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.
Last week, I introduced a 2-part series detailing the different expiry rules of major loyalty programs. Both articles include various ways to reset the expiry date on those points. The first section of this series looked at hotel loyalty programs.
In this week’s edition, the focus turns to airline loyalty programs.
When do your points expire?
As you will see from the list below, airline programs, in general, are more relaxed than hotel programs in terms of points expiry.
- American Airlines (AAdvantage) – 18 months
- Aer Lingus (AerClub) – 36 months
- Air France & KLM (Flying Blue) – Never expire as long as you take qualifying flight every 2 years
- Alaska Airlines (Mileage Plan)– 24 months
- British Airways (Executive Club) – 36 months
- British Airways (On Business, Corporate) – At least 24 months
- Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles) – 36 months
- Delta (Skymiles) – Miles don’t expire
- Emirates (Skywards & Business Rewards) – At least 36 months
- Etihad Airways (Etihad Guest) – At least 24 months
- Iberia Plus – 36 months
- Lufthansa (Miles and More)– 36 months
- Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (Norwegian Reward) – At least 24 months
- Singapore Airlines (KrisFlyer) – At least 36 months
- Turkish Airlines (Miles&Smiles) – 36 months
- Qantas (Frequent Flyer) – 18 months
- Qatar Airways (Qmiles) – At least 36 months
- United Airlines (MileagePlus) – 18 months
- Virgin Atlantic (Flying Club) – 36 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, excellent value.
It has saved me on at least two occasions in the last 18 months where I had a small amount of points due to expire, in a 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 the expiry of your frequent flyer points is to take a flight with the particular airline or any of its alliance partners. The options listed below assume you cannot/would prefer not to do that.
Here are some suggestions for each program. I say “some” because any list won’t be exhaustive without it being pages long. I’ve omitted some of the options that are really poor value.
Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments section below.
American Airlines (AAdvantage)
- Top up your account using Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points
- Credit a car rental – Avis, Budget, Alamo, National, Dollar, Hertz, Thrifty, Europcar, Sixt
- Stay at a partner hotel – including Hilton, Hyatt, Starwood, Marriott or IHG properties.
- Convert hotel points to AAdvantage miles
- Book a hotel via Rocketmiles
- Buy miles – via this link – there are semi-regular mileage sales that offer a discount on purchased miles.
Aer Lingus (AerClub)
- Convert SuperValu Real Rewards points
- Shop at a Chic Outlet Shopping Village – e.g. Bicester Village/Kildare Village
- Subscribe to the Irish and Sunday Independent
- Book a restaurant via Restaurant Circle
- Convert Heathrow Rewards points
- Make a Viator booking
- Book a hotel via Kaligo, Rocketmiles or Agoda
- Stay at a Best Western Hotel or convert Best Western Rewards points
Alaska Airlines (Mileage Plan)
- Convert SPG points
- Stay at a partner hotel – including Hilton, Fairmont, Starwood, Marriott or IHG properties.
- Book a hotel through Rocketmiles
- Credit a car rental – Avis, Alamo, Budget, Dollar, Hertz, National, Thrifty
- Complete online surveys with The Opinion Terminal
- Buy miles – via this link
British Airways (Executive Club)
- Transferring American Express Membership Rewards points
- Taking out one of the British Airways American Express (Free card reviewed here, Premium Plus card reviewed here) cards
- Converting SPG points
- Converting HSBC Rewards points
- Converting Tesco Clubcard points
- Converting Heathrow Rewards points
- Crediting a car rental – Avis, Budget
- Converting Shell Drivers Club points
- Completing surveys with Rewards for Thoughts and e-rewards
- Travelling on the Heathrow Express
- Booking airport parking
- Purchasing foreign currency
- Chic Outlet Shopping Villages
- Staying at a hotel partner
Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles)
- Converting SPG points
- Transferring American Express Membership Rewards points
- Converting HSBC Rewards points
- Stay at a partner hotel – including Hilton, Starwood, Marriott, Hyatt, Mandarin Oriental, Radisson properties.
- Crediting a car rental – Alamo, Avis, Europcar, Hertz, National, Sixt
- Book a hotel via Kaligo, Rocketmiles, Agoda, PointsHound
- Shop at a Chic Outlet Shopping Village
Qatar Airways (Qmiles)
- Converting SPG points
- Book a hotel via Kaligo, Rocketmiles, Agoda
- Stay a partner hotel including Hilton, Starwood, Marriott, Hyatt, Mandarin Oriental, Radisson, and Wyndham properties.
- Crediting a car rental – Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Sixt
- Shop at a Chic Outlet Shopping Village
- Using your phone abroad with Travelling Connect – article here
United Airlines (MileagePlus)
- Book a hotel via PointsHound, Rocketmiles
- Stay a partner hotel including Hilton, Starwood, Marriott, Hyatt, Radisson, and Shangri-La properties.
- Converting SPG points
- Convert hotel loyalty points to MileagePlus miles
- Crediting a car rental – Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty
- Completing surveys with e-miles or Opinion Miles Club
Virgin Atlantic (Flying Club)
- Transferring American Express Membership Rewards points
- Transferring Heathrow Rewards points
- Converting Tesco Clubcard points
- Converting Texaco Star Rewards Points
- Booking a Virgin Trains journey
- Shopping at Waitrose
- Staying at a hotel partner
- Booking a hotel via the likes of Kaligo/PointsHound/Rocketmiles
- Shop at a Chic Outlet Shopping Village
- Making a Virgin Holidays booking
- Taking out a Virgin Money Stocks and Shares ISA
- Crediting a car rental – Alamo, Avis, Enterprise, National, Hertz, Sixt
Verdict
Much like my discussion of hotel loyalty points last week, there are many different expiry dates to be aware of when it comes to airline miles. A tool like AwardWallet makes life much easier by tracking it all for you. I would recommend signing up for free and seeing whether you get any value from the service. If nothing else, it means I don’t have to remember all of the usernames and passwords for the different programs!
Many people have a constant stream of activity and significant balances in some frequent flyer accounts, but only small amounts of miles in others that are mostly neglected. If you do have some miles expiring, the tips above should give you plenty of methods to salvage them.