a minimal point purchase may work. i know it does for hilton.

you should call to ask.

Agree, however it shouldn't be counted on 100%.

Yes that does work with Hilton. Would be worth asking if buying 1,000 Marriott points for $12.50 counts as activity that will keep the points alive.

Otherwise go to the Marriott shopping portal & see if there's an Office Depot or something, buy a pen or something for $1.00 or cheap plus shipping. My understanding is it takes a while for points to post through the shopping portal so do it sooner rather than later.

Cheers.

For some airline miles last year I was able to buy a Barnes and Noble gift card, on their website, so got back dollar for dollar what I spent. It was enough to save the miles. Not sure how Marriott works though.

I just called and spoke to a rep and he said the points never expire. I'm going to do nothing and then will probably have to fight them when it wipes out the account. We'll see who is right - awardwallet or Marriott.

Buy 1800-flowers. Get a few points...and brownie points.

Marriott shopping portal probably has restaurant.com as a choice.

Who was the Flyertalk that had the interview with Ed French ? Ed mentioned this in the interview and said that while it's in the policy, that they don't expire accounts.

If you have points and activity in your account you can always transfer your wife's points to your account.

Guess I'm gonna look @ FTG and follow the steps he outlined a few days ago.

Thanks everyone! I think merging is better anyway :)

Points Expiration
 

I did search in the forum, but couldn't find anything. Found conflicting reports on Google that's why I am here the most authoritavie site regarding miles and points.

Do Marriott's points expire?

I can't find anything on the Marriott site, but AwardWallet says my points expire two years after the latest activity. Sounds about right.

Here it is:

A Membership Account may be closed at the Company's discretion if no Points or Miles are accrued during a 24-month period. All Points in the Membership Account will be forfeited at that time.

From one of many of the Marriott rules pages. So not only do you loose your points, but your account "may be closed." That's rather harsh. What about your lifetime stays?

This is actually quite harsh, since redeeming an award night is not going to be good enough. You have to accrue miles and if you don't have a credit card that means you pretty much have to stay there. I might have to just go and have a drink at Marriott. Hopefully that will get me 10-15 miles.

Marriott points usually don't expire. I haven't heard of anyone having their points taken way or account closed due to lack of activity.

While Marriott reserves the right to close accounts under the above quoted provision, in practice they do not or if they do then points will be restored. See past threads found by searching for "points expire":

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...xpiration.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...ts-expire.html