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Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire

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Old Sep 10, 2015, 9:45 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: Mwenenzi
Programs in Which Points/Miles Never Expire

Airlines
Hotels
  • Best Western (for members of the North American club, which includes members who reside in North/Central/South America, Asia, and South Africa)

Expiring Points/Miles & How to Reset the Clock

Airlines
Format is Airline (airline IATA code) program name: duration (methods to reset expiration)
"Hard expiry" means expiration clock cannot be reset through normal earning/redemption.
Hotels
Miscellaneous
Edit
15 Jan 2018. VX ffp absorbed by AS following takeover
10 Feb 2018 Added VS link. AB closed
23 Feb 2018 Added EgyptAir
18 Mar 2018 renamed / relinked Club Carlson to Radisson Rewards
19 Mar 2018 Added IB thread
27 Apr 2018 Added new Avianca policy thread
16 May 2018 Added EK reinstate link
14 Aug 2018 Added Hyatt link
23 Aug 2018 AC to buy back Aeroplan ffp
18 Nov 2018 Added AC link
11 Dec 2018 EK Plat no expiry
20 Apr 2019 Starwood taken over. Jetairways stopped flying
15 May 2019 Added CA, AY, RJ, SK
03 Nov 2019 Added Radisson link
16 Nov 2019 Added Intermiles Program (former JetPrivilege) link
16 Nov 2019 Updated Eithad
23 Nov 2019 Added Shangri-La Golden Circle to hotels, moved Southwest to non-expiring
10 Dec 2019 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. Hard expiry to 18 months if no activity
10 Dec 2019 In hotels, noted that La Quinta is now just part of Wyndham Rewards (not a separate program any more)
11 Jan 2020 In hotels, updated Hilton for 15 months (previously 12 months) + updated Accor to new ALL program with new 365 days (old program has 1 year)
26 Jan 2020 Fixing [s t r i k e ] to [ s ] issue caused by 20 Jan 2020 software downgrade to formatting
01 Jul 2020 EY platinum status miles do not expire
21 Jul 2020 AC Expiry due to non activity was 12 months. Now 18 months
12 Aug 2020 Added AF/KLM link
26 Sep 2020 Added VS points now do not expire
26 Sep 2020 Updated LATAM to point out horrible change to hard expiration (at least for USA and European based members)
04 Oct 2020 Formatting improvements
31 Oct 2020 Updated link to QF T&Cs
28 Nov 2020 Added link for BA
09 Feb 2021 Added link for CX
18 Apr 2021 Added that HA miles no longer expire
07 Aug 2021 Updated link to AC T&C
21 Dec 2021 QR from hard expiry to 36 months if no activity. ITA Airways added
5 May 2022 Hilton clock expanded to 24 mos.
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Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire

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Old Sep 11, 2015, 5:19 am
  #16  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
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Added Etihad and IHG to the Wiki
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Old Sep 11, 2015, 12:58 pm
  #17  
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Also if we want to add some other rewards programs to the list, My Coke Rewards has points expire in 3 months...not sure about Bing Rewards, Swagbucks, etc..
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Old Sep 12, 2015, 9:27 am
  #18  
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Originally Posted by DrRodneyMcKay
Also if we want to add some other rewards programs to the list, My Coke Rewards has points expire in 3 months...not sure about Bing Rewards, Swagbucks, etc..
I don't think we do. That would just overwhelm the list IMHO, because there are actually way more non-hotel/non-airline programs than there are hotel/airline programs, it's just that many of them are small. Oodles of retail stores and restaurant chains (including small local chains) have such programs.

It's going to be a big enough list once many more airline and hotel programs are filled in (one goal would be to at least have all the dozens of airlines to which you can transfer from "flexible" point programs such as Amex Membership Rewards and City Thank You points and Chase Ultimate Rewards and Diners Club Club Rewards. (And btw, those credit card points programs generally have a simple policy: no expiration as long as you hold at least one card in that credit card points program, but immediate loss of all points if you cancel the last card you have in that credit card points program.)
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Old Sep 12, 2015, 10:23 am
  #19  
 
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Added Club Carlson, Hilton and Virgin Atlantic.
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Old Sep 13, 2015, 10:53 am
  #20  
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Added Best Western, Choice Privileges, and Alaska airlines to the wiki.
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Old Sep 14, 2015, 10:56 am
  #21  
 
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FYI - Jet Blue points and Southwest points do not expire
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Old Sep 14, 2015, 7:38 pm
  #22  
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Originally Posted by Vincent Turitto
FYI - Jet Blue points and Southwest points do not expire
FYI, you're wrong about half of that. Southwest points do expire without earning activity! (Ie, even redemption activity doesn't reset expiration.)

See here:
*Points will remain active as long as you have at least one qualifying earning activity every 24 months. Qualifying earning activities include: 1) completed travel on Southwest® qualifying flights, 2) points earned by transacting with any current Rapid Rewards® Partner, 3) points earned through everyday purchases using Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Credit Cards and through points transferred from Diners Club®, and 4) points purchased for personal account use. Member should allow four to six weeks or such time as is otherwise specified for points to post from qualifying activity. Points gifted or transferred to another Member only keep the recipient’s point balance active. The last activity date will be the latter of the last qualifying earn activity or date of Award expiration.

(I don't claim to completely understand that last sentence, but since Standard Awards are going away in another month or so, you can presumably remove the last 5 words effectively.)
Last edited by sdsearch; Sep 14, 2015 at 7:45 pm
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Old Sep 15, 2015, 8:58 pm
  #23  
 
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Added Lufthansa and Hyatt
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Old Sep 15, 2015, 10:58 pm
  #24  
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For airlines better to differentiate between hard expiry (e.g. EK 3 years fixed) and soft expiry, where if eligible activity there is no expiry.

http://www.hotels-and-travel.de/ffp/
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Old Sep 16, 2015, 1:07 pm
  #25  
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Originally Posted by Mwenenzi
For airlines better to differentiate between hard expiry (e.g. EK 3 years fixed) and soft expiry, where if eligible activity there is no expiry.
The wiki already does that, but I just reformatted it to put "hard" always in red, to make it harder to miss (pardon the pun).
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Old Sep 16, 2015, 2:51 pm
  #26  
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MrsCP hasn't stayed in a Hyatt in over 2 years, and her points are still active. Does the "starting 1/1/14" mean that they will only start closing accounts 1/1/16? If so, such a note may be useful.
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Old Sep 16, 2015, 7:29 pm
  #27  
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Originally Posted by CPRich
MrsCP hasn't stayed in a Hyatt in over 2 years, and her points are still active. Does the "starting 1/1/14" mean that they will only start closing accounts 1/1/16? If so, such a note may be useful.
Hyatt didn't use to enforce expiration. Starting in 1/1/14 they do.

I have had no activity in way way more than that, over 5 years, and they recently sent me an email that if I didn't have activity in the coming months, my account would closed (I forget on which exact date).

But the point is the Hyatt expiration is now 2 years. That doesn't mean they have to expire points after 2 years, just that they can. In any program, if you find you've not activity for longer than the expiration time listed here, don't assume that you're some exception that can go on that way forever, assume instead that have some undocumented limited grace period, but since you don't what this, assume that you may be facing expiration the very next day, and try to get some activity happening ASAP.

If you want to delve deeper into whether it's safe to wait until 1/1/16, or whether your wife should create some activity tonight, that would be more suited for the Hyatt forum that this thread. This thread is intended as a summary, not a deep examination of the complexities of each program's policies (and changes in such policies). Most importantly, it presumably takes Hyatt experts to answer your question, but there are way more Hyatt experts in the Hyatt forum than likely to visit this thread in MilesBuzz! soon.
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Old Sep 16, 2015, 8:41 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by sdsearch
The wiki already does that, but I just reformatted it to put "hard" always in red, to make it harder to miss (pardon the pun).
Will not be clear to newbies. Need to simply state with "hard" expiry miles/points have a fixed life (no exceptions). There are often threads in the forums with hard expiry by people surprised about this and asking how to extend or use before the miles/points are gone for ever. Hard expiry is good to these ffp's:- the liability is gone.
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Old Sep 17, 2015, 11:30 am
  #29  
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Originally Posted by sdsearch
This thread is intended as a summary, not a deep examination of the complexities of each program's policies (and changes in such policies). Most importantly, it presumably takes Hyatt experts to answer your question, but there are way more Hyatt experts in the Hyatt forum than likely to visit this thread in MilesBuzz! soon.
I did, and was suggesting the results may be applicable to the list here. Apologies if I offended you by suggesting such a crazy thing. Feel free to leave it as 2014 and force folks to search elsewhere for the answer.
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Old Sep 17, 2015, 12:50 pm
  #30  
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Originally Posted by CPRich
I did, and was suggesting the results may be applicable to the list here. Apologies if I offended you by suggesting such a crazy thing. Feel free to leave it as 2014 and force folks to search elsewhere for the answer.
I don't want to clutter the list with excessive detail. Take a look at the note I added (in small font to make it fit better) and see if you that's enough for this thread.

I did something similar (the best I could tersely) also for Amtrak. I'm not even clear on what the expiration for Amtrak Guest Rewards was before now for those who were neither elite nor had the Chase AGR credit card (which Chase is dropping at the end of this month). People would transfer points into AGR, then find that within days those transferred points had already expired! It's only clear and simple at AGR going forward.
Last edited by sdsearch; Sep 17, 2015 at 12:56 pm
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