I did the Marriott entry, I was careful to only list the ways that Marriott specifically mention, which is STAY, REDEEM, CREDIT CARD.

I made a request that this thread be made a sticky. Given that virtually all the info is in the wiki, and that after an initial surge of posting/updating to populate the wiki with data, this thread would probably not see regular updates, I felt that it would be a shame if this info got lost once it started to drop down the forum. It is info that will be useful to many FTers, that doesn't exist in a collated form elsewhere on FT.

So, great to see the Mod has agreed, and we are now a sticky.

Added Hawaiian, Iberia, and Virgin America.

With that, all of the (USA) Amex Membership Rewards transfer partners are now on the list.

Please note: BA and Iberia both use Avios, but separate Avios systems, and Iberia has a different expiration activity policy than BA, in that BA counts transfers but Iberia explicitly excludes them.

Looking under IHG's Account Status & Activity, I don't seem to find where my expiry date is?

(Club level)

Many programs unfortunately do not show when you expiry date is. That's why this thread exists. The Wiki explains that your expiry is 1 year from your last IHG Club Rewards activity. Unfortunately, the IHG website only shows the last 180 days of activity, not the last year. It does show a calendar year-to-date of points earned, but that's not the "last year" either (except once a year).

So you either have to keep track of it manually, or have activity every 180 days or more often, so that you can see it by pulling up your last 180 days of activity.

(Those in the US have both the Chase IHG Club with its "net negative" annual fee, and IHG Club Dining, to make it easy to avoid inactivity. But based on other posts of yours, it seems you may be based in Canada, and if so those options may not available to you. I suggest you add your location to your FT Profile so that people can take where you're based into account when the answer to a question is different depending on where you're based.)

Good answer. Most programs really don't show when your miles expire - they just tell you how long it takes them to expire (1 year, 2 years, etc.) when you sign up for the program. I'm guessing they're counting on at least some people losing points because they don't keep track of them/assume they won't expire. So, basically you just have to keep track of when your last IHG hotel stay was, unless of course you have the credit card (or get IHG points via credit card, e-rewards, etc...)

Thanks. Based in Canada.
Last transaction was back in 2013 when I was still Plat and have stopped using them since moving onto SPG. So I assume I was dropped down to Club level sometime last year. And then 2015 would be when my 1 year of inactivity.

Any easy way to post some activity to it in Canada?

I could be wrong, so someone may want to verify this for me, but possibly purchasing a small amount of points or "buying" points using e-rewards or e-miles currency (I think those programs also exist in Canada?) might do it.

If you search either the milebuzz or the IHG forum, you should find a thread about taking an IHG survey. Success gets you a small amount of points, which would be enough to keep it alive. Thats' assuming the surveys are still active/valid.

For the short term:

If you're worried that your points could expire any day now, then you might want the fastest-acting activity possible. That would be either buying points (in the US you can buy 1000 points plus possibly a bonus right now for USD$13.50) or donating points (in the US you can donate as little as 2500 points to IHG Shelter In A Storm). Log into your account and see what the options for buying or (under Redeem) donating are for you in Canada, and see if one of those would work for you. Those should create activity nearly instantly.

The problem with surveys and such is that, AFAIK, they're far from instant, they may take several weeks or longer to post to your IHG account.

For the long term (so you never have this short term worry again):


Take a look at this thread (in the IHG forum):
If I understand correctly, this card (or at least one version of it, in case there are multiple versions) has no annual fee and gives you Gold status. While not quite as good as Plat status, it's better than Club status, in that being Gold keeps your points from expiring. Of course, you have to keep a card with no annual fee itself "alive" (to keep the bank from cancelling it for "inactivity") by using it at least once or twice a year, and that'll earn you IHG activity too (just in case Gold status weren't enough).

It's a long time since I did those IHG surveys, or as I recall now they might have been a list of multiple choice questions, but the points posted immediately upon completion.

I found the relevant thread:-
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/inter...ub-survey.html
.....however all the links to the various surveys are now dead, so no help for this matter.

Sorry, yes, surveys from IHG itself (since it's IHG itself), that may be fast when/if it exists, but I was referring mostly to the third-party surveys from the e-whatever companies mentioned in other posts above. They still exist, but i doubt they're as fast to post.

Thanks all. I done all the IHG surveys available prior to 2013. Unless there has been any new ones (which I don't think), or the ability to do it a second time, it won't work.

I actually have more than $400 in eRewards that I was planning to transfer to AS/AA in the future. I logged in just now....and checked. Unfortunately IHG isn't one of the option. Aside from airlines, etc, the only hotel I can choose is Choice Privileges.

Maybe I'll shoot IHG an email before proceeding with the buy/donate option.

IHG just announced in April of 2015 that they were going to implement the policy of points expiring after 1 year of inactivity, effective that date. So, no points will expire until May of 2016. So, you have some time to generate some activity to keep your points from expiring.

Many programs unfortunately do not show when you expiry date is. That's why this thread exists. The Wiki explains that your expiry is 1 year from your last IHG Club Rewards activity. Unfortunately, the IHG website only shows the last 180 days of activity, not the last year. It does show a calendar year-to-date of points earned, but that's not the "last year" either except once a year.

Awesome, thanks! Yeah...I thought I recall they don't expired...guess this is a fairly recent policy.

Maybe I'll just sign up for the no AF credit card in April / May :)

I just checked my e-rewards account and IHG is a redemption option...maybe it's not one for you because you're canada based? Do you have an e-miles account? The workaround I often use is to buy e-miles via e-rewards and then use that for amazon gift cards and other things I can't get via e-rewards. You could do that with IHG...

E-rewards members who were "invited" by a certain airline/ hotel are usually blocked from redeeming for competitors' points/ miles! So some are limited to that one airline but they may redeem for any hotel points, while others are vice-versa. So it sounds like Jordan was invited by Choice Privileges.

Added Philippine Airlines (PR) Mabuhay Miles.

See also http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...l#post25738460

Added Korean Skypass, which is an interesting one: While it's got a hard expiry, it's a very long one (10 years).

IHG - eReward transfer counts?
 

Are you guys sure eReward transfer counts as eligible activity?

I gather earning from the dining program would count, so if eReward transfer is considered partner earning than it should count too. But the T&Cs of the program is as clear as mud.

I also want to add that Marriott program apparently does NOT count redemption that has not been consumed yet (unlike SPG which now counts any point movement IIRC not just stay and dine at the SPG property as clarified by the Lurker). Between 11/10 and 12/06/15 I made 4 reward night bookings at Protea in South Africa for a trip in Sept 2016. My Marriott account still has the last activity in July 2015 - the last post of credit card earning, instead of the latest redemption.

Finally, it seems IB only disqualify transfer among Avios programs being non-eligible but transfer from AMEX Membership Reward and from eReward have reported by some blogs as eligible but I cannot verify this.

Added Asiana Club. Similar rules to Korean Air.

The status used is membership status at 'date of boarding/accumulation'.

-AR (Aerolineas Argentinas) 3 years (resettable by paid AR flight or by redeeming flight with miles, but not by any other activity)
-CM (Copa Airlines) 2 Years (any activity)

Feel free to add these to the wiki, since I'm still unable to do that. Thanks!

Choice Hotels seems to be changing from a "hard" expiration policy to a "soft" expiration policy of 18 months. The news is still a bit murky, but here's the thread in the Choice Hotels forum discussing the change:

Added Brussels (SN). Same program as Lufthansa.

Done, and thanks for the info!! :)

for the more adventurous flyer I added Ukrainian International airlines (flyuia.com) to "no expiry" section

Someone add Air Berlin 2.5 years please

Do you have a link to the AB Topbonus web site where this is?
I have tried to find before.

Added JL Mileage bank. 36 months.

I've just realized that I don't think Accor is up there. Does anyone know what their expiration is?

well spotted.

updated accordingly

Thank you! And oh dear, I had better use those points soon...

Someone put Philllipine (PR) Mabuhay Miles into the Non-Expiring section, but then explained that it requires activity to avoid expiration, so that's not Non-Expiring. I thus moved it to the Airlines section.

Non-Expiring means never expires, even without activity.

Can someone clarify the Lufthansa expiration? Does the regular monthly charges of a new Barclay LH card keep older miles (received from previous LH card) alive? Or are those on the 3 year hard death no matter what?

I've been combing the magical interwebs and can't seem to find a clear answer on this. Has anyone figured out what happens if you book a flight (or hotel/car) with miles and more miles and then cancel, through the travel center, after they would have otherwise expired? Do they redeposit in your account? Do they go to the great expired miles place in the sky? If they do return, is the calendar reset?

Better to look or ask on the M & M forum http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...iles-more-495/ LH M&M miles have a 3 year hard expiry according to the wiki

I do not know the answer for M & M, but typically a booking/reservation followed by cancellation does not reset expiration. It if did it would be too easy to keep miles from expiry.

in my experience, there is usually a fee to "redeposit" the miles back into your account if you cancel - at least, such is the case with Delta. I"m guessing it's similar with other programs too, otherwise this would be a really easy hack to keep your miles from expiring. of course, the fee depends on the ff program, so if you have enough miles, it might be a fee you're willing to pay to keep those miles alive (for delta it's about $150).

I figured this was too good to be true. Since they were expiring (and my SPG transfer didn't happen in time to use them for a flight), I went ahead and booked for a hotel that I was planning a stay for anyway. It wasn't a good use of miles of course, but it does save me some money on the hotel stay. Interestingly, I was able to purchase the difference in miles needed for the room for a bizarrely cheap price (17,000 for $60). I'm going to call in a couple of weeks and see what my options are for canceling/redeposit. If so, it would be a win. If not, it was the best value I could have hoped for for a non-flight redemption (1 cent/mile). I'll report back on what I find out.

OK. Just to follow up my own post. The news is mixed, but a little positive. I called customer service and they weren't too helpful but they suggested that if I cancelled that the miles I had put in initially would be returned to me but the miles I "purchase" as part of the cash portion of the purchase would not get deposited into my account - I would just get a cash refund. I went online and cancelled and this is exactly what happened. The $60 was returned to my credit card and the miles were returned to my account.

The silver lining, the miles didn't expire. The new expiration date is the end of the current quarter rather than the end of the last quarter. So looks like there is a way to grant a slight extension to your expiring miles. Who knows if this would work repeatedly. I'm guessing not at some point. Now I've got to try and use up the initial miles.