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With few exceptions, the points, miles, and rewards associated with loyalty/rewards programs expire at some point. The key is to know the policies and make sure you're never caught losing out on your hard-earned rewards. First and foremost, make sure you're keeping track of all of your rewards with AwardWallet; we'll let you know if something is going to expire well in advance of that expiration.
We've put together this post to have a single place you can come to find the expiration policies of major loyalty/rewards programs, and added what we think is the easiest way of preventing your miles from expiring in each program. For more details on each expiration policy and additional ways of preventing rewards from expiring, click through to the individual posts. If we've missed a program you would like to see included in the list, get in touch via the comments and we'll do our best to get it added to the post.
Airline Frequent Flyer Program Expiration Policies
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan – Earn Mileage Plan miles at over 800 stores in the Alaska Shopping Portal.
- American Airlines AAdvantage – Leave a comment on any AwardWallet post and receive 5 AAdvantage miles.
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles – Transfer points from Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards, ThankYou Rewards, or Marriott Bonvoy.
- British Airways Executive Club – Transfer points from Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards, or Marriott Bonvoy.
- Delta Air Lines SkyMiles – Miles don't expire!
- Etihad Guest – Transfer points from Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards, ThankYou Rewards, or Marriott Bonvoy.
- Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles – Make a purchase using Hawaiian Airlines MileFinder.
- United Airlines MileagePlus – Miles don't expire!
- JetBlue TrueBlue – Points don't expire!
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer – Miles expire 36 months after accrual, you must pay to extend the expiration date.
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards – Miles don't expire!
Hotel Rewards Expiration Policies
- Best Western Rewards – Points don't expire!
- Choice Privileges – Transfer points from Amex Membership Rewards.
- Hilton Honors – Make a $1 purchase on Amazon (500 Honors points).
- IHG Rewards Club – Complete your first survey with Opinion Check for 1,000 points.
- ALL – Accor Live Limitless – Must complete a stay to extend points.
- Marriott Bonvoy – Buy 1,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for $12.50.
- Radisson Rewards Points – Transfer points to/from a friend or family member.
- World of Hyatt – Transfer points from Ultimate Rewards.
Car Rental Rewards Expiration Policies
- Hertz – Points do not expire as long as you have a Hertz Gold Plus Rewards rental activity in the prior 18 months. Activity means a Gold Plus Rewards Point was either earned or redeemed on a rental.
- National – Rental credits do not expire. Once you earn enough credits for a free day, the free day is valid through December 31st of the following year.
- Avis – Points will remain active for five years from when they were earned as long as the customer is active. Avis Preferred member is considered “Inactive” if, during a 12-month period you have not completed an eligible rental at a participating Avis location, earned or redeemed any Avis Preferred Points, or your account has been canceled.
Bank Rewards Expiration Policies
- American Express Membership Rewards – Points don't expire as long as you have an active Membership Rewards earning credit card.
- Chase Ultimate Rewards – Points don't expire as long as you have an active Ultimate Rewards earning credit card.
- Citi ThankYou Points – As long as you have an active ThankYou Rewards earning credit card you're safe. However, shared points expire 90 days after transfer.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Does anyone know if I use my American Airlines credit card a few days before my mileage is set to expire, will it reset based on the day I use the card, or will it wait until the statement date, in which case my miles will expire?
It won’t be until your statement date. Thankfully AA has extended its mileage expiration pause through 6/30/2021: https://awardwallet.com/blog/aadvantage-award-fees-eliminated-miles-expiration-paused/
My award wallet 5 points didn’t extend my AA points exp date, still going to expire in march
Thanks Irene! I was building my spreadsheet and using your list above (thanks again, this site is awesome!) to note how often I need to use credit cards to keep my points active.
The list above shows:
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards – Miles don’t expire!
and the awardwallet article that you linked shows:
Yes, Southwest Rapid Rewards expire if you have no qualifying earning activity on your Southwest Rapid Rewards account in a 24-month period.
Yes, we got the point Paul! Thank you for bringing it to our attention 🙂 It should be updated.
Thanks for this! Your list at the top says that Rapid Rewards points never expire. They do expire after 24 months of no activity. Thanks again!
Hi Paul,
Southwest Airlines states the following on their website:
No, your Rapid Rewards points do not expire. However, if you choose to close your account, the points in your account will be terminated.
So, your points shouldn’t expire according to their rules. But we do mention the 24-month period of inactivity in the next post:
https://awardwallet.com/blog/southwest-rapid-rewards-points-expire/
This is a super convenient post! I’m bookmarking this page for sure and checking in every few months, or even near the end of 2020 hoping for a 2021 update! 🙂 Thanks Howie!
Thank you Awardwallet for helping me simplify my life!
Great article. Two additions would be nice.
In addition to “how to fix it”, at least a (12 months) to indicate length of expiration would be nice vs. clicking every link.
Also, how about Wyndham Rewards? They have two expiration policies, one soft, one hard.
Thanks for your feedback. We grab the expiration date from the Wyndham website. Please contact our support team if you have any questions related to Wyndham expiration policy:
https://awardwallet.com/contact
I was more intimating that Wyndham Rewards should be added to the article.
Thanks for replying.
I’ve found that for United, using the MPX app (like the author stated) to make a $15 Uber purchase is a great way to extend the life of your miles for another 18 months. I did this for both my kids’ accounts last year. While it’s not quite as easy as leaving a comment here to extend your AA miles, it’s about as painless as you can get for United.
thanks so much for this, this site has saved me so many miles!
Thanks, great tips!
Hi, is there a way to customize the expiration reminder in terms of : email/text, how far ahead of expiration, number of reminders etc?
You can select to receive expiration reminders by desktop and mobile push notification and email via the ‘My Profile–>Edit Notifications’ and we send notifications 90, 60, 30, and 7 days prior to expiry.
Virgin Atlantic?
Although my American Airline miles are set to expire soon, hopefully just by this mere comment I will be able to save them. Just by commenting I can earn 5 AA miles and reset all of my miles! Thank you for the excellent tip Award Wallet!
My award expiration (particularly hyatt/mariott) show different expiration dates than on actual points portal. How do we confirm which is correct?
I’d be hard-pressed to say that Hyatt or Marriott don’t know when your points expire. That said, I don’t know where on Hyatt.com you can find the expiration date of your points. AwardWallet calculates the date based on qualified activity to extend your expiration.
If you update your accounts do you see refreshed expiration dates? If you’re still seeing data that doesn’t match up, please contact support directly: https://awardwallet.com/contact
This is great! All this info in one place. I do also LOVE that AwardWallet reminds us of expiring points!
Great information for reference and hopefully saving from miles expiring. Thanks AW
Love that my Delta miles don’t expire, but with recent award spikes they really became useless.
I had a problem with my spirit-miles…they expired..and back here in Germany it’s really difficult to keep them active by earning miles – for the next time, what would you suggest to do?
Move on. Spirit’s expiration policy is aggressive and if you’re not actively flying on them expiring miles will happen.
super helpful- thank you 🙂
One of the reasons I keep my CSP card is to preserve my miles and points with UR transfers. I haven’t had a need to use SWA or Hyatt lately and don’t carry their cards so I transfer 1000 miles or points to an account, keeping it active for a couple more years. I use the card the rest of the time on UAL transfers, keeping my account active and saving for a big trip in a couple of years. Of course, Awardwallet plays a big role keeping me up to date with all my account balances and expiration dates.
@greyhk says: “Thanks. These expiration dates can sneak up on you sometimes.”
If you don’t remain engaged on some level, they will most certainly, inevitably go poof.
Wow, so glad I have found this excellent service. I have wayyyyyy too many different award programs to keep track of and was trying to combine them and filter into each other some how so I would only have 3 or 4 to worry about. No I don’t have to as I will input them all here !! Will be telling everybody I know about this site as it is fantastic. Thank you !!!
Great set of links, sometimes it becomes overwhelming and you forget about some points. Thank goodness for awardwallet to keep track!
I did not know about it. It is very useful as it helps improve relationships with companies around the world. I’ve lost several miles, now I’m not losing anymore.
Do marriott points earned from the nfl game a few months ago keep the account updated?
No, they do not.
I am so happy I found Awardwallet – I have personally paid twice to reinstate miles from kids’ accounts. It’s easy to keep track of my own, but for my kids, and my elderly parents, it’s much harder, especially when multiplied by several airlines. I recently declined to sign the kids up for one airline FF program, since I knew we probably wouldn’t fly them in the next few years. I also didn’t realize Jet Blue miles don’t expire. Thanks!
I am moving my points from SPG once a month and it changes expiry date
I heard a rumor that Jet Blue points earned through the amazon referral DID expire. Is there any truth to that?
No.
This is interesting. I didn’t know that Delta miles never expire!
Thanks. These expiration dates can sneak up on you sometimes.
Lufthansa’s Miles and More policy annoys be because if you’re a basic member without a credit card, points expire after some period, regardless of more recent activity.
Delta has justifiably taken a lot of flak for their loyalty program. But at least their miles don’t expire.
A handy resource. Thanks!
AW is a lifesaver for poinrs expiry, I completely forgot about one accoubt recently ahdvwas able to safe a hoard of Mike’s due to the notifications.
Great info
Sadly I have lost miles this way
Good reminder, I also use Award Wallet for all points and exports.
I really like Delta for this.
I use automatic conversion of Le Club points to airline miles since I’ve had them expire before without being able to do anything about it.
Bookmarking this for reference. Thanks.
Important information to keep handy. I definitely don’t want to lose any points or miles due to neglecting or overlooking. Work too hard to earn them.
Best Western!!
They never expire. Added to the post.
AwardWallet is a lifesaver to avoid miles expiration, specially with the AA miles!
This was a great reminder. I used to hoard my miles/points, but with inevitable devaluations and expirations nowadays I use them more liberally. Of course, I keep a few tucked away for a rainy day, but overall I try to use them. Thanks for this reminder blog. It was quite helpful!
YOU ARE ALL DOING A GREAT JOB AT AWARD WALLET
Thanks? 🙂
Great list for reference, but AwardWallet is my “brain” for this data.
Also, was not Club Carlson (indicated above) now been re-branded as Radisson Rewards?
Yes! I’ve updated that.
Nice to have these reference links in one place…thanks!
Last I knew, Citibank Thank You points expire 60 days, I think, after the bank or credit card account in which they were earned is closed, even if you have other Thank You point accruing cards. You have to call the Thank You number and the CSR will tell you the number of points associated with the closed account so you can use them.
If you have multiple ThankYou Rewards earning accounts (which you shouldn’t — get them consolidated to a single account) if you no longer have a ThankYou Rewards earning card associated with a ThankYou Rewards account, then, yes, they will expire.
Thanks for the handy set of links. while most are known by memory these days (or logged in Award Wallet), this is still good info to keep around.
This is a good reminder of the fact that my points expire. Although I track them in Award Wallet, just earning points is not enough to keep some of these points from expiring. I’m going to have to pay particular attention to my Hertz points. Although I rent cars monthly, I have very little brand loyalty. All the elite benefits are the same and I prefer the cheapest car rather than upgrades. (The opposite of what I want on airlines!) I’d hate to have my points expire though. Earn and burn is the motto here. Thanks.