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Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire

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Old Sep 10, 2015, 9:45 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: Mwenenzi
Programs in Which Points/Miles Never Expire

Airlines
Hotels
  • Best Western (for members of the North American club, which includes members who reside in North/Central/South America, Asia, and South Africa)

Expiring Points/Miles & How to Reset the Clock

Airlines
Format is Airline (airline IATA code) program name: duration (methods to reset expiration)
"Hard expiry" means expiration clock cannot be reset through normal earning/redemption.
Hotels
Miscellaneous
Edit
15 Jan 2018. VX ffp absorbed by AS following takeover
10 Feb 2018 Added VS link. AB closed
23 Feb 2018 Added EgyptAir
18 Mar 2018 renamed / relinked Club Carlson to Radisson Rewards
19 Mar 2018 Added IB thread
27 Apr 2018 Added new Avianca policy thread
16 May 2018 Added EK reinstate link
14 Aug 2018 Added Hyatt link
23 Aug 2018 AC to buy back Aeroplan ffp
18 Nov 2018 Added AC link
11 Dec 2018 EK Plat no expiry
20 Apr 2019 Starwood taken over. Jetairways stopped flying
15 May 2019 Added CA, AY, RJ, SK
03 Nov 2019 Added Radisson link
16 Nov 2019 Added Intermiles Program (former JetPrivilege) link
16 Nov 2019 Updated Eithad
23 Nov 2019 Added Shangri-La Golden Circle to hotels, moved Southwest to non-expiring
10 Dec 2019 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. Hard expiry to 18 months if no activity
10 Dec 2019 In hotels, noted that La Quinta is now just part of Wyndham Rewards (not a separate program any more)
11 Jan 2020 In hotels, updated Hilton for 15 months (previously 12 months) + updated Accor to new ALL program with new 365 days (old program has 1 year)
26 Jan 2020 Fixing [s t r i k e ] to [ s ] issue caused by 20 Jan 2020 software downgrade to formatting
01 Jul 2020 EY platinum status miles do not expire
21 Jul 2020 AC Expiry due to non activity was 12 months. Now 18 months
12 Aug 2020 Added AF/KLM link
26 Sep 2020 Added VS points now do not expire
26 Sep 2020 Updated LATAM to point out horrible change to hard expiration (at least for USA and European based members)
04 Oct 2020 Formatting improvements
31 Oct 2020 Updated link to QF T&Cs
28 Nov 2020 Added link for BA
09 Feb 2021 Added link for CX
18 Apr 2021 Added that HA miles no longer expire
07 Aug 2021 Updated link to AC T&C
21 Dec 2021 QR from hard expiry to 36 months if no activity. ITA Airways added
5 May 2022 Hilton clock expanded to 24 mos.
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Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire

   
Old Oct 1, 2016, 1:20 am
  #76  
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Berkeley, CA
Programs: United, Copa, Hyatt, Hilton, SPG, Marriott, Hertz, Avis
Posts: 10
I've been combing the magical interwebs and can't seem to find a clear answer on this. Has anyone figured out what happens if you book a flight (or hotel/car) with miles and more miles and then cancel, through the travel center, after they would have otherwise expired? Do they redeposit in your account? Do they go to the great expired miles place in the sky? If they do return, is the calendar reset?
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Old Oct 1, 2016, 3:20 am
  #77  
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Originally Posted by ManSeekingMiles
I've been combing the magical interwebs and can't seem to find a clear answer on this. Has anyone figured out what happens if you book a flight (or hotel/car) with miles and more miles and then cancel, through the travel center, after they would have otherwise expired? Do they redeposit in your account? Do they go to the great expired miles place in the sky? If they do return, is the calendar reset?
Better to look or ask on the M & M forum http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...iles-more-495/ LH M&M miles have a 3 year hard expiry according to the wiki

I do not know the answer for M & M, but typically a booking/reservation followed by cancellation does not reset expiration. It if did it would be too easy to keep miles from expiry.
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Old Oct 1, 2016, 11:55 am
  #78  
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Chicago
Programs: Delta SkyMiles, IHG (Platinum Elite), Amtrak Guest Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors
Posts: 636
Originally Posted by ManSeekingMiles
I've been combing the magical interwebs and can't seem to find a clear answer on this. Has anyone figured out what happens if you book a flight (or hotel/car) with miles and more miles and then cancel, through the travel center, after they would have otherwise expired? Do they redeposit in your account? Do they go to the great expired miles place in the sky? If they do return, is the calendar reset?
in my experience, there is usually a fee to "redeposit" the miles back into your account if you cancel - at least, such is the case with Delta. I"m guessing it's similar with other programs too, otherwise this would be a really easy hack to keep your miles from expiring. of course, the fee depends on the ff program, so if you have enough miles, it might be a fee you're willing to pay to keep those miles alive (for delta it's about $150).
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Old Oct 1, 2016, 2:05 pm
  #79  
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Berkeley, CA
Programs: United, Copa, Hyatt, Hilton, SPG, Marriott, Hertz, Avis
Posts: 10
I figured this was too good to be true. Since they were expiring (and my SPG transfer didn't happen in time to use them for a flight), I went ahead and booked for a hotel that I was planning a stay for anyway. It wasn't a good use of miles of course, but it does save me some money on the hotel stay. Interestingly, I was able to purchase the difference in miles needed for the room for a bizarrely cheap price (17,000 for $60). I'm going to call in a couple of weeks and see what my options are for canceling/redeposit. If so, it would be a win. If not, it was the best value I could have hoped for for a non-flight redemption (1 cent/mile). I'll report back on what I find out.
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Old Nov 10, 2016, 10:57 pm
  #80  
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Berkeley, CA
Programs: United, Copa, Hyatt, Hilton, SPG, Marriott, Hertz, Avis
Posts: 10
OK. Just to follow up my own post. The news is mixed, but a little positive. I called customer service and they weren't too helpful but they suggested that if I cancelled that the miles I had put in initially would be returned to me but the miles I "purchase" as part of the cash portion of the purchase would not get deposited into my account - I would just get a cash refund. I went online and cancelled and this is exactly what happened. The $60 was returned to my credit card and the miles were returned to my account.

The silver lining, the miles didn't expire. The new expiration date is the end of the current quarter rather than the end of the last quarter. So looks like there is a way to grant a slight extension to your expiring miles. Who knows if this would work repeatedly. I'm guessing not at some point. Now I've got to try and use up the initial miles.
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Old Jan 2, 2017, 11:11 am
  #81  
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Added Malaysia, Garuda Indosian, EVA Air, and Thai, thus completing all the Citi TYP transfer partners.
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Old Jan 2, 2017, 3:30 pm
  #82  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 8,135
Wiki updated to
  • combine links to relevant FT threads with entries for individual programs (were previously in separate sections)
  • improve readability (bold text for carrier/hotel & program names; add bullet points; eliminate distracting formatting & excess verbiage)
  • update links (e.g., to HHonors T&C)
  • add links internal to the wiki (e.g., from KLM to AF)
I probably missed a few things here & there, but this should be a substantial improvement.
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Old Jan 3, 2017, 9:32 am
  #83  
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Arrow Choice went from hard to soft but expiry period got cut in about half
I just realized Choice Privileges (hotel program) was out of date, so I updated it. The reason I kept a summary of how it used to be is because the expiration went from a longer hard one to a shorter soft one.
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Old May 20, 2017, 8:06 pm
  #84  
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I updated the wiki to add a warning about Air Canada Aeroplan, that despite activity every 12 month resetting expiration, the plan for Air Canada to split from Aeroplan may have long-term implications that relate to expiration, even if they are not technically expiration.
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Old Sep 1, 2017, 6:58 pm
  #85  
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In the wiki, I added Jet Airways JetPrivilege, and updated Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles, since Citi TYP has added those two as transfer partners.
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Old Nov 13, 2017, 8:34 am
  #86  
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I just added Avianca (AV) LifeMiles to the wiki, since it just joined Citi TYP as a redemption partner.
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Old Jan 18, 2018, 7:21 pm
  #87  
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I updated the wiki for the changes coming to Avianca on April 15: Redeeming will no longer defer (reset) expiration, only earning will. Furthermore, expiration is shortening to 12 months (from 24) except for those with Avianca status or the Avianca credit card.
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Old Feb 28, 2018, 3:15 am
  #88  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Tyrone,EU
Programs: Avios Hunter
Posts: 2,811
Updated the IHG info to re-insert that Gold/Platinum/Spire members points never expire. That seems to have been lost in one of the previous updates.

Not sure I like the change of format, where a substantial number of entries have links to other FT threads/wiki that discuss the individual loyalty systems' expiration. The point of the wiki was to be a one stop definitive source of expiry info.....state the expiry...state how to extend it (if possible)...and point to the T&C of the relevant programme so as those interested can see the formal details. Pointing to other threads that may or may not have good/conflicting/anecdotal information, dilutes the authority of this wiki.

I guess that's the shortcoming of these wikis, a format that has been crowd-sourced and accepted over a few years, can be unilaterally changed.
Last edited by tangey; Feb 28, 2018 at 6:42 am
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Old Mar 1, 2018, 10:05 am
  #89  
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Another thing missing from the Wiki is waivers. For example, a co-branded credit card of lifetime status may waive expiration for some programs.
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Old Mar 1, 2018, 12:03 pm
  #90  
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 4,467
Originally Posted by mahasamatman
Another thing missing from the Wiki is waivers. For example, a co-branded credit card of lifetime status may waive expiration for some programs.
Perhaps you could add what's missing. The current format works fine for me.
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