Originally Posted by
Brobbel
Not completely true. When -for example- your last flight was about 20 months ago, all miles earned up to then will expire. If you collected miles a few months ago for a car hire, hotel stay or whatever other source, these miles stay valid for 20 months from that date.
This contradicts everything that Flying Blue says about mileage expiry, and to the best of my knowledge, no-one has ever reported this here on Flyer Talk.
Flying Blue does not differentiate between Award Miles - they are all the same, regardless of whether they were earned from flying, earned through a hotel stay or by hiring a car, or purchased.
They all have the same expiry date - calculated on the basis of when the last LEVEL mile was earned - and they do not each have individual expiry dates based on when the Award Mile itself was earned. Award Miles earned this month, for example, would be due for expiry next month - along with the total amount of Award Miles in your account, regardless of when they were earned - if your last qualifying flight was in December 2010.
At present, the lifetime of Award Miles can only be extended by earning at least one new Level Mile (and FB certainly differentiates between Award Miles and Level Miles).
Award Miles themselves do not extend the lifetime of your Award Miles - only LEVEL miles can do this - and the lifetime of the entire balance is counted from the last "extending" activity. You are therefore NOT guaranteed to have each individual Award Mile valid for a minimum of 20 months. Depending on when you last took a qualifying flight, the Award Miles that have just been posted to your account could expire almost immediately.
If no Level Miles have been earned within a 20 month period - and unless there is any other reason not to do so (holding FB status, or an Amex FB card) -
all Award Miles will be cancelled, regardless of when and how they were earned.
It is, I guess, technically possible that a hotel stay or car hire that took a while to post hits your account after the expiry and deletion of your Miles balance - but if a new qualifying flight still hasn't been taken, I would also fear for the validity of those miles. But it is certainly possible that Award Miles earned today could expire tomorrow.
From the T&Cs:
1.2.9 For Ivory Members, Award Miles are valid for 20 months. Only accrual on flights of Air France, KLM, SkyTeam Partners and Participating Carriers, or any other activity designed as extending in the FB Communication, is considered as an extending activity. The Company reserves the right to cancel the Award Miles after a period of 20 months with no extending activity registered on the Member’s account. It is up to the Member to check the expiry date of his Miles.
This means that when Award Miles expire,
your entire balance is deleted.