Originally Posted by
ikko1
Just my 2 cents to the info on Skyteam Aeroflot from 2010:
Aeroflot
+ Miles never expire if you buy a qualifying SkyTeam airline ticket once every 2 years.
It is only partially true now, if I'm not mistaken. Apparently they introduced the requirement that in order to be able to redeem your miles, you need to have at least one Aeroflot flight you actually paid for (!!, not an award flight and not any other Skyteam partner flight) over last 2 calendar years. If you don't have SU flight, but have other flights, your SU miles will not expire... but they will be locked until you make at least one SU flight. Unless you go to Russia frequently, this just cuts almost all residents of other countries interested only in a frequent flyer program.
- Non-flying account activity does NOT extend the deadline.
- Buying an upgrade or award ticket does NOT extend the deadline.
What a sneaky change of the rules! I've moved Aeroflot to the bad programs section.
So for SkyTeam it now works out like this:
- If you're concerned about miles expiring, go Delta.
- If you want reasonable award flight availability, use Air France/KLM.
- If you want to combine some SkyTeam and OneWorld partners in one program, send your miles to Alaska.
Speaking of SkyTeam, Delta cut its ties with e-Miles and e-Rewards. On the bright side, Delta SkyMiles never expire as long as you can convince them that you're not dead.