How to prevent Aeroplan miles from expiring if not live in Canada?
 

Hello

Sorry for the new thread but the related subject in the Sticky is from VERY OLD threads like in 2008...

With the current bonus transfer from Hotel Points, I am thinking about redeeming a Marriott Travel Package and send the points over to Aeroplan (just enrolled today as it did not recognize the old account from years back.)

The biggest issue to me is, How to keep the miles alive given Aeroplan only has 12 months versus other programs are 18 to 24 months, when I do not live in Canada?

The only thing I could think of is the transfer from either AMEX or SPG, at 1K a pop - that should qualify as activity, right?

Thank you for your advice.

Yes, you can transfer from either AMEX or SPG to Aeroplan to keep it alive.


You can also download the Carrot app which awards you with Aeroplan points for quick surveys. It's free to join all you'll need is a Ontario postal code when you register. Points are credited usually within 5 business days.

https://www.carrotrewards.ca/en/

If you post in an old thread it goes to the top of page 1 and will likely get a response. I don't think I've ever seen a thread here get zero responses (whether or not they are helpful depends if your post consists of "NVM then" or something more salient and usable).

Yes, transfers count. So do Esso miles if you can find someone willing to top up in Canada for you. Or Avis car rental, or you can spend miles. Any activity that changes the # points is valid.

Many programs are 12 months no? OW is 36 of course ;)

If you only need a one-time keep alive, PM me your aeroplan number and I will buy $3 in fuel at Esso and manually key your number into the terminal. You will earn one aeroplan and extend the expiration by a year.

EDIT: Apparently, this post has become a popular Google result. I am still helping out fellow FTers, but if you are going to register a new account just to PM me to grab a couple points, please don't bother. You've got to have at least a couple posts and a month or two of activity.

EDIT2: Because Esso is no longer an Aeroplan partner, I can no longer perform good-will micro transactions for FTers.

IIRC you only need to earn some miles (whether from flying, hotel points transfer, credit card points transfer, hotel stay, Esso purchase etc.) every 36 months if you live outside Canada.

Very helpful. Thank you very much for this info. I was hoping e-Rewards can do but found out Aeroplan is not a partner.

Revive a very old thread, i.e. 5 or 6 years old, is dumb because all the previous pages are worthless due to being outdated long ago. It is better to have a fresh thread for updated info.

I could ask relatives to top up for me - but that means the person would need to have my card / or number AND to remember to enter the info when topping up. A bit too much to ask relatives to do such. As I would need to follow up whether this is done or not.

Yes, spend miles count but 2017 is fully committed as of now. The earliest time to redeem anything would be next Spring but the bonus transfer expires sometimes this April. Before I commit the transfer of 100s thousand over, I would like to make sure I could easily extend the miles given the most restrictive 12 months policy.

If any activity counts, I can just donate 1K to Doctors without Border if we still haven't used the miles by next Mar/Apr.

No, many programs have 18 months to 24 months expiration.
Just off the top of my head, both AA and UA are 18 months. AS is 24 months, ditto BA. DL miles do not expire. (They were the first legacy airline to introduce an expiration date years ago, and then they reverted back 2 years ago to no expiration.)
We use AA/UA/AS/BA fairly often. I am glad DL has a much more sensible policy.

I dont know what program is OW - if you mean OneWorld - there is no loyalty program for OneWorld.

Thank you for your kind gesture.

I am planning ahead before execute a big transfer from either Marriott or AMEX, due to we already committed 2017 travels so the earliest to use Aeroplan would be Spring of 2018 - just about 1 year from now!

Oh, 36 months for outside Canada? I actually googled this (the thread title was my google query) before started this thread but I did not find anything.

Could you kindly point me to the T&Cs online? I went over the T&Cs and it only said 12 months for inactivity.

I believe it's outside North America, not outside Canada.

If you're SPG platinum, you can transfer just 1 point. It's one of the most valuable features of the SPG program.

You can also shop on eBay.ca and buy something for a dollar or more with free shipping. However, miles take a long time to show up (nearly 3 months when I did it a year ago).

BA OneWorld (Avois) is 36 months.

Used to be longer I think. I've got about 100k despite only flying one world (s7) for one RT in the last 5 years. Some of that was a more recent transfer but I've gone way over 24 months in the past.

I think this trick still works.


Aeroplan eStore Kobo e-book purchase. Cost: $1 . Actually 0.99 also works.
Note: reported that it could take 6-8 weeks to post.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/21408425-post12.html

Link to Aeroplan website:
https://www.aeroplan.com/estore/book.../prodkobo.html

Thank you for all the ideas / suggestions - this should help anyone who may have the same question as now we have fresh data on this sticky issue. lol.

I think so because in the overview of my account, it gives Mar 15 2018 being the expiration date despite the account currently has 0 balance. So members in US definitely are subj to the same 12 months expiration policy.

Haven't kept track on BA as we normally have 1 to 3 redemptions every 12 months for the LDN-EU and intra-EU flights. Though I realize that in order to keep the favorable tax treatment, I need to "earn" some Avios once past July this year as our last earnings were in July 2016. Luckily BA is both AMEX and eReward partner, so 250 AMEX pts would suffice assuming transferred in from partners counted as earning.

There is also a survey link somewhere burried in the BA FAQ thread. I would worry about it come end of 2017 or beginning of 2018 when we may have better idea whether we need BA intra-EU flights from LON. I believe the better tax treatment only is on BA flights to/from LON.

You could signup and do surveys through askingcanadians.com which earn Aeroplan points as well.

Even with a US ISP address? I thought most online survey sites are pretty strict on the country of origin when it comes to "currency" earning surveys. For example e-Reward would automatically tell you the survey expired when you log in from ISP address outside US on a US account.

I regularly do US based surveys in Canada without issues. I would expect the same askingcanadians.. it doesn't hurt to try. Points do take some time to get posted though, so best not to wait for the last minute. They release a few each week and the more you do, the more they send. They vary from 25-100 Aeroplan points or 5 if you don't qualify. They always get posted to my account.

If geo located, you could always use a VPN, but that's a lot of effort for a few points.

Just options though.