Thank you to all. They each did the 1000 mile donation. Very easy

This is one of those rare situations where the 'solution' seems almost impossibly simple. So much so that many go "wait, what? really? No WAY."

;)

Well I did purchase something via the portal but the miles didn't post for that either so my miles expired a few days ago and showed as 0. Today, the AS flight posted and my miles magically came back without me having to call up.

Cool, see how simple it is!, as for the portal pruchase, just like the AS miles postings, it takes time. My suggestion was more on a 2 sided way to protect/prevent miles from expiring. The main thing is to create the earning activity PRIOR to the expiration. Glad that there was no need to contact AA to re-instate the miles. Now, as I mentioned to you previously, set yourself a reminder for 16 months to credit soemthing to AA, thus preventing you from doing some last minute activity. Sometimes crediting a car rental works as well too. Enjoy.

I had a USDM account, now merged with AA. I have around 200K miles / points, expiring in Jan 2016. I understand from reading other posts in this thread that these miles can be extended for another 18 months if I make a donation of 1,000 miles - this is one simple solution if I don't have any planned trip to use the miles yet.

However, I have some questions:

1. Can I redeem miles by making flights booking before the expiry date in Jan 2016, but for flights after this date? Say, booking in December 2015 for flights in December 2016?

2. Do I have to use up all the miles in the booking before the expiry date in Jan 2016? Or, can I just use what I need, and the balance of miles will be extended for another 18 months?

Thank you in advance!

Any activity - e.g. enroll a credit card in Reward Network's AAdvantage Dining, dine or drink even once annually, and all your miles' expiry is extended by 18 months. As the wiki says, ANY account activity. :) .

Yes, you can encumber the miles for a future trip. They'll show as minus activity in your account. I'm not aware of what could happen if youmredeposited those miles. But it's so easy to extend - buy something through the AA shopping portal, dine, etc. it's probably not necessary if you don't have anything planned.

Thanks, JDiver, for your reply. However, I am in the UK so cannot enrol in US credit cards, nor in AAdvantage Dining etc. So, the 1,000 miles donation is a good solution. But, how do I do this? I cannot see it on the AA website. So, would appreciate some pointer!

How about making a charitable donation of $25 and earn 250 miles?

Click on Aadvantage, click earn miles, scroll down to specialty. That will take you to the page listing the charities where you earn miles for making a donation.

As JDiver said, any activity in your AAdvantage account will do it. AS you live in the UK, one possibility is that if you ever take a BA domestic flight, credit it to your AA account.

The page for donations is: https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/r...charities.jsp; it gives you several options.

Have used miles to buy a subscription, and that extended the expiration date.

I tried extending miles by having car rental agencies apply credits to my AA account. Have noticed a delay in geting these posted (compared to other airlines). How long does it typically take to see car rental miles posted ?

I think some partner postings are still batch processed. But the crucial date is not the posting date, but rather the date of the activity / transaction.

Do you know how long it takes for the miles to post after making a donation?

Sorry no. But I think it's the date that you make the transaction that counts not the day it posts. This is the method I use to extend my grandchildrens accounts.

You are correct; date of transaction, not date of posting, is what counts. Also stated in the wiki at the top of the page.