FlyerTalk Forums - AA restricts expired miles reactivation within 18 months of expiration (2019)

American Airlines AAdvantage Award Miles are valid for as long as the AAdvantage member’s account has had any kind of activity (earning or spending, gifting, donating etc.) within 18 (eighteen) months.

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Q. How can I keep my miles from expiring?

Just earn or redeem miles on American or with an AAdvantage partner at least once every 18 months. We’ll automatically extend your mileage expiration date 18 months from the date of your most recent activity.

Your wallet shows the number of miles you have and the earliest date they could expire.

American used to offer reinstatement fees or “challenges” as paths to reactivate expired miles for several years after expiry. This policy has apparently changed to allow reinstatement of expired miles only up to 18 months after the date of expiration.

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Get your expired miles back link to this policy

You can reactivate your expired miles for a fee in 1 of 2 ways*:

Online
Call AAdvantage® customer service

Reactivate miles in your account (link)
AAdvantage® customer service (link)

For mileage reactivations, you can:

Reactivate miles within 18 months of their expiration
Only make 1 transaction to reactivate your miles. Any expired miles from this same expiration time frame that aren’t reactivated will be forfeited
Reactivate a maximum of 500,000 miles

*Rates are charged based on the total number of miles reactivated from 1 account at 1 time, regardless of when the miles expired

NOTE: no mention of reengagement challenges, just fees.