Etihad Guest is finally adjusting its mileage expiration policy for the better as of this month. Oddly this policy change was first announced back in November 2019, but was never implemented. Now that is finally changing.
In this post:
Etihad Guest’s old mileage expiration policy
Different loyalty programs have different policies on mileage expiration. Generally speaking mileage expiration policies fall into one of three categories:
- Miles never expire
- Miles don’t expire as long as you have at least some qualifying activity every so often
- Miles expire a certain amount of time after they’re earned, regardless of whether or not you have any activity
Historically Etihad Guest has fallen into that last category, as Etihad Guest miles expired after a certain amount of time, regardless of any qualifying activity. More specifically, Etihad Guest miles expired:
- 24 months after they’re earned for non-elite members
- 30 months after they’re earned for Silver members
- 36 months after they’re earned for Gold and Platinum members
I always found this to be a frustrating policy. You could be really engaged in the program but still have miles expire.
Etihad Airways A380
Etihad Guest’s new mileage expiration policy
As of July 31, 2020, Etihad Guest miles won’t expire as long as you have at least some qualifying activity once every 18 months.
Earning, spending, or buying miles will reset the expiration of your miles by an additional 18 months. Etihad Guest is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, and Citi ThankYou, which is an easy way to transfer miles to reset the expiration.
In the event that there’s no activity, miles will expire on the last day of the 18th month after the last qualifying activity.
Etihad Guest Platinum members won’t have miles expire as long as the status is maintained. While that might sound like a feature, you won’t be a Platinum member if you don’t have any activity at least once every 18 months, so I’m not sure that’s much of a benefit at all.
Etihad A380 first class
Bottom line
Etihad Guest is finally improving its mileage expiration policy. Miles now expire after 18 months of inactivity, rather than expiring after 24-36 months regardless of activity.
Given how easy it should be to have some account activity, I consider this to be a very positive change.
Are you happy to see Etihad change its mileage expiration policy?
What about those months during Covid where travelling was not recommended or practical in my cases? How can the airline just expire them? Secondly, I really dont want them to expire and should be there on the account.
I had some that expired but were reinstated the next day, with an email explaining the new system...which was a relief as I won't be able to fly before most were due to expire!
I have 25k miles expiring on July 31, 2020. I transferred over 1k citi reward points to try to reset the expiration, account is still showing that my miles will expire, even after the transfer went through. Any thoughts?
"Are you happy to see Etihad change its mileage expiration policy?" > Absolutely! Since relocating out of the UAE, I haven't had lots of opportunities to use my EY miles. In fact, I've only used them four times in the past 1.5 years; thrice because they were expiring, and once for my annual self pampering trip in The Apartment.
Lucky, the Platinum exception to the expiry rule could be a benefit if it means that while you have the status all your points are counted as being earned 'today' so the count down of the 18 months only starts if you cease to have status. I agree though, that it would be a rare member of the program who would be platinum and then have no activity for the duration of their status and then another 18 months.