travelbunny123

My points expire in a couple of days and can't make a skyteam flight. I'm not sure if this would work or not, but could I book a couple of award(classic) flights that would consume all my points for next year, take a delta flight which earns flying blue miles, than cancel the award flight. Would the original miles still be fine since I took a delta flight?

fifty_two

You need to complete a qualifying flight (no award flight ) before the end of validity of your miles

Otherwise if you dont wanna loose your miles , use them to book awards tickets , then its up to you where/when do you want to go

Goldorak

No, they won't be re-credited because expired.

orbitmic

PS: there are loads of threads about this which will give the op full details of all the scenarios he/she is envisaging and others he/she may not have thought about.

Flamenguista

My wife's brother will lose 100,000 miles from KLM in June, and would like to give them to us. First, their gifting fee is insane, so that is not an option. I searched to see if he can book 2 roundtrips for us, but have found mixed answers to this. So I would really appreciate any definitive help with 2 questions.

1. Is he allowed to book award tickets for other people, sister and brother-in-law to more specific?
2. His miles expire in June, and he does not plan on making any qualifying flights in the near future. Can he use the miles that will expire in June to book award flights in November? So essentially, his account will expire before we would use the tickets in November.

Thanks for the help.

DLDFW

1. Yes
2. Yes

CounterSurprise

Yup. I booked an award ticket once for my wife using my FB-miles. No problem.

newK2

My Flying Blue accounts says miles expire 30 September. I know my last activity was mid month of 20 months prior to September, so it looks like the actual policy is "end of the 20th month" rather than a rolling 20-month period from the exact date of activity.

So, my question would be, if the accruing flight on a SkyTeam partner occurs after the 20 month rolling date but before the end of the 20th month that would be okay? Also, if the flight occurs say on the 26th but does not post until a few days into October, would the miles still be there or would the reappear if the flight posts for a September date?

I could take a flight earlier in September, but it would be a throwaway in that I don't have any plans to travel. I do have a specific need on Sep 26th but don't want to risk a substantial balance on the finer questions noted above.

If anyone has knowledge or experience with this, please let me know what you know

KLouis

I'm in a similar situation (already booked my CPR flight! ), in my case they've "granted me" an additional day (30 instead of 29 Sep.). At any rate, when you login in your account and go to MY MILEAGE SUMMARY the dates of both your last transaction and expiration are indicated.

irishguy28

The rule to keep your balance alive is once every 20 months. ("For Ivory Members, Award Miles are valid for 20 months")

That they may wait til the end of the month to actually delete your balance doesn't mean that any "late" activity prior to deletion of the miles will save them - the miles may already have been "killed". It's probably just easier for them to do this deletion once a month, rather than every single day of the year.

("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.")

You are taking a very big risk. You could see your balance disappear on October 1, with only the miles from September 26 remaining.

How many miles are you talking about?

[If it's a small/sufficient balance, have you considered using the miles that will expire to book travel for this necessary trip you propose for the 26th? Note that spending miles is NOT a mileage-extending activity, so this would only make sense if you can spend almost the entirety of your balance - anything left in your account would expire at the end of the month without earning new Level Miles ASAP]

newK2

The balance is half a million, so I'm going to take no chances and I'm going to take a flight that will happen and post before the rolling 20 month date arrives. I was hoping for "good news" that it was an end-of-month situation but it's no big deal if I have to hop a Delta short haul once every twenty months. Believe it or not the balance is the remnant of a huge windfall back many many years when KLM had a "match your balance" offer and my UA balance at that time was monstrously large. That got rolled over into FB at a nice ratio when the KLM program ended.

irishguy28

With such a balance I would also take no risks.

Also, be certain before booking that the flight you will buy will actually earn Flying Blue level miles. (A Delta flight operated by Alaska Airlines, or vice versa, would not do, for example)

I would also advise you to start reducing your balance asap. Promo Awards for long-haul business are usually the best use of miles, but last-minute one-way tickets on routes where no cheap tickets are available can also make sense.

Good luck!

CyBeR

Not only that, but they will be treated as if they have the same FB membership level as the person booking.

seawolf

Just want to clarify whether transfers into FB from Citi Thank You points will extend mileage expiration. Thanks.

Mirk

No, only miles from a flight or purchase with the AF/KLM Amex will extend miles validity.