Prevent Your Frequent Flyer Miles From Expiring
I used to fly a lot and racked up a lot of frequent flyer miles over the years, but now I have to be extra careful. Airline travelers who don’t use their frequent flyer miles…well, frequently, may soon discover that their miles have expired. It is a growing trend, but airlines have shortened the time period that an account can remain inactive before miles expire. In most cases that time period ranges between 1 to 2 years.
Here Are the Expiration Policies For Some of the Biggest Airlines:
- AirTran: Points in A+ Rewards expire after 12 months.
- American Airlines: AAdvantage ® miles expire after 36 months of inactivity.
- Continental Airlines: OnePass miles do not expire. There is a written policy that says they do, but the airline does not enforce the policy.
- Delta Airlines: Delta SkyMiles expire after 2 years of inactivity.
- JetBlue: TrueBlue points expire one full year from the date that they are earned.
- Northwest Airlines: Northwest WorldPerks miles expire if none are earned for 3 calendar years.
- Southwest Airlines: Rapid Rewards points expire after 2 years.
- United Airlines: Mileage Plus miles expire after 36 months of inactivity. Starting December 31, 2007, miles will expire after 18 months of inactivity.
- U.S. Airways: Dividend Miles expire after 18 months of inactivity.
How You Can Easily Prevent Mileage Expiration
The way to prevent your miles from lapsing due to inactivity is to simply generate miles-earning activity for each airline that you have an account with. Other using than using a specialized miles-generating credit card rewards like the Starwood Preferred, another relatively easy way is by making a purchase at the airline’s own shopping portal, where you earn miles for each purchase. This will allow you to earn a few miles, enough to reset the inactivity clock. Most of the popular stores such as iTunes, Best Buy, and Circuit City can be found at each airline’s shopping website.
Links to the Major Airlines’ Shopping Websites:
- American Airlines: AAdvantage ® eShopping
- Continental Airlines: ShopOnePass
- Delta Airlines: Delta SkyMile Shopping
- Northwest Airlines: WorldPerks Mall
- United Airlines: Mileage Plus Mall
- U.S. Airways: Dividend Miles Shopping Mall
Make Sure Your Purchases Count To Reset the Account Activity Clock
- To ensure that you receive mileage credit for the purchase made through the airline’s shopping portal, make sure your shopping cart is empty before doing the click through. For example, don’t visit Best Buy, add something to your cart and then revisit Best Buy by clicking through the airline’s shopping portal website. You may not receive mileage credit for the items already in your cart. Visit the store through the airline’s website first before making purchases to receive proper mileage credit.
- There is no minimum mileage you need to earn to reset the inactivity clock. If you can make a quick purchase for a $1 item that allows you to accrue a few miles towards your frequent flyer plan, that is sufficient to reset and prevent expiration.
- One way to track your miles and monitor your most recent activity in each of your frequent flyer accounts is by using USA Today’s downloadable MileTracker application.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
When a company like United changes its expiration policy from 36 months to 18 months without notifying a customer, holds its breath, then swiftly confiscates hard earned miles from an 18 year Club member, again without notice, then offers the miles back for several hundred dollars, that is extortion and theft.
United is in the business of theft and fraud. When times get tough, screw your customers.
July 27th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I totally agree with Robert’s comments. I have been a members since 1990 and I was not notified of the change ad lost more than 40,000 miles I agree this is theft and fraud and I am hoping that someone will file a class action against United for the miles that they have stolen from us frequnet flyers since the changed their expiration policy from 36 to 18 months.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Try Jet Blue taking your hard earned money as a part of their corporate policy. You buy a refundable ticket with cash, but they won’t give you your monies back. They only give you “credit” that you have to use within the year (plus a year extension possibly). If you haven’t booked another flight before that time expires – they just keep the cash.
That’s what happened to me. In my opinion that’s just the equivalent of theft. Monies taken for absolutely nothing in return.
August 15th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Delta confiscated all of my frequent flyer miles… almost enough for a round-trip. I’ve avoided them ever since — in fact — haven’t flown them in over five years because of that.
October 17th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
United expired 144,000 of our miles. We tried to use them for air travel rewards. but had no success. Maybe they should count those attempts to use them as “activity” on your account. I will not fly United again, and if there is a class action suit, I’m in!
November 13th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Does any know how to reinstate expired frequent flyer miles? I know that the miles last for a few years generally but once you’ve exceed that allotted period of time, what then? Has anyone had success calling the airline company and having the expired frequent flier miles reinstated or restored back to the way it was?
January 1st, 2010 at 1:02 pm
We were trying to book a flight with my wife and 8 mo old daughter to see her grandparents for the first time, and had planned to use the 38,000 miles that we had accumulated on united. when we went to make the reservations, we were told that the account had 0 (ZERO) miles in it, as they had expired. Same thing as everyone else here has experienced – no notification that these miles were going to expire, or that the policy had changed. Any news on the class action? Will it happen? how would one get involved?
January 5th, 2010 at 12:34 am
While I generally agree with everyone elses sentiment (expiring miles are lousy!) I will chime in to say that I have received multiple mailings and email from United regarding my expiring miles. They have even sent me info about different ways to keep my miles from expiring or using my miles up before expiration. I certainly don’t like that the miles are expiring in the first place, but at least my expiration date will not be a surprise. It is important to make sure any frequent flyer program you enroll with has your up to date email and address if you want any chance of receiving notifications. This especially goes for anyone moving or changing emails. If anyone here did have update to date contact info and still didn’t receive any notifiaction, then I would recommend trying to file a formal complaint with the airline and/or possibly some third-party like the BBB. Good luck! (I too would welcome some sort of class action – expiring miles seems sneaky and unfair)
January 15th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
I have 117,600 frequent flyer miles through Citibank with American Airlines. They will expire August 2010 unless I use their credit card on purchases to extend the date of expiration. I had cancelled that Advantage card after at least 15 years use and always paying the bills on time because I wanted the monetary rebate instead of the miles. I can’t get a card with Citibank to extend the miles because I had the original Advantage one and can only get one for a business which I don’t have.
This is so frustrating – does anyone know how I can do something to extend the miles? I hate to lose them and am not able to travel until November 2010 and wanted to use the miles at that time.
HELP PLEASE
January 27th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
United confiscated 100,000 of my frequent flyer miles. I was told that there was sufficient warnings given in the press and over the web. I live in Australia, do not get the USA press and did not get any clear information. The one piece of information that I received led me to believe that only those points acquired after the announcement would expire in 18 months and that those acquired before the announcement would expire as per the purchase contact at 36 months.
That is how QUANTAS has brought in its ‘new’ frequent flyer miles policy.
There is a basic legal and ethical principle that obtains here and that is bringing into force retrospective provisions that disadvantage a purchaser of goods and services.
January 29th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Yes, let’s do a class action lawsuit. I lost over 50,000 miles, even though every month cards I was paying on said “activity” and showed my payment. I don’t have a TV and did not receive a notice until AFTER they expired. I, too, was under the 36 month provision, I thought. I have written and called twice and they will not reinstate my miles, except for nearly $700.00.
Boo United! I will never fly United again, nor use Chase United Mileage Plus credit cards.
March 17th, 2010 at 2:47 am
Thanks for the forum.
UA just expired my hard-earned 28K miles, but AFTER I had entered into a qualifying transaction with them!
On Feb 28, 2010 –5 days before scheduled expiration, 4 of which were business days — I clicked through from the Mileage Plus Web site to Mileage Plus Wireless, UA’s designated wireless vendor.
I placed my order over_the_phone with a guy in India who assured me that my $14.95 Palm car charger would reinstate my miles. Let me must say that the phone call took about 15 minutes. Usually this is done in <5. So I assume all is good they are getting everything squared away, and then he tells me everything is great and to expect an email confirmation of the order.
The email confirmation arrives immediately and says the order is processing and to expect another email with status update. OK, great. I relax.
5 days later I realize it is the 28th and I have no car charger! I go online at UA Wireless' Web site to check the status of my order. It's been canceled.
Punch line: All miles expired.
I spend 2 weeks trying to get through to MP Wireless to sort this out. Email support is broken, no phone attendant, only the option to leave a message. I leave several. No one calls back.
I call UAMP corporate, and they tell me only Wireless can manage the reinstatement.
After 3 weeks (yesterday) I get through to someone at Wireless Customer Service, who tell me the order was canceled b/c my shipping address is not the same as my billing address…true story!
Show of hands: How many online transactions have you ever had refused b/c of this? I have had zero, and I have had thousands of online purchase transactions. My shipping address (work) is not the same as my business address (home).
As a business, wouldn't you contact the customer to sort out the info and get their money for your product? Isn't that smart business? Well, in this case, there is even smarter business. Of course, rarely does smarter mean good for the customer.
You see, it is smarter business for the UA bottom line to expire my valuable miles and piss me off rather than fulfill my $14.95 order. This is obviously a conscious, strategic decision. I am one tiny customer and what am I going to do? Complain? Who cares?
BTW, Wireless of course said there is no way they can reinstate my miles b/c only corporate has that power…naturally.
So I email corporate and they reply today telling me that my miles will not be reinstated but they are happy to sell them back to me for $350.
This smells like absolutely unethical and fraudulent business practice to me, and I will fully support, endorse and participate in a Class Action suit in T-minus N-O-W.
April 30th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
I too lost 68k UA Mileage Plus miles when, without any notice, they “expired”. I received no email of the impending expiration; my first notice was the email showing my account balance as -0- the month following the “expiration”. Mileage Plus obviously had my email and could have (should have?) been sending me monthly emails showing the status of my account and when the miles would expire. But nooooo. Easy and more profitable to eliminate the liability of the 68,000 miles.
Any class action on this issue out there? Won’t some firm take this on?
June 27th, 2010 at 12:08 am
I have to say, I am saddened but now not shocked to discover this site and have the same outrage of so many of United Mileage Plus program members. Our miles were STOLEN in a most disgusting way! I also lost all mine, as the expiration of 18 months was sneaked into the program without letting members know intentionally, a reputable company would have clearly tried to warn us. United probably hoped many of us would just continue to pay the large member fee of $60, yes sixty dollars they stole and at the same time they took my miles away without notification this year. I suspect so many people also are in this boat and finding out.
I also hope as the other member posted above that a class action suit will take this program down. Any legal action, I will definitely give my signature. Please let us know!!! Signing up and staying in this United program was a huge regret and I will not fly United and will also spread the word to warn others. When they treat members like this, their will be consequences to mistreating loyal members.
July 15th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
I lost over 73,000 mile while in Iraq and Afghanistan. My wife tried to book a trip for the family when she heard I was coming home sooner than expected. The miles expired at the end of June of 2010. When my wife booked the trip just before the deadline, it stated she has no redeemable miles. She was heartbroken and called to plea her case with out success. When I got home, I called UA. They told me that I was sent several notifications via email and that I should have booked a flight, rent a car, or used my credit card at a hotel…yes…in Iraq and Afghanistan. They did not want to hear my “excuses”. I just wanted to say thank you UNITED!
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:30 pm
I just received a card in the mail from United stating miles were about to expire. When I read it I went into shock when my miles went from 80,189 down to 50 that they were warning me were about to expire. I called them to find out what happened and they told me they had expired. The last time in 07 that they warned me they were about to expire I bought 2,000 miles to keep the miles. The next time they were about to expire they did not have the decency to send me an e-mail or notice in the mail. The person I spoke to on the phone who I quickly realized had no power to do anything, and he was the supervisor, told me they sent me an e-mail and a notice by regular mail. I asked him the e-mail that it was sent to and he would not tell me. When I read him my e-mail for the last 15 years he said that that was not what they had. I just checked my profile and they had an e-mail that never existed. Clearly United will stop at nothing to take your miles away. They even wiped out the 2,000 miles which I bought. If I ever did that to somebody it would be considered theft. What is this world coming to when major airlines such as United can steal and lie and get away with it!!! The sad part is that I tried to use my miles several times and there was never any seats available. I guess loosing my miles really doesn’t matter since you can never use them on flights anyway.
July 23rd, 2010 at 5:12 pm
I have lodged a complaint with the Fair Trading Commission, New South Wales about United’s snatch and grab of my milage points.
Suggest that individuals that feel that they have been unfairly treated should seek out similar ombudsman agencies and lodge formal complaints.
There is a pro bono legal organization that takes up cases in the public interest. That is my next option.
Also, if that is not successful I will be seeking advice and proceeding to the Small Claims Court.
Seek advice from a para legal and go for it.
Or perhaps raise it at the political level with your local representative.
I am certain that United has violated all manner of laws depending on what jurisdiction you are in such as sending misleading information through the US mail, retrospective changes to contracts, misleading representation of goods and services, violation of human rights, etc.
Brian
July 24th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Well…the airlines will change rules like anything else, never expect any decent behavior from any of the companies, not just airlines but all consumer companies such as AT&T who promises bonus minutes then take it away without notice etc…The only way to keep on top of things is to go to their website every week and check it. Yes, it takes time but well worth it. That is how I keep my miles afloat with all airlines and use them just for the sake of using them! You need 21 days advance booking to avoid extra fees, unless you are platinum member on them. Moral of the story, use the miles at every available opportunity, never save them for family vacations. I have over 100k miles each on continental and united still, so am trying to use as much as before they merge. Do NOT want to take a chance!