"Old" award expiration
 

So I have an award that's set to expire 2/12/12. Does that mean I have to complete travel by that date....or just book something by then? I tried to do a search; no luck.

Existing standard award expirations are travel-by dates. This part of the Wiki FAQ might be helpful.

You may be able to extend the expiration by 12 months for $50 by having the award re-issued. See this part of the Wiki FAQ for more information.

Thanks, FindAWay, very infomative.

Actually, you may be able to extend the expiration date by almost 24 months by waiting 11+ months (but not quite 12) to re-issue the award. It'll then be good for 12 months from the time of re-issue, which will be almost 24 months from its original expiration date.

Now that RR 2.0 is in effect, you can only re-issue each award once. So if you're not sure when you're going to use it, it may be better to hold off on re-issuing until you have a need for it coming up, or it's getting too close to 12 months since it expired, whichever comes first.

(All this is only possible for awards earned before RR 2.0 debuted 1 March 2011. Awards earned after that date, by converting RR 2.0 points to "top them off", cannot be re-issued.)