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Yes, GOL Smiles Miles do expire. However, not all GOL miles are created equally. In fact, some GOL miles expire sooner than others. Typically, mileage expiration deadlines are determined by your level of elite status at the time they are earned. However, the way you earn your miles can invoke a completely different expiration deadline.
In short, you have to stay on your toes to keep up with your GOL Smiles Miles expirations. Thankfully, you can track your balance with AwardWallet and receive notifications about miles set to expire. This way, you can use your miles before losing them and won't waste a single mile.
GOL Smiles Miles Validity
Per the GOL program terms and condition page, typical miles expire as follows:
- 36 months: Smiles and Silver GOL Smiles members
- 48 months: Gold GOL Smiles members
- 120 months: Diamond GOL Smiles members
The next obvious question is what happens when your status changes, either up or down. Does it affect your mileage validity, and, if so, in what way?
Moving between tiers does not affect the deadline for when your GOL miles expire. The validity of your miles is set according to your status tier at the time miles are earned. Per the GOL terms:
“The validity will be computed from the date and time the Smiles Miles are credited to the Smiles Account based on the category in effect prior to said accrual.”
Imagine a Diamond member earns miles today but fails to re-qualify for status this year, dropping down to the Gold level next. Miles earned today would be valid for 120 months, though miles earned as a Gold member next year would be valid for 48 months — likely expiring before the miles earned with the previous Diamond status.
Other Mileage Validity Options
There are other validity periods to understand, as well. For instance, miles transferred or pooled are valid for 12 months, regardless of elite status tier. However, frequent transfer bonuses could make this worthwhile, even though the validity of your miles is shortened.
According to GOL, you can check individual mileage validities by logging into your GOL Smiles account and heading over to the My Data section.
Extending the Validity of Your Miles
If you have miles that will expire in the next 30 days, you can request a validity extension. You can extend the validity of your miles for another 30, 60, 0r 90 days. Bear in mind this is not free; you will be charged per mile.
The easiest way to extend the validity of your miles is through the Smiles app. After logging into your account, head to the “extend my miles section,” select your preference, pay, and you are done.
GOL regularly runs promotions to add additional time when you extend your mileage validity. In these promotions, you might be able to extend the expiration of your miles by 90, 180, and 360 days — instead of 30, 60, and 90 days. You'll pay between R$0.02 and R$0.026 per mile to extend validity, depending on the amount of time you're adding. That's 0.41¢—0.53¢ (approximately half a cent) per mile in U.S. Dollars.
Reinstating Expired Miles
You can reinstate your expired GOL Smiles Miles for a fee. What's more, GOL runs regular promotions providing a bonus when you reinstate your expired miles. GOL charges R$0.06 (around 1.2¢) apiece to reinstate expired miles.
Before you reinstate your miles, make sure you have a use for them. Reinstated miles are valid for just 12 months.
Our Take
Keeping track of your GOL Smiles miles can be complicated, due to the complex expiration policies. However, GOL will send you a monthly newsletter outlining which of your miles expire soon. This means you should always have a heads-up on your mileage balances.
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Espectacular la explicación de los vencimientos. Yo soy socio smile de go l y no entendía cómo era. Ahora podré controlar los distintos tipos
I never knew about Gol’s expiration policy. Was very clarifying. This airline has very good promotions to travel and the past year they improve a lot in service and punctuality. Great to travel with them
Es muy dificil intentar seguir el vencimiento de las millas sin la ayuda de AwardWallet. Lo que es mas caro es a veces reactivar millas que aprovechar una promocion de compra de millas, pensando en que te envian un mail con el 70 % de descuento en la compra de millas
This expirations policies are really complex, it would be better to have miles in other currencies
GOL miles… this seems like a pretty rigorous program… how successful are folks at making good use of this.??
Good question! But, it’s a popular program with AwardWallet members. So, we wanted to share this resource for those that were wondering about point expiration.
Only if AA would come up with a 20-year expiration window HAHAHA!
This has to surely win some award for most complicated set of mileage expiry rules for a FF program?
I think it’s a unanimous decision that they win Most Complicated Expiration Policy
I flew with GOL once, and never knew about their miles expiration policy. Not surprised, considering how confusing and convoluted it appears to be, from this article’s content. If I ever travel to South America again, I’ll just try flying there with an American Airlines partner to collect/redeem miles with the AAdvantage loyalty program instead.
And awardwallet is our great partner to prevent Gol airline miles from expiring. Note that the rules are quite complicated and a tool like awardwallet is essential.
GOL members from Argentina can enroll in Club Smiles for plans starting at 750 Argentine pesos to credit 1,000 miles per month. This also allows access to exclusive offers and promotional vouchers to buy miles with significant discounts.
Realmente resulta muy difícil hacer un seguimiento de millas
No obstante el aviso de vencimiento de millas que todos hacen también es complejo e inapropiado planificar Viajes en consideración a ello.
No se entiende cuáles son las políticas que impulsan a las compañías a estos sistemas de caducidad de millas
Su negocio debería ser transportar personas, así las cosas pareciera terminan teniendo ganancias de las millas que se caducan. Esto más que perseguir un esquema de fidelidad del usuario termina en su fastidio cuando se ke caducan millas. Es para pensarlo por las compañías.
Gracias por la nota muy claro tengo cuenta en smiles y nunca me sabía lo fecha de vencimiento. Ahora tengo menos dudas .
In my experience, sometimes they might have promotional offers for credit card transfers (at least in the Brazilian market), and the bonus miles have ridiculously low expiration dates. In the past, I’ve received promotional Smiles miles that only had 30 days of expiration.
It’s quite hard to keep track of everything, and I’ve had my fair share of expired miles over the years.
That’s wild!
Convoluted programs like these should be avoided at all costs.