MilesBuzz! - Is There a Service to Automatically Extend Your Miles?

Remember the last time you woke up in cold sweat fearing that your miles expired? So here's another item for the wish-list: A service that guarantees that your miles never expire by depositing a few miles just before expiration date...

A service that guarantees that your miles never expire by depositing a few miles just before expiration date...

That would be a good idea. I just once a year move a couple miles from my Starwood account to each of my dormant mileage accounts.

How much would you pay for such a service? Maybe I should start one up

One thing that I've done recently is donate a small amount of miles from each account. CO has it so you can donate a small amount (I've done as few as 5 miles) to a large number of charities.

MileageManager (http://www.mileagemanager.com) will automatically notify you if your miles are about to expire. Also, I believe Randy said once that an upcoming feature actually will do what the OP wants: deposit a few miles to keep the account active. I'm not positive about this, though, so perhaps Randy can chime in. :)

How much would you pay for such a service? Maybe I should start one up

$9.99/year for 1 account, $14.99 for 3, $19.99 for 10?

Given that you only need 1 mile to extend the expiration date of an account, this seems like a nice markup for the service operator... ;)

Remember the last time you woke up in cold sweat fearing that your miles expired? So here's another item for the wish-list: A service that guarantees that your miles never expire by depositing a few miles just before expiration date...


I was wondering about this too... It's sometimes hard for me keep track of which account has expiring miles since I have a few frequent flyer accounts...

I was wondering about this too... It's sometimes hard for me keep track of which account has expiring miles since I have a few frequent flyer accounts...But services to keep track already exist. (But you have to be willing to pay for them, or else do the work yourself.)

All that doesn't exist yet is a way to have the service (rather than you manually) do something to extend the expiration (where it can be extended).

Note that not all programs allow you to extend miles/credits/whatever (in particular, many of the LCCs don't). In those, you have to get through a threshold by the "drop dead" date or it all goes poof.

MileageManager (http://www.mileagemanager.com) will automatically notify you if your miles are about to expire. Also, I believe Randy said once that an upcoming feature actually will do what the OP wants: deposit a few miles to keep the account active. I'm not positive about this, though, so perhaps Randy can chime in. :)

Not sure how the "mileage deposit" could possibly help you with programs like Starwood and Amtrak which require actual stays (or an SPG Amex) or train trips to extend the life of your account. I'm sure there are others that have similar requirements.

Slightly OT, but related anecdote: just for the heck of it, I used points.com to exchange 30 USAirways miles for 1 Delta mile -- for no other reason than to extend the life of my Delta miles (the addition of the 1 mile extended the expiration from Dec. 31, 2006 to Dec. 31, 2008). :D

I really have no burning need for either USAir or Delta miles, and have tiny, tiny balances in each program, so the points swap was more just "because I can." ;) I was actually quite surprised that points.com let me swap such a small number of miles/points; with most programs that participate in points.com, the minimum swap is something like 2,000 or 5,000 or whatever. @:-) However, for swaps out of USAir, the minimum is just whatever amount produces 1 mile or point in the destination program; in this particular case, only 30 miles. :eek:

Anyhow, it was an easy way to extend the expiration. Even easier than registering one of my credit cards for Delta/idine (Rewards Network) and then using that card at an idine-participating restaurant! :cool:

Kathy, thanks for the tip. I had a few hundred US Air miles about to expire, so I swapped them into another program. Lousy rate of exchange, but I was losing them anyway. Points.com has changed so much through the years that I didn't know we could do swaps like this now.

More and more North American airlines are changing their mile expiration policy. US, DL and CO are already in the 18-24 months range, and Air Canada announced today a 1 year expiration policy. Also, AC miles will have a 7-year expiration date. More information here: http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2006/10/16/aeroplanmileschange.html

Kathy, thanks for the tip. I had a few hundred US Air miles about to expire, so I swapped them into another program. Lousy rate of exchange, but I was losing them anyway. Points.com has changed so much through the years that I didn't know we could do swaps like this now.
You're welcome!

And I've also used points.com to transfer "orphaned" miles (tiny balances in programs I never use) into other programs that I do use. As you say, lousy rate of exchange, but I'd rather have, for example, 200 miles in a program that has 50K+ usable miles rather than 2,000 miles all by its lonesome with an airline that I never fly on.

The expiration date extension was just a side benefit.

I've got about 9000 Delta miles. Not enough for anything. Know how I can exchange these? Would really like to get them to AA or Continental.

I've got about 9000 Delta miles. Not enough for anything. Know how I can exchange these? Would really like to get them to AA or Continental.
Off the top of my head, I don't know.

As you probably realize, points.com does NOT allow swaps FROM Delta Skymiles; they only allow swaps INTO that program. :(

Does Delta offer any merchandise or magazines for small amounts of miles? (Think, holiday gifts for someone....)

If you have that many accounts, you might want to look at slowly trading with other people to consolidate them. It would make things easier and many miles in one account is often better than a few scattered everywhere.

thanks for the tip!

If you have that many accounts, you might want to look at slowly trading with other people to consolidate them. It would make things easier and many miles in one account is often better than a few scattered everywhere.
Mind explaining exactly HOW you deposit your miles/points into someone else's account???

Some airlines/hotel chains permit this, BUT at a VERY hefty fee which tends to negate the value of doing it.

I always donate a few miles or subscribe to a magazine with one of the many airlines that allow this.
Cheers

I always donate a few miles or subscribe to a magazine with one of the many airlines that allow this.
Cheers
Yep, these ideas were mentioned in previous posts on this thread. :cool:

One thing that I've done recently is donate a small amount of miles from each account. CO has it so you can donate a small amount (I've done as few as 5 miles) to a large number of charities.

Do the charities use the miles to get airline tickets, or are they converted to cash?

I've got about 9000 Delta miles. Not enough for anything. Know how I can exchange these? Would really like to get them to AA or Continental.

On the DL Website it is possible to transfer Skymiles to a friend's acct., but as Kathy has said, the fee is outrageous: $115 for 9K miles :td: !
U can try Coupon Connection, where someone may be 9K short of a juicy award, such as F or J trans-oceanic.
Indeed, someone has recently posted in DL forum that he has 3 accts. with 10--12K each.

Too bad DL quit allowing transfers to Hilton in 2003 :( !

And I've also used points.com to transfer "orphaned" miles (tiny balances in programs I never use) into other programs that I do use.
Thanks for that suggestion! Apparently, based on the exchange rates, my orphaned Midwest Express miles are worth a whole lot more than my USAir miles (3:1 to DL rather than 30:1 from US to DL)!

someone has recently posted in DL forum that he has 3 accts. with 10--12K each.
Sounds like Race to the Gate to me!

Not sure how the "mileage deposit" could possibly help you with programs like Starwood and Amtrak which require actual stays (or an SPG Amex) or train trips to extend the life of your account. I'm sure there are others that have similar requirements.Not true in either case! You can transfer Diners Club points (at the very least) into Starwood:

https://www.citibank.com/dinersus/jsp/clubrewards/catalog/english/certificate_list.jsp?category=4ef15629&subcategory=e350b05d

as well as into Amtrak:

https://www.citibank.com/dinersus/jsp/clubrewards/catalog/english/certificate_list.jsp?category=4ef15629&subcategory=9837b40b

And you can exchange Hilton HHonors points into Amtrak:

http://hhonors.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/rail.jhtml

And I doubt those are the only ways, but that's enough to prove that there are multiple ways to refresh those accounts "from partners", depending on what else you have.

But therein's the problem: Refreshing many accounts does depend on what else you have. Which would make a service like this very complicated to set up and manage. The most able to do it would probably be points.com (since they're already set up to do transfers between a number of programs), but given their track record at providing value (not!), you can guess how much they'd charge for every automatic "ping" of an account!

Not true in either case! You can transfer Diners Club points (at the very least) into Starwood:

https://www.citibank.com/dinersus/jsp/clubrewards/catalog/english/certificate_list.jsp?category=4ef15629&subcategory=e350b05d

as well as into Amtrak:

https://www.citibank.com/dinersus/jsp/clubrewards/catalog/english/certificate_list.jsp?category=4ef15629&subcategory=9837b40b

And you can exchange Hilton HHonors points into Amtrak:

http://hhonors.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/rail.jhtml


Well, actually, it may not be true about Amtrak Guest Rewards. There's a current thread in that forum which suggests that unless you take an actual train ride and credit it to your AGR account, your points will expire after three years:

Q about point expiration after 3 years (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=375721)

And that's the other problem. The rules are always changing.

Another option.

I don't fly Delta any more but had some miles left and used them to buy free tickets for my kids who aren't going to make Elite on anything anyway. Was left with about 15,000, so I transferred in another 10K from Amex ... so I can have one more free flight to buy for one of the kids some time in the next couple of years ... then I'm done.

Here's an easy way to extend your AA miles. There's No minimum donation.
http://www.unicefusa.org/aa

doing but one idine will extend any program. You can set up and change any idine card to link to anyone's FF account. Wanna pay me to make my next $4 beer give you a few miles to make your account live another 1/3 decade?

:D:D:D:D

Anyway, I know some airlines like Singapore Airlines' krisFlyer programme will allow a one time 6 month extention if you fill out some form and fax it to them. At least they used to. But hey, that's the program that expires your miles in chunks every couple years regardless of activity so be wary anyway!

:)MM

I've got about 9000 Delta miles. Not enough for anything. Know how I can exchange these? Would really like to get them to AA or Continental.

get 1,000 more if you can find a way. I think inter island flights in Hawaii are like 10k now. I know people who'd love to trade you something for those! ;)