Originally Posted by Brendan
HHonors & Starwood also make points expire after 12-18 months of inactivity.
Regardless of T&Cs, I do believe that customers do deserve a 30-day notice of expiration. IF the OP had received such notice, s/he could have gotten 17,200 FF miles or Amtrak points for 43K TR.
But most of the time we (the Royal we, referring to people at this board) would be glad just to have hotels follow their T&C's, such as in upgraded rooms, amenities, breakfast, extended checkout time. So I have no complaint when they actually do follow them, even if it does hurt me.
That said, it would be nice to have a reminder email when the account is close to being closed. But from the hotel standpoint - this person hasn't stayed with us for 18 months, do we really want to expend manhours on someone not spending money with us. I am not a tech wiz, but I would think the computer system would be able to automatically spit out an email once the last stay was 17 months ago. Just shooting down my own theory, I really don't know why hotels chose to not treat past customers like potential current customers.
But, bottom line, the customer has to know the T&C's and keep track of their own account. Just like if stays do not post or if points are wrong. The customer is the person most interested in his or her own account and needs to act accordingly.