How to prevent airline miles expiration and get you points back

original publication can be found here http://www.milesfortrips.com/2015/02/how-to-prevent-miles-expiration/

We all enjoy accumulating miles. Rewards piling game is definitely fun, but it also can be a challenge. If you have accounts with numerous frequent flyer programs — that may be even a nightmare, since every company has its own rules and regulations in terms of miles expiration. In this article I will try to cover most popular and effective ways to prevent you precious and hardly earned rewards from being expired.

We have discussed already Airlines miles expiration rules and chart, lets see how can we prevent miles expiration.

All loyalty programs emphasize on just keeping your account active. As long as there is some movement with miles — you have nothing to worry. Be organized. Keep track of your miles and points, in order for you not to be surprised to see zero balance or just be faced with couple weeks of their expiration date. Best way to do it — opening account with awardwallet.com. Probably the best solution on the market : very descriptive design with numerous loyalty programs included.

You may still be interested reading:

How to keep track of award miles balances

How to prevent miles expiration?

1. Shopping. Just use shopping portal of your loyalty programs.

• United MileagePlus Shopping
• US Airways Dividend Miles StoreFront
• Southwest Rapid Rewards
• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Shopping
• Frontier Airlines Shopping
• Lufthansa Miles & More
• British Airways Gate 365
• Hawaiian Airlines eMarket
• JetBlue ShopBlue
• Delta Skymiles Shopping
• American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping

You can also read: How to maximize miles and points via SHOPPING

2.Dining networks. By signing-up to dining networks and linking credit card to it you will gain extra points on your account.

• Southwest Rapid Rewards Dining
• Delta SkyMile Dining
• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Dining
• American Airlines AAdvantage Dining
• United MileagePlus
• US Airways Dividend Miles Dining

You can also read:How to maximize miles and points via DINING

3.Miles transfer. You can use points.com to transfer some points from another loyalty program — but keep in mind rates are terrible.

Better to use Chase Ultimate rewards. According to the program — you have ability to transfer to partners in 1:1 ratio free of charge. Would be nice to have more partners, but you can definitely do not worry about miles expiration with these programs:

• Amtrak Guest Rewards®
• British Airways Executive Club
• Hyatt Gold Passport®
• Korean Air SKYPASS
• Marriott Rewards®
• IHG® Rewards Club
• Singapore Airlines
• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards®
• The Ritz-Carlton Rewards®
• United MileagePlus®
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Tip: Your Chase Ultimate rewards can be deleted from your credit card account, if you close the designated credit card (for example: Chase Sapphire Preferred). Very simple solution: just open Chase Freedomcard without any annual fee and transfer all points on this card, so this way your points will be immortal, unless something will happen to the bank.

4.Rent a car through airline portal.

You can also read: How to maximize miles via CAR RENT

5.Hotel stay. Some hotels provide you option of earning miles with providing frequent flyer number.

6.Buy miles. Small increments of 500 or 1000 miles or points for a small fee($15-$30) worth an effort.

7.Fly. Yes, just booking not very expensive flight will make miles from expiration. Of course, it does make sense if you have pretty impressive amount of rewards.

8.Mile-earning credit card. Co-branded credit with its annual fee will extend you miles expiration period.

9.Buying flowers.

You can also read: How to maximize miles via ORDERING FLOWERS

10.Order magazines subscription. Probably one of the easiest ways. As for spending (foe example) 300 miles for a magazine, you reinstate your miles from expiration.

Basically — everything, which counts towards EARN/REDEEM of miles will prevent miles expiration.

What to do, if I missed expiration date of miles?

It can happen. Nobody’s perfect.

In this case, some airlines offer you option to return your miles for a set fee.

For example:

American Airlines:

• Contact AAdvantage Customer Service at 1–800–882–8880 (ask for “AAdvantage Account Service” at the Main Menu)
• Reactivate rates are as follows, plus 7.5% federal excise tax
• $200 — to reactivate 1–50,000 expired miles$400- to reactivate 50,001–75,000 expired miles$600 — to reactivate more than 75,000 expired miles
• Rates are charged based on the total number of miles reactivated from one account at one time, regardless of when the miles expired

United Airlines:

1–25,000 : $50
25,001–50,000 : $100
50,001–75,000 : $150
75,001–100,000 : $200
100,001–150,000 : $300
>150,000 : $400

Way more affordable, compared to AA.

Alaska Airlines: there is a set $75 fee for reactivating your miles fro another year.

Bottom line

Simple advise — keep track. If you see, that your are approaching “deadline” — use any of these ways, so you will prevent your miles expiration.

You can also read our Miles Maximizer articles to prevent your miles expiration.

photo credit flickr

original publication can be found here http://www.milesfortrips.com/2015/02/how-to-prevent-miles-expiration/