Quite often the question is asked how to prevent miles/points in various airline/hotel, etc.. programs from expiring.

At times the search tool proves useful - other times it can be somewhat cumbersome and time consuming to find the info.

I would like to propose a Sticky showing easy ways to keep an account "alive" and extend expiration dates so that miles/points are not lost.

FT Moderator Mia, suggested that I first start a thread, which, with others contributing, could eventually turn into a useful Sticky.

I dont know if this should consist of a collection of ideas (I give an example below) or some uniform format:

Transfer From: xxxxxxxxxxxx

Transfer To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Points needed: xxxxxxxx




I came across something, quite by accident, as an example of something that could be useful to others:

Best Buy Reward Zone offers a daily "opinion poll" question - you can earn 10 or 25 points. It takes a few seconds, and the points seem to post into the Best Buy account immediately.

Best Buy Reward Zone is one of the programs that can be registered on POINTS.COM - and as I found out via a small test, you can transfer a minimum of only 5 points out of the Best Buy program to American and also to United - the transfer to American took under 24 hours in fact.United took 2 days to show on the account.

For both AA and UA, the expiration dates were extended to July 2014 (18 months from now)

So by answering just one simple poll question for 25 points, one has the means to extend, potentially 5 different programs (5 points needed for each).

There are 8 other airlines, Amtrak and Prioroty Club where Best Buy can transfer to - I have not tested these if the same 5 point minimum works.



I also know that using POINTS.COM, IF you have over 25,000 AA miles, you can transfer 3 miles OUT to Priority Club, and this will extend AA for 18 months.

Some programs offer magazines for a few hundred miles.
UNITED
https://magazinerewards.mileageplus....0/magPage.html

AMERICAN
https://subscription.points.com/maga...s1&lp=American


Some programs offer shopping malls - I know buying an itune song is a popular method (although can take a long time to post)

shoptoearn.hhonors.com

Recently earned some HH points for drugstore.com purchase - so this portal appears to be reliable

Via shopping portals www.abebooks.com, I ordered a Sudoku book for $3 including delivery - I will report back if/when the 9 (i think) AA miles post to my account.

www.digitalmediastore.mileageplus.com
You can download a song for 115 miles - and extend your UA miles for 18 months.



Some programs offer Rewards Network dining. A very good sticky here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/idine...y-program.html




I have no doubt there are many other "convenient" ways of keeping accounts alive - just thought having them all in one easy to find area on the forum would be useful for members - as many many folks (myself included) are not as savvy as some veteran Fters.

Please add your contributions, suggestions and assistance for the FT community.