I agree with this too. I just think it's a bit punitive. Life is long and plans change. I know people who have accumulated hundreds of thousands (or millions) of miles over decades of work as consultants, etc. They bank them for retirement. The wisdom of this plan is debatable, but it's a major reason people sign up for FF programs, and I'm sure there are *many* people who have chosen AA, for example, for many flights to build this bank for the time when they can use them. I have an in-law who was a VP at a major investment bank and commuted twice weekly. He retired last year and is now spending every month in a different country with his wife. I'm sure that's hardly an exception. Also, if you look at lifetime status on AA it seems that this retirement group was taken into account there as well.
Short point - many people choose flights NOW with the idea of retiring and seeing the world. They are most certainly frequent fliers in any sense, even after they've stopped buying tickets.
I don't see that as the airline's problem. They provide a benefit which it's up to you to use. There aren't very many things that I'd buy with the intent of using 30 years in the future without a firm contractual agreement.
Not to mention that someone who has accumulated millions of miles in their account can quite easily protect those miles - since they're probably still flying once every 18 months - and if not, they can add points other ways.
I don't see that as the airline's problem. They provide a benefit which it's up to you to use. There aren't very many things that I'd buy with the intent of using 30 years in the future without a firm contractual agreement.
Not to mention that someone who has accumulated millions of miles in their account can quite easily protect those miles - since they're probably still flying once every 18 months - and if not, they can add points other ways.
Definitely. I do see that doing this without grandfathering is a bad idea. They should say for miles earned starting now the expiration is 18 months. Short (and I still think a but punitive), but at least it's clear.
But if you paid close attention to expiration last year, and don't really keep up and check obsessively for 2 years or so, you could get totally screwed. I just don't think that's smart customer service.
At the end of the day if they make the rules clear and enforce them, it's all the same. But this transition seems a bit mangled. IMHO.
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"When you have nothing intelligent to say, call the other guy an idiot and hope nobody notices your deficiency." - Sun Tzu
Short point - many people choose flights NOW with the idea of retiring and seeing the world. They are most certainly frequent fliers in any sense, even after they've stopped buying tickets.
And given how easy it would be for someone to be rendered unable to (or not interested in) travelling for 18 months or more, this seems unfair. Especially since many of the older set might not even consider online shopping and the like.
What if they could pay $25-$30 per year to guarantee their hoard of miles don't expire. Would they do it? That's the cost of SPG AMEX or Citi AA Debit MC and works for the older set you described.
AA did a bang up job of updating miles expiration dates on web with new policy but haven't put a message to advise of new policy on web page or announcements. If they are going to announce promos they should announce new restrictions. This does affect those of us that manage accounts for children and parents. We will just have to make sure to scrounge around looking for miles to push up expiration dates.
Thank you, OP, for posting. Now I'll have to monitor my family's accounts more closely because they more frequently fly on my miles.
Exactly. It is not an issue for most FTers and those of us who have CitiAA cards. But family members, particularly kids, don't fly as much and it is quite likely that they won't be travelling or otherwise earning on every major carrier over an 18-month span. USAToday Miletracker is a good start (it tracks accounts for every family member) - you can printout a matrix and then handwrite expiration dates based on last activity. We order a lot of stuff through the internet, so it is pretty easy to place a small order through the airline's shopping portal to keep the account active.
The continuing consolidation of legacy carriers makes it even easier as there are fewer accounts in play every year (no more TWA, PanAm, AW)
Not sure why DL, UA and AA (in order of announcement) have decided it is more profitable to weed out the irregular mom and pop customer. If these people fly sporadically, it will take many years for them to accumulate enough miles even for the cheapo 25k lower-48 award that most of us shun. Perhaps these customers are just not profitable (despite the need to sell them half of every plane) and are a dime a dozen and presumably lack loyalty.
Once again WN is heading in the more customer-friendly direction. It doubled the expiration of RR points to 2 years, and permits you to extend award expiration beyond 1 year for an additional fee.
Funny thing is that my CO account (the one that never expires despite the stated policy) is closest to being zeroed out thanks to Amtrak GR.
As for hotels, HH and Starwood are the most onerous - SPG requires an actual stay every 12 months (or an SPG amex ) to keep your points, and HH is notorious for zeroing out accounts.
AA did a bang up job of updating miles expiration dates on web with new policy but haven't put a message to advise of new policy on web page or announcements. If they are going to announce promos they should announce new restrictions. This does affect those of us that manage accounts for children and parents. We will just have to make sure to scrounge around looking for miles to push up expiration dates.
I agree. A less-than-frequent flyer friend came to me in a panic when she got an e-mail about the new policy. I haven't gotten an e-mail, so looked on aa.com for the policy and couldn't find it. So of course I came here!
Exactly. It is not an issue for most FTers and those of us who have CitiAA cards. But family members, particularly kids, don't fly as much and it is quite likely that they won't be travelling or otherwise earning on every major carrier over an 18-month span. USAToday Miletracker is a good start (it tracks accounts for every family member) - you can printout a matrix and then handwrite expiration dates based on last activity. We order a lot of stuff through the internet, so it is pretty easy to place a small order through the airline's shopping portal to keep the account active.
The continuing consolidation of legacy carriers makes it even easier as there are fewer accounts in play every year (no more TWA, PanAm, AW)
Not sure why DL, UA and AA (in order of announcement) have decided it is more profitable to weed out the irregular mom and pop customer. If these people fly sporadically, it will take many years for them to accumulate enough miles even for the cheapo 25k lower-48 award that most of us shun. Perhaps these customers are just not profitable (despite the need to sell them half of every plane) and are a dime a dozen and presumably lack loyalty.
Once again WN is heading in the more customer-friendly direction. It doubled the expiration of RR points to 2 years, and permits you to extend award expiration beyond 1 year for an additional fee.
Funny thing is that my CO account (the one that never expires despite the stated policy) is closest to being zeroed out thanks to Amtrak GR.
As for hotels, HH and Starwood are the most onerous - SPG requires an actual stay every 12 months (or an SPG amex ) to keep your points, and HH is notorious for zeroing out accounts.
Exactly, does this really help the airline enough to counteract the annoyed customer service reactions? I can't see how it does.
For example, the reason I ended up on AA as a multi-year PLT, etc, etc, etc, has everything to do with a very stupid reason, which was that I had around 20-30k miles in my account already from a few random trips years prior. When I started getting serious about miles/points I chose AA over UA because of that. Many thousands have been spent on AA since, and I haven't been on a UA plane in 10 years. I can't be the only one.
People will feel ripped off about this kind of thing, and for what? They hand out 25k mile bonuses like they're popcorn for credit cards, etc. But they don't mind annoying the hell out of a handful of people who lose "their" miles to an expiration date. Seems like little to no gain, and plenty of goodwill to lose, justified or not... I don't really get it.
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"When you have nothing intelligent to say, call the other guy an idiot and hope nobody notices your deficiency." - Sun Tzu
I agree. A less-than-frequent flyer friend came to me in a panic when she got an e-mail about the new policy. I haven't gotten an e-mail, so looked on aa.com for the policy and couldn't find it. So of course I came here!
So you're claiming that AA doesn't make their policy visible because they sent out emails about it and you didn't read yours?
Exactly, does this really help the airline enough to counteract the annoyed customer service reactions? I can't see how it does.
For example, the reason I ended up on AA as a multi-year PLT, etc, etc, etc, has everything to do with a very stupid reason, which was that I had around 20-30k miles in my account already from a few random trips years prior. When I started getting serious about miles/points I chose AA over UA because of that. Many thousands have been spent on AA since, and I haven't been on a UA plane in 10 years. I can't be the only one.
People will feel ripped off about this kind of thing, and for what? They hand out 25k mile bonuses like they're popcorn for credit cards, etc. But they don't mind annoying the hell out of a handful of people who lose "their" miles to an expiration date. Seems like little to no gain, and plenty of goodwill to lose, justified or not... I don't really get it.
Of course, the people who lose their miles are people who don't fly AA or use any AA products or services for > 18 months, so I don't think it's going to hurt much. It WILL take a lot of liability off the books which helps profitability - and is one piece of ensuring that AA is still there tomorrow for those who really DO use them. You seem to have forgotten that part.
I'm trying to consolidate about 20 hotel and airline programs. This change doesn't help. I plan to reduce AA flying slightly as a subtle protest.
Of course it helps with consolidation. On average, this type of policy encourages people to consolidate on fewer airlines. It will add to loyalty rather than reduce it.
That doesn't mean that it's going to help EVERYONE. Some people will switch from using multiple airlines to using solely UA, others will consolidate on CO, and others will consolidate on AA. But, on average, miles that expire if you don't fly the airline will encourage people to fly more consistently on fewer different airlines. That's a positive for the airlines.
) to keep your points, and HH is notorious for zeroing out accounts. 
