Protecting travel points from expiring

granddi · ‎03-16-2010

It going to be a while before we use airline miles.

Southwest has announced that their miles do not expire.

As far as I can find out, American miles expire in 18 months.

I think they can be kept active with use of a AA Advantage credit card.

I tried to merge mine and hubby's points but if I was reading the prompts it was going to be hundred of dollars. I think gift cards do not expire but they are in dollars and not miles. I may just have to call AA and speak to a person.

What to to do so as to not lose any American miles?

Dinaki · ‎12-21-2010

I am member of British Airways Executive Club Member. BA has avios (avios is the name of reward currency)

Unfortunatly when not flying every 36 months, the avios expire and are removed from the BA executive club member account.

I have lost several thousand of avios this year because (with this stupid corona) I was not able to fly with British Airways.

My ticket though that was been canceled for this year trip, has been reimbursed to me as a e-voucher for future travel, completed by April the 30th 2022.

The Supreme Happiness Of Life Consists In The Conviction That One Is Loved.
I come from the beautiful and sunny Athens Greece

ahoymate · ‎05-30-2010

Good luck with Amercian Airlines. I have to sell some points every year or loose all of them. I told American that United eliminated this for their customers.

FancyPhillyshopper · ‎05-02-2017

Most frequent flyer miles will expire if the account is inactive for a while. However, it is extremely easy to keep an account active without flying!

You can purchase some makeup or flowers once a year through the airline shopping website using your FF# and the purchase will add miles and preserve your balance.

I have been a member of AA since USAirways was a separate entity. I am also an AA credit card holder. I am also a United FF member.

Merging miles (gifting) or purchasing miles always costs money. I do that only when I am trying to put together enough FF miles for a major trip.

I also receive miles through my electric bill payments. I signed up a long time ago. Every time I write the bill I am happy to know I receive the same amount back in miles. There are frequently offers to earn miles in various ways (electric, insurance, hotel reservations, cruise reservations, car rentals, etc.). There is no reason to ever have airline miles expire.

kaydee50 · ‎02-07-2011

As @FancyPhillyshopper has pointed out there are many ways to earn miles and keep the account active without flyling. One is thru using the airlines "shopping" network. With United I get emails telling me what vendors are offering miles and extra miles. I have gotten hundreds of miles on United from shopping from United's website. I believe most airlines have these networks.

Also some airlines have "surveys" from which you can earn miles.

No need to fly every 18 to 24 months to keep the account active.

ahoymate · ‎05-30-2010

@FancyPhillyshopper wrote:

Most frequent flyer miles will expire if the account is inactive for a while. However, it is extremely easy to keep an account active without flying!

You can purchase some makeup or flowers once a year through the airline shopping website using your FF# and the purchase will add miles and preserve your balance.

I have been a member of AA since USAirways was a separate entity. I am also an AA credit card holder. I am also a United FF member.

Merging miles (gifting) or purchasing miles always costs money. I do that only when I am trying to put together enough FF miles for a major trip.

I also receive miles through my electric bill payments. I signed up a long time ago. Every time I write the bill I am happy to know I receive the same amount back in miles. There are frequently offers to earn miles in various ways (electric, insurance, hotel reservations, cruise reservations, car rentals, etc.). There is no reason to ever have airline miles expire.

Hum, good to know. I'm not interested in purchasing items from American Airlines shopping website. Electric, insurance doesn't work for me. Hotels, cruise, car rentals not now, not traveling due to virus.

I prefer to donate my yearly 1000 miles to the miltary.

Alter Ego · ‎03-12-2010

I don't have many AA miles, but I do have a few and received this email last year:

As commented by others, the easiest for me was the eShopping Mall. Really, it's kind of like mrrebates as many stores are on there. QVC is on there. So, occasionally, when I buy from a website that I would be buying from anyways, will go through there to get the points.

It occurred to me that I haven't been paying attention and, when I just looked, hot two emails from them today; one of which is showing extra points at Q (3 points per dollar vs 1). Certainly won't get a lot of points this way, but won't lose them either.

granddi · ‎03-16-2010

@Alter Ego wrote:
I don't have many AA miles, but I do have a few and received this email last year:

As commented by others, the easiest for me was the eShopping Mall. Really, it's kind of like mrrebates as many stores are on there. QVC is on there. So, occasionally, when I buy from a website that I would be buying from anyways, will go through there to get the points.

It occurred to me that I haven't been paying attention and, when I just looked, hot two emails from them today; one of which is showing extra points at Q (3 points per dollar vs 1). Certainly won't get a lot of points this way, but won't lose them either.

Thanks for the shopping tip. We link hotels and rental cars to ariline miles but the shopping link was new to me.

Apparently you can link the merchant site to your american advantage account but only with Google Chrome. Otherwise you must go to the AA site and order there.

We

Alter Ego · ‎03-12-2010

Just saw this on Facebook. If you are inclined to give a donation to American Red Cross for Hurricane Laura relief (min $25), AA will give you 10 times points. If you are on Facebook, you may want to look at their page. Obviously, don't mean to make you feel obligated to give; just of you were already considering doing so.

Bridgegal · ‎03-09-2010

@Alter Ego

Thanks for posting that. I jumped up to double check that my CC is an AAdvantage credit card. I knew I got AA miles but wasn't sure it was technically a AA card. Whew.