Alamo, Avis, Budget

Club Carlson

  • Buy points – via this link
  • Car rentals – Alamo, Avis, Budget, Enterprise, National and Sixt
  • Transfer some Amex MR points
  • Book an event at a Club Carlson hotel
  • Shop at Chic Outlet Villages such as Bicester Village and Kildare Village

Hilton

  • Transfer some Amex MR points
  • Transfer points from Virgin Atlantic
  • Transfer points to an airline
  • Take out the Hilton Honors Platinum Visa – reviewed here
  • Make a purchase through the Hilton Honors Shopping Portal
  • Purchase points – via this link
  • Car rentals – Alamo, Enterprise and National
  • Using your phone abroad with OneSimCard and Travelling Connect – article here

Hyatt

  • Buy points – via this link
  • Transfer points to an airline
  • Dine at a Hyatt restaurant/book a spa treatment at a Hyatt hotel (no stay requirement)
  • Car Rentals – Avis
  • Redeem points for a Spa/Dining credit at a Hyatt hotel (no stay requirement)

IHG

  • Buy points – via this link
  • Take out either of the IHG Credit Cards issued by Creation
  • Move Virgin Atlantic miles to IHG
  • Transfer IHG points to airline miles
  • Car rentals – Avis, Budget
  • Completing surveys – Opinion Check-in
  • Shop via the online catalogue or the digital download store
  • Donate points to charity

Marriott

  • Buy points – via this link
  • Car rentals – Hertz, Sixt
  • Refer friends to Marriott Rewards
  • Using your phone abroad with Travelling Connect – article here
  • Convert Marriott points to airline miles
  • Shop using points on the Exclusively Yours shopping portal
  • Donate points to charity  – via this link

Starwood

Verdict

While there are many different expiry dates to be aware of, using a service like AwardWallet to track them for you definitely makes life much easier. If you haven’t already got an account, I would advise signing up for free and seeing whether you get any value from the service.

If you do find yourself in a situation where your points are expiring, the tips above should give you plenty of ideas in terms of salvaging them one way or another.

Which tricks do you use to stop your points expiring?

 

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