nsx

Most airline and hotel programs at least send you an email warning of expiration. Southwest should get with the program.

bitterproffit

Southwest is not customer centric.

Anyone who flies them enough to get that many miles already knows this.

They have their advantages, but 'customer centric' is not one of them.

blitzen

How are you an A Lister for longer than the program exists and as an A Lister you must have earned points so when did you stop earning points?

rsteinmetz70112

Frontier miles expire after 6 months, but the do send you an email notice.

chuck1

SWA is all smoke and mirrors when it comes to LUV.

worldwidedreamer

...and for the OP: Welcome to FlyerTalk!

ursine1

What's most amusing and ultimately sad about these types of posts is seeing someone finally having the realization that Southwest isn't the wonderful LUVing company they always thought they were.

I'm noticing these types of posts more frequently these days.

With regards to points expiration: As I've repeated many times, Southwest would do well to stop advertising that "points don't expire." Also, notification(s) of impending expiration would be worth implementing if Southwest actually valued customer satisfaction over breakage revenue.

To the OP (should they ever come back): The only way to have points reinstated is if you've had point-earning activity in the past 6 months that wasn't credited to your account, and can prove it. If so, contact Customer Relations.

Cledaybuck

Disagree. WN has many customer friendly policies. Many more, in my opinion, than most other airlines, especially for the non status flyer. This just doesn't happen to be one of them.

Cledaybuck

WN: In order to keep your Rapid Rewards® account active, you must earn qualifying* Rapid Rewards points at least once every 24 months. *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 from our Rapid Rewards Partners and posted to Member’s account prior to the expiration date, (3) points purchased through Southwest.com, and (4) gifted/transferred/donated points received and claimed by the recipient. Gifted/Transferred/Donated points are a Qualifying Activity for the recipient only. Examples of activities that do not count as Qualifying Activities include but are not limited to: cancelled trips; nonrevenue travel such as Reward or Companion Pass travel; for the donating Member, points donated by a Member to a charity; and other travel such as charter flights, service-charged, reduce-rate, trade out, extra seat, and paper tickets.

Member should allow four to six weeks or such time as is otherwise specified for points to post from qualifying earning activity.

The Member's account expiration date will be 24 months from the date of the last qualifying earning activity. If a Member fails to have any qualifying earning activity in 24 months, the Member's account will become inactive and all points, awards, rewards, and promotional incentives will be forfeited.

All Rapid Rewards rules and regulations apply. Log in to your account to view your last activity date information. If you have not had earning activity in the last 24 months, your points will be forfeited. However, there are many ways to keep your account active:

Do transfers in from Chase UR count?

rickg523

This. WN is quite customer friendly, but unlike other airlines it isn't particularly obsequious to its frequent flyers. It's a matter of balance. Other domestics are seemingly so much more accommodating to their ffs that the general customer can sometimes feel like they're taking the bath because of this. Matter of balance.
And of course in a forum like FT, you would expect a certain amount of distaste over and disappointment for WN's choice.

xooz

As a casual WN user, I was not aware of the policy. This thread made me go check my status and I have unknowingly saved my smattering of points by just signing up for the Dining Rewards. 24 points here and there have kept me afloat. Having also retired and ceased lots of business travel, I am slowly coming around to focusing on point retention. It is easy to do, but you have to put a little effort into revisiting the rules of the programs you were once loyal to. Understand the OP's frustration.

xliioper

These magazine offers come from a third party and if you read carefully, you will see that they do not actually say that it is your miles that are expiring. The wording is meant to make you think that, but that's not what it actually says. The "expiration" actually refers to the magazine redemption offer itself, not your miles. It's misleading, but not technically a false statement.

seat38a

My points expired and from personal experience, Southwest DOES send out expiration notification in advance. If OP and others choose not to update their contact information and/or actually read the the notifications that arrive from Southwest, then you'r SOL.

Bear96

Actually I think DL's Skymiles T&Cs about expiring miles is something like, "At our discretion, miles expire after 18 (or some # of) months. We are not currently exercising that discretion but can begin to do so at any time, with or without notice."

LegalTender

The major difference is award travel on UA and AA keeps miles from expiring.

In which case, the OP is not SOL.