Originally Posted by
slawecki
out of iad for direct, dca or bwi for other starts.
i have about a million starwood points, which=1.2 or 1.25mm airline miles. close to a million LH, a hundred thousand or so with BA,AA,Delta,CO,US and i have probably lost 2 mil from neglect.
If you have no status with LH and you don't have their (available in Germany only) credit card, your LH will expire after 3 years (and no way to avoid that), as I understand it.
All the
other airlines and hotel programs you mentioned, you can extend miles expiration by any "activity". With most of the other airlines, you can buy a cup of coffee or a sandwich at a 'participating Dining program establishment once or twice a year and that extends the miles each time. One or two don't have a dining program, but just credit the odd hotel stay or rental to them once a year and that takes care of that.
So I would prioritize on using the LH miles first whenever at all possible, or else those will evaporate as well before you know it.
Only worry about other airlines once you've used up your LH miles (and enver collect them again, you can always credit to CO or UA or US when flying LH or most of its partners). For now, only worry about doing periodic "activity" on each of your other ailrines / hotel programs, and keep track of the expiration of each.
(None of the other ailrines you mention need status to keep miles from expiring. Only LH does. That's why collecting with a European or Asian airline program may not be a good idea if you don't have a plan to use the miles you earn quickly.)