What % of miles simply expire?
 

Putting together a small paper for an economics class, and was wondering if someone could help me out with some data / hard sources for a question I have - namely what percentage of frequent flyer miles in programmes with expiration actually end up expiring rather than being used?

Have googled but to no avail - any help or ideas appreciated!

i guess you need to do more research than just googling or asking in a webforum...
ask the programmes, maybe they can tell you. i bet it is different from programme to programme, especially since they have different expiration rules (3 years no movement, 3 years, 2 years....) and they are enforced differently, too.

Moving to MilesBuzz...

bhatnasx
Mileage Run Moderator

Sure, but airlines don't seem to like answering such questions...

Check the bankruptcy filings (US, UA, soon to be others, I suppose). In those papers, they detail their outstanding miles, expected rate on non-redemtion, etc.

I seem to recall that US used a number of about 20%-30% of their outstanding miles would never be redeemed.

Just to be sure you have seen this, which is a starting point...

http://www.webflyer.com/company/pres...lyer_facts.php

dennis

that was useful, thanks!

any other facts, anyone?

Southwest's annual report says 15% of awards expire unused. Seems high to me, but FTers are atypical. Another problem with this figure is that Southwest allows you to revive an expired award, even long afterwards, for a $50 fee.

I would argue that way more than 15% of the issued credits expire because of the 16 credit requirement for the award ticket within a 12 month period.

The annual report only addresses awards. However I doubt that 15% of tickets are bought by people who (a) bother to sign up for Rapid Rewards, and (b) do not fly frequently enough to earn an award. I probably fly WN 50 times more than one of those people.

So would I.

And I've recently read that in the vacinity of 85% of miles go unused.

I think this refers to people who have accumulated 16 credits to get an award ticket, 15% of those award tickets go unused. With the number of people that post in the WN threads about their ticket and how can they extend it for another year, that doesn't seem unreasonable, though I remain surprised that people would not find some use for an award ticket with an expiration date.

Obviously, there are a lot more people that have unredeemed credits in the WN system with a 12 month expiration, but I don't think that's what this statistic refers to.