7 Easy Ways To Keep Miles From Expiring

Etihad Guest is 18 months.....while Emirates is 36. That is twice the amount of time. Wish it was easier to move points around between airlines. Even "points.com" are so restrictive.

Thank you for this valuable information. Do you know the expiration policy for Avianca LifeMiles?

I know this all too well. I forgot I had around 70K miles sitting for some time in Emirates. I lost most of them in January. 🙁

Any good ways to extend the life of Flying Blue for someone living outside Europe other than flying? I tried to claim the VN flight that was marketed by CX, but it was instantly rejected.

This is a timely post as I might be canceling some Air France award trips.

Does booking a flight with miles count as activity with Air France (or must it actually be flown)?
If that counts, does cancelling it and returning the miles count?

I have basically the same question as @beachfan --- if I book an award flight with BA avios with a family account and then cancel it, will it reset all of the accounts mileage expiration?

Avianca LifeMiles?

I bought LifeMiles via OMAAT special a while ago, now expiration date is coming up soon. To avoid expiration I booked a hotel via their special booking.com link, I have receipt showing my LifeMiles number etc. No miles posted two months after check out. I wrote to LifeMiles support, they told me to write to booking.com. I wrote to booking.com and they told me to write to LifeMiles.

So it looks my LifeMiles will expire.

We transferred 165k Amex Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan for 3 tickets in Swiss biz LAX-ZRH a couple of summers ago but had to cancel due to a family illness. Paid to have the miles redeposited in Aeroplan and made a point of using some of them for an intra-Europe flight on LH this past summer to keep them alive. So I was gobsmacked when shortly before we left I saw my 135,000 remaining Aeroplan miles expired! I though I they stayed good for a year after the flight but it was a year after the booking. Ouch! I could pay to have them reinstated but would only do it for an extraordinary redemption like LH F.

My Avianca Lifemiles expire at the end of the month marking one year since my last activity. Being based in Colombia, I've not yet had the problem of having to "save" my expiring miles, so I can't speak to that.

Thanks for the article.

Anyone know if moving Avios between BA and Iberia would keep the miles alive?

In regards to Emirates there is a catch worth knowing. From the faq at emirates.com:

Your Skywards Miles are valid for three years from the date of travel. Within the calendar year that Skywards Miles are due to expire, they will be removed from your account at the end of the month in which you were born.

For example, if you earned Miles in June 2016 and your birthday is in August, these Miles will expire on 31st August 2019.

I am surprised you have omitted JAL, who have quirky expiration points for miles. Also surprising not to see Avianca LifeMiles (one of your redemption favorites) on the list.
Lastly, 'activity' can mean different things to different programs. If you don't fully understand this little thing you could still end up seeing your miles expire!

@Echino Buy 1000 LM pronto to get another 12 months!

Any good ways to keep AAdvantage miles from expiring?

With Lifemiles, PLEASE TAKE CARE!

Lifemiles' expiration policy is that miles will expire in 12 months unless you transfer, earn or buy more miles. The policy prior to 15 April 2018 also included redeeming miles as an option to extend the validity period by 24 months.

The old *expiration* policy would continue to apply to the miles earned before the policy change on 15 April 2018 (see https://onemileatatime.com/lifemiles-expiration-policy). I emphasise *expiration* policy because although the old miles would continue to have 24 months of validity, their renewal is subject to the NEW policy (i.e. redemptions cannot extend those old miles).

I learned this the hard way when I lost a little more than 390,000 Lifemiles which expired 1 March 2020. I thought that a redemption that I made on 29 February 2020 would be sufficient to extend the validity. It wasn't.

*cries*

@TC is quite correct~ Take care with LM, who have one of the worst miles expiry regimes in the business.
I suspect the manufactured ease with which miles can expire is quite calculated and deliberate.
Given the massive %ge bonuses available at each sale, there must be many millions (billions?) of miles outstanding on their books. I don't know Latin American accounting goes, but I would imagine that that massive liability would not be a good look on the annual accounts.
So what better solution than to hit the unwary and inattentive with some almost magical expiry chicanery?
Am I being a tad cynical? Nah...….