Update, 9/24/20: Virgin Atlantic miles (now marketed as points), will no longer expire!

Update, 7/20/20: Air Canada Aeroplan miles validity can now be extended for 18 months with any earning or redemption activity, up from 12 months. If your miles expired less than 6 months in the past they can be reactivated by taking an Air Canada flight or opening an Air Canada credit card. If your miles expired in 2020 and you had a cancelled flight booked before today, you can contact Aeroplan and have your miles reactivated for free!

It’s always a good idea to check the expiration dates of your miles at least a couple of times per year, so login to your accounts and make sure none of your miles are expiring!

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Originally posted on 2/18/15:

Read more about cards, points, and miles in this updated post for beginners.

Expiration of credit card points:

• Points earned from an airline or hotel credit card, where the points are deposited monthly into your airline/hotel account like Marriott, are not forfeited by closing the card.  The points are subject to the normal expiration dates listed in the chart below. Some representatives use scare tactics and say that all of your points or tickets will be lost if you cancel the card, but it’s just misinformation.
• Credit card point programs (American Express Membership Rewards, Barclays Arrival Premier, Capital One Venture, Citi ThankYou Points, Chase Ultimate Rewards, etc.) do not expire as long as you keep a card open that is enrolled in their respective program. Some programs store points individually under each card account, so be sure to transfer points from that card account to another account before cancelling that card. If you do accidentally close a card before moving the points to another card you can try reactivating the card, moving the points over, and cancelling the card once again. Note that only select cards from each program have the ability to transfer points into miles.

Keeping points alive:

There are thousands of ways to generate activity to keep points alive.

• One easy and free method that works with many programs is to book an award flight or hotel night and then cancel it. Be sure that the airline allows for free cancellations on award flights or the hotel allows for free cancellations before doing this. Note that this will extend miles in many, though not in all programs. It has worked for me with British Airways, United, and IHG, among others.
• If you have transferable points you can move points from programs like AMEX, Barclays, Capital One, Chase, Citi, or Marriott to an airline to keep your entire account alive. Note that some airlines require the name on the Marriott account to match the name on the airline account. You can transfer Marriott points to other members and from there transfer points to an airline.
• Another easy way to extend your miles is by redeeming a few hundred miles for a magazine subscription. Redeeming miles is safer than the various methods of earning miles, as point earnings don’t always post and it can turn into a fight in case your account expires. But as with everything else in life when you’re paying for something you can be sure that it will always post without any fighting required 😉
  • MagsForMiles offers redemption options for Alaska, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, Spirit, and United
  • Newspaper Rewards offers newspaper redemption options for Alaska, American, Hawaiian, JetBlue, and United
  • Additional Alaska Magazine Offers
  • Additional Delta Magazine Offers
  • Additional JetBlue Magazine Offers

Reactivating expired miles:

You can credit past car rentals towards your airline mileage account. Most car rentals earn a nominal amount of airline miles, but you can call the car rental company to credit your airline mileage account up to a year after the car rental.  If you lost your miles 6 months ago you would have to locate a car rental from more than 6 months ago, but less than 12 months ago. Shortly after the miles post to their account it should automatically reactivate all of their miles retroactively to the date of the car rental.  Just don’t forget to add new activity to prevent that from happening again!

The same process would work for past hotel stays or other activities that can be credited towards airline miles.

Some airlines, like British Airways, will actually reinstate miles for free if you just call and ask nicely. BA will give you 3 additional months to use or redeem some miles to keep your account alive for another 3 years.

Other airlines like American will charge to reactivate miles, but those are often worthwhile if you don’t have any other avenues.

American also has a unique challenge that I wrote about in 2009 that allows you to reactivate miles by completing tasks like opening a credit card or flying on a paid AA flight. Since then they’ve added a small fee to take that challenge, but it should be much cheaper than paying to reactivate the miles outright.

Points transfers:

In the chart below you can see transfer options from American Express Membership Rewards, Barclays Arrival Premier, Capital One Venture, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, or Marriott points. Note that the rates below don’t factor in limited time promotions that temporarily increase the transfer ratio,

Chase premium cards with transferable points include:

• Chase Ink Business Preferred
  • $95 annual fee, 100K points signup bonus, earn 3 points per dollar on select business spending and travel, 25% bonus value on using points for paid travel redemptions.

• Chase Sapphire Preferred
  • $95 annual fee, 80K points signup bonus, earn 2 points per dollar on dining/travel, 25% bonus value on using points for paid travel redemptions.
• Chase Sapphire Reserve
  • $550 annual fee, $300 in annual travel credit, $60 annual Doordash credit, Doordash Dashpass membership, Lyft VIP status, 50K points signup bonus, earn 3 points per dollar on dining/travel, 50% bonus value on using points for paid travel redemptions, Global Entry/Pre-check, Priority Pass lounge access.

Chase no annual fee cards with transferable points if you, a spouse, or an additional user have one of the premium cards above include:

• Chase Ink Business Unlimited Card
  • No annual fee, 50K points signup bonus, earn 1.5 points per dollar everywhere.
• Chase Ink Business Cash Card
  • No annual fee, 50K points signup bonus, earn up to 5 points per dollar.

• Chase Freedom Flex Card
  • No annual fee, 20K points signup bonus, earn 5 points per dollar in rotating categories and 5 points per dollar on groceries for your first cardmembership year.
• Chase Freedom Unlimited Card
  • No annual fee, 20K points signup bonus, earn 1.5-3 points per dollar everywhere, earn 5 points per dollar on groceries for your first cardmembership year.

AMEX cards with transferable points include:

• AMEX Blue Business Plus
  • No annual fee, earns 2 points per dollar spent everywhere on up to $50K in annual spending.
  • For rates and fees of the AMEX Blue Business Plus Card, please visit here.
• AMEX Platinum Business
  • $595, earn 1.5 points per dollar on eligible $5K+ transactions, $200 in annual airline fee credits, Marriott and Hilton Gold status, 35% points rebate on paid airfare redemptions, Global Entry/Pre-check, AMEX Global lounge collection access.
  • For rates and fees of the AMEX Platinum Business Card, please visit here.
• AMEX Gold Business Card
  • $295 annual fee, 25% points rebate on paid airfare redemptions, earn 4 points per dollar on your most common spending categories each billing cycle.
  • For rates and fees of the AMEX Gold Business Card, please visit here.
• AMEX Platinum Consumer Card
  • $550 annual fee, earn 5 points per dollar on airfare, $200 in annual airline fee credits, up to $200 in annual Uber credit, up to $100 in annual Saks credit, Marriott and Hilton Gold status, Global Entry/Pre-check, AMEX Global lounge collection access.
• AMEX Gold Consumer Card:
  • $250 annual fee, earn up to 4 points per dollar, $100 in annual airline fee credits.

• AMEX Everyday Preferred Consumer Card
  • $95 annual fee, earn between 1.5-4.5 points per dollar everywhere with 30+ monthly transactions.
• AMEX Everyday Consumer Card 
  • No annual fee, earn between 1.2-2.4 points per dollar everywhere with 20+ monthly transactions.

Barclays cards with transferable points include:

• Barclays Arrival Premier World Elite (No longer available to new customers)

Capital One cards with transferable points include:

• Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card
  • $95 annual fee, 100K signup bonus, earn 2 miles per dollar spent (good for 2% back on paid travel or transferable into 1.5 airline miles). Get free Global Entry/Pre-Check Membership.
• Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business
  • $95 annual fee waived for first year,  50K bonus miles for spending $5,000 in 3 months and another 150K bonus miles for spending another $45,000 in 6 months, for a total of 300,000 miles, earn 2 miles per dollar spent (transferable into 1.5 airline miles). Get free Global Entry/Pre-Check Membership.

Marriott earning cards include:

• Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Consumer Card
  • $95 annual fee, 100K point signup bonus, annual 35K points anniversary night, earn 2 points per dollar everywhere and 6 points per dollar at Marriott hotels, Silver elite status and earn Gold status with $35K annual spending, free premium in-room internet.
• Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card
  • $125 annual fee, annual 35K points anniversary night, earn 2 points per dollar everywhere, 4 points per dollar on US gas, wireless service, and shipping, and 6 points per dollar at Marriott hotels, Silver elite status and earn Gold status with $35K annual spending, free premium in-room internet.
  • For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card, please visit here.
• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant^™ American Express^® Card
  • $450 annual fee, $300 in annual Marriott credit, free 50K anniversary night, earn 2 points per dollar everywhere, 3 points per dollar on US dining and airlines, and 6 points per dollar at Marriott hotels, Gold elite status and earn Platinum status with $75K annual spending, free premium in-room internet.

Citi premium cards with transferable points include:

• Citi Premier Card
  • $95 annual fee waived for the first year. 3 points per dollar on travel and gas, and 2 points per dollar on dining and entertainment.
• Citi Prestige Card
  •  $495 annual fee. 5 points per dollar on airfare and dining, and 3 points per dollar on hotels.

Citi no annual fee cards with transferable points if you or someone you know have one of the premium cards above include:

• Citi Rewards+ Card
  • $0 annual fee. Every purchase is rounded up to the nearest 10 points, so a 1 cent transaction earns 10 points, earn 2 points per dollar on the first $6,000 in annual supermarket and gas station spending. Get 10% of your redeemed points back, up to a 10,000 points rebate annually.
• Citi Double Cash Card
  • $0 annual fee. Earn 2 points per dollar everywhere, good for 2% cash back or transfer into ThankYou points.

Other hotel programs also have mileage transfer options, but the transfer ratios are typically quite poor and are therefore not included in this post.

In general, there is no good way to transfer miles from an airline program to any other program. Once they are in an airline mileage program they are stuck there, they can’t be reverted into credit card points, hotel points, etc. That’s why it’s normally a good idea to keep your points as credit card points or hotel points until you are ready to redeem them.

Mileage expiration policies:

There are 4 main categories of expiration policies.

1. All miles can be extended with any redemption activity, including earning miles, transferring miles from a credit card or hotel program, or using miles. In these cases I’ve highlighted “redeem or earn” in the chart below.
2. All miles can be extended only by earning miles, including earning miles or transferring miles from a credit card or hotel program. In these cases I’ve highlighted “earn” in the chart below.
3. All miles can be extended only by taking a paid flight and crediting that flight to the program. It’s important to make sure that the flight is in a fare class that earns miles, which you can do by calling the airline or checking a site like WhereToCredit. Most programs in this category also allow partner flights to extend the validity of your miles, though LATAM requires a LATAM flight only. In these cases I’ve highlighted “earn…from a paid flight” in the chart below.
4. Miles can’t be extended with activity. Each mile earned will expire a certain amount of time after they are earned and you must use it by the deadline or it will be forfeited. In these cases I’ve highlighted “regardless of activity” in the chart below.

Questions? Find a mistake? Is your favorite program not on the list? Post a comment!