For those of us into collecting miles & points, one thing to always be on the lookout for is mileage expiration policies. Programs have different policies when it comes to whether miles expire, and if so, what activity will prevent your miles from expiring.
Even as someone who probably dedicates way too much time to loyalty programs, I’ve had airline miles expire on me, and it’s such a frustrating feeling. In this post I wanted to take a close look at airline mileage expiration policies. When do airline miles expire, and what can you do to prevent them from expiring? In a separate post I looked at hotel points expiration policies.
In this post:
When do airline miles expire?
The major airline loyalty programs have varying policies when it comes to miles expiring. The policies most commonly fit into one of three categories (in order of generosity, starting with the best policy):
- Miles don’t expire, with no need for activity
- Miles expire after a certain amount of time, but only if you don’t have any account activity
- Miles expire after a certain amount of time, regardless of whether or not you have any account activity
With that out of the way, let’s look at the policies of the major airline loyalty programs.
Air Canada Aeroplan points expiration policy
Air Canada Aeroplan points expire after 18 months of inactivity. Any points earning or redemption activity resets the expiration of your points by a further 18 months.
Air France-KLM Flying Blue mileage expiration policy
Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles expire after 24 months of inactivity. Note that only select activity can reset the expiration of your miles, and that includes crediting a flight to the program, or earning miles with a co-branded Air France-KLM credit card. Other points earning activity won’t reset the expiration of your miles.
Alaska Mileage Plan mileage expiration policy
Alaska Mileage Plan miles don’t expire. However, if you don’t have any account activity for over two years, your account may be locked for security reasons, and your miles may be accessed by contacting Mileage Plan and verifying personal details.
All Nippon Airways Mileage Club mileage expiration policy
All Nippon Airways Mileage Club miles expire 36 months after they’re earned. This is a hard expiration, and there’s no way to extend your miles further. The only exception is for million miler members, as their miles never expire.
American AAdvantage mileage expiration policy
American AAdvantage miles expire after 24 months of inactivity. Any mileage earning or redemption activity resets the expiration of your miles by a further 24 months. Furthermore, AAdvantage members under the age of 21, as well as primary cardmembers on a co-branded American Airlines credit card from Barclays or Citi won’t have their miles expire, regardless of account activity.
Avianca Lifemiles mileage expiration policy
Avianca Lifemiles expire after 12 months of inactivity. Note that only earning miles will extend the expiration of your miles by a further 12 months, as redeeming miles doesn’t change your mileage expiration (unlike with most other programs).
British Airways Executive Club Avios expiration policy
British Airways Executive Club Avios expire after 36 months of inactivity. Any Avios earning or redemption activity resets the expiration of your Avios by a further 36 months.
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles mileage expiration policy
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles expire after 18 months of inactivity. Any mileage earning or redemption activity resets the expiration of your mileage by a further 18 months.
Delta SkyMiles mileage expiration policy
Delta SkyMiles don’t expire, regardless of whether or not you have any account activity.
Emirates Skywards mileage expiration policy
Emirates Skywards miles expire roughly three years after they’re earned. I say “roughly,” because in reality they expire at the end of your birthday month three years after they’re earned. In other words, if you earned miles on January 1, 2024, and your birthday is on April 1, then your miles would expire on April 30, 2027. This is a hard expiration, and there’s no way to extend your miles further without paying extra.
The only exception is that Emirates Skywards Platinum members aren’t subject to mileage expiration policies for as long as they maintain the status.
Etihad Guest mileage expiration policy
Etihad Guest miles expire after 18 months of inactivity. However, the only activity that can reset the expiration is crediting an Etihad or partner airline flight to the program. So any non-flying activity wouldn’t reset the expiration of miles, unfortunately.
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands mileage expiration policy
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands miles expire 36 months after they’re earned. This is a hard expiration, and there’s no way to extend your miles further.
Finnair Plus Avios expiration policy
Finnair Plus Avios expire after 18 months of inactivity. Any Avios earning or redemption activity resets the expiration of your Avios by a further 18 months.
Frontier Miles mileage expiration policy
Frontier Miles expire after 12 months of inactivity. Note that only earning miles will extend the expiration of your miles by a further 12 months, as redeeming miles doesn’t change your mileage expiration.
Iberia Plus Avios expiration policy
Iberia Plus Avios expire after 36 months of inactivity. Any Avios earning or redemption activity resets the expiration of your Avios by a further 36 months.
JetBlue TrueBlue points expiration policy
JetBlue TrueBlue points don’t expire, regardless of whether or not you have any account activity.
Lufthansa Miles & More mileage expiration policy
Lufthansa Miles & More miles expire 36 months after they’re earned. This is a hard expiration, and there’s no way to extend your miles further. The only exceptions are for Miles & More elite members, and those holding a co-branded Lufthansa credit card.
Qantas Frequent Flyer points expiration policy
Qantas Frequent Flyer points expire after 18 months of inactivity. Any points earning or redemption activity resets the expiration of your points by a further 18 months.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios expiration policy
Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios expire after 36 months of inactivity. Any Avios earning or redemption activity resets the expiration of your Avios by a further 36 months.
Singapore KrisFlyer mileage expiration policy
Singapore KrisFlyer miles expire 36 months after they’re earned. This is a hard expiration, and there’s no way to extend your miles further. The only exception is for PPS Club and Solitaire PPS Club members, as miles don’t expire for these members.
Southwest Rapid Rewards points expiration policy
Southwest Rapid Rewards points don’t expire, regardless of whether or not you have any account activity.
Spirit Airlines Free Spirit mileage expiration policy
Free Spirit miles expire after 12 months of inactivity. Both earning and redeeming miles would reset the expiration of your miles, so even a basic redemption would help with this.
Turkish Miles&Smiles mileage expiration policy
Turkish Miles&Smiles miles expire 36 months after they’re earned. This is a hard expiration, and there’s no way to extend your miles further without paying a fee.
United MileagePlus mileage expiration policy
United MileagePlus miles don’t expire, regardless of whether or not you have any account activity.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points expiration policy
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points don’t expire, regardless of whether or not you have any account activity.
How do you prevent airline miles from expiring?
Are you finding yourself in a situation where your airline miles are expiring imminently? As you can see, programs have varying policies, with some programs letting you extend the expiration of your miles in conjunction with account activity.
For those programs, what’s the easiest way to reset your airline mileage expiration? You’ll want to check the policy of each specific program, but here are some methods that generally work:
- Most airline loyalty programs let you donate miles to charity, so even a small mileage donation could reset your mileage expiration
- Most airline loyalty programs have online shopping and dining portals, allowing you to earn bonus miles for those activities; that would also reset your mileage expiration
- Most airline loyalty programs have co-branded credit cards, and any spending on those credit cards would earn miles that would reset your mileage expiration
- Most airline loyalty programs sell miles directly to consumers, and even buying a small number of miles would reset your mileage expiration
- Several airline loyalty programs partner with major transferable points currencies, and transferring a small number of of points would reset your mileage expiration
- This is the most obvious, but redeeming miles for a flight, or taking a flight that earns you miles, would also reset your mileage expiration
If you have any airline miles that are close to expiring, just keep in mind how long it could take for miles to post to your account as qualifying activity. For example, if you spend money on a co-branded credit card, it could take weeks before those miles post to your airline account (it usually takes at least until a few days after the statement closes). Meanwhile donating miles to charity, buying miles, or transferring points from another currency, is typically a near instant process in terms of resetting expiration.
Bottom line
Miles earned with airline loyalty programs have varying expiration policies. Some programs don’t expire miles even without activity, other programs only expire miles if you don’t have any activity for a certain period of time, and some programs expire miles after a certain amount of time regardless of activity.
For airline programs that let you reset miles with activity, fortunately that’s quite easy to do, as generally any mileage earning or redemption activity would qualify. Just make sure you always keep an eye on expiration policies.
What has your experience been with airline miles expiring?
Air France/KLM miles expiration is actually more flexible but also complex:
- As long as you don’t credit any flying activity to your account, you can renew your miles by acquiring more miles through non-flight activity. For example, transferring miles from a transferable points program will renew these miles.
- If you earn miles by crediting flight activity to your account, then ALL of your miles become flight activity miles and can only be...
Air France/KLM miles expiration is actually more flexible but also complex:
- As long as you don’t credit any flying activity to your account, you can renew your miles by acquiring more miles through non-flight activity. For example, transferring miles from a transferable points program will renew these miles.
- If you earn miles by crediting flight activity to your account, then ALL of your miles become flight activity miles and can only be extended by taking an eligible flight (and crediting it to Flying Blue), or by being an elite member, or making a purchase with your Air France / KLM Flying Blue credit card.
Had 700K flying blue points expire but they offered to reinstate if I took a delta flight and credited flyingblue
But my Iberia says never expires?
SCOTT
395,000
Avios balance
Iberia Plus number
Valid until
Never expires
Elite Points
The Lufthansa credit card has to show activity every billing cycle to maintain the points.
Expiring of miles should be banned. If its currency than currency should not cease to exist at someone’s whim.
"if its currency than currency should not cease to exist at someone’s whim"
Based on what? What countries follow that rule for (even actual) currency?
I'm not sure Frontier miles expire.
It used to be 6 months and then a year.
Then during covid they put a hiatus on expirations
But now my account no longer shows an expiry date.
Avianca Lifemiles Wrong. I just extended by transferring 1000 Amex points
That's earning miles
For ANA, being a Diamond member will pause any expiration of miles. Once you drop from Diamond status, you get a fresh 36 months of validity.
A few years back I won 100,000 Qatar miles. I spent 60K and had the balance of 40K sitting in my account during the pandemic. Unlike other airlines that suspended expiration during the pandemic, Qatar took my prize winnings away when the miles hit the 3 year mark.
Not only is SQ a hard expiration, they go further. When I used miles about to expire and then had to switch dates due to irregular ops they assured me it was ok. They told me that they would cancel and rebook as soon as the miles came back and told me to log in the next day. In reality, the miles were swallowed up, they never called nor emailed and I was left stranded.
Not only is SQ a hard expiration, they go further. When I used miles about to expire and then had to switch dates due to irregular ops they assured me it was ok. They told me that they would cancel and rebook as soon as the miles came back and told me to log in the next day. In reality, the miles were swallowed up, they never called nor emailed and I was left stranded.
Once I complained the abuse stared. They repeatedly phoned me at 3AM local time to harass me. I explained that I was in the USA and please consider the time.
SQ won, I prefer not to deal with their Krisflyer ever again.
The Singapore info is wrong. You can pay to extend miles. The pricing and time frame is available on the Singapore website, and is more advantageous for those with Silver and above status.
For basic members SQ allows one extension by payment of miles or money. It still is basically a hard expiration after that.
Thx for this extremely clear and useful summary!