Most airline mileage accounts require activity every 18 months to keep the account from expiring. An easy way to get activity for just a few miles is to buy a magazine or newspaper subscription with miles. Plus you can get an expensive subscription like to The Economist or The Wall Street Journal which can normally cost well north of $100 for just a few thousand miles in addition to keeping your account active!
AA
Sample offers:
Economist: 51 issues for 3,200 miles.
Barron’s: 26 issues for 1,200 miles.
Time: 56 issues for 300 miles and $2.
Travel + Leisure: 12 issues for 300 miles and $2.
The Wall Street Journal: 190 issues for 2,300 miles
The Wall Street Journal: 254 issues for 2,600 miles
Continental
Note: Currently Continental does not enforce an expiration policy.
Sample offers:
Economist: 51 issues for 3,200 miles.
Barron’s: 26 issues for 1,200 miles.
The Wall Street Journal: 254 issues for 2,600 miles
Financial Times: 300 issues for 2,000 miles
Delta
Sample offers:
Economist: 51 issues for 3,200 miles.
Barron’s: 26 issues for 1,200 miles.
The New York Observer: 49 issues for 500 miles.
United
Sample offers:
Economist: 51 issues for 3,200 miles.
ESPN: 26 issues for 500 miles.
Fast Company: 10 issues for 500 miles.
The Wall Street Journal: 254 issues for 2,600 miles
USAirways
Sample offers:
Economist: 51 issues for 3,200 miles.
Barron’s: 26 issues for 1,200 miles.
Coastal Living: 10 issues for 400 miles.
The New York Observer: 49 issues for 500 miles.
The Wall Street Journal: 190 issues for 2,300 miles
The Wall Street Journal: 254 issues for 2,600 miles
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26 Comments On "Miles Expiring? Pick Up A Magazine Or Newspaper Subscription!"
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A Question for Dan (or anyone else that may know)
We are a whole family flying to Australia with Cathay Pacific.
What is the best thing to do with the miles?
Put them on an AA advantage account?
Open a Cathay Pacific account?
Is there a way to post all the miles onto 1 account?
Anything for expiring BA miles?
Anyone offering the Forbes for points? I now a while back they were offering but I can’t find it anywhere.
Do AA miles have an expiration date?
great post… perfect timing
Jetblue let’s you buy magazine subscriptions with trueblue points. I had a couple of the old points that were expiring so I got some magazines
@Eli:
The best thing is probably to post the miles to everyone’s AA account.
But to answer that definitely I need to know the fare class code from the Cathay Pacific ticket. That’s a single letter (or the first letter) that describes every fare purchased.
@Leo:
The magazine selection changes often. Just keep checking back every so often.
@adamSmiles:
You need to have activity every 18 months.
any idea why/when the FT subscription goes in and out of availability at AA?
@Dan/Ctownbochur:
how does AA define “activity”? Are there any other methods of using less miles to keep an account active? (ie miles transfer?) thanks
@adamSmiles:
I believe gain or use of miles is activity for AA.
A mileage transfer from one person to another would qualify, but it would cost at least $80 to transfer the minimum of 1,000 miles.
I think you’d be far better off redeeming 400 miles (or 300 miles+$2) for a magazine subscription!
Now if you mean a transfer of miles from Starwood to AA, that would count as well and is a fine method to extend the life of both your Starwood account and AA account.
@Dan/Ctownbochur:
Thanks. Does AA send out reminders when miles are coming dues soon?
Anything for starwood points?
united also offers to donate miles
To adamSmiles:
I just got an email from aa saying my miles expire on april 12, so they do give a 6 month notice, at the very least
Time 53 issues is probably not 300 miles…
@gershon:
You can donate 500 Starpoints.
Or you should be able to book a room with starpoints and then cancel it to extend the points…
@Eli W:
Right, it’s 300 miles and $2 as the AA site says it is.
Daniel, thanks for this
how about spirit miles i have 56k expiring now ?
I just ordered time (for $2 and 300 miles) will that make my account active?
otherwise I have two months to use 17.000 miles.
@MosheCR:
Yup, that will do it!
Any way to keep AirTran Miles from expiring? I don’t think the miles will switch to Southwest.
I just got an offer in the mail from www. magsformiles.com to use my continental miles for magazines. They had the biggest selection from all with more than 40 titles including Forbes which I was looking for!!!
@Zvi:
Only by paying them to extend them. They will eventually become Southwest credits.
@Leo:
Note that Continental miles don’t actually expire, although miles for magazines can still be a good use.
@ Dan
The Cathay Pacific flights are from London to Melbourne.
The way there is V.
The return is class H.
Only one of the people flying has miles with AA.
What recourse is there if you don’t receive your magazine/newspaper? I took advantage of the WSJ deal, abut I have only received 1 copy so far!
Can AA miles be transferred into another points program that does allow selling them? If yes, what is the best (most lucrative after taking into accopunt the fees) way to do it?
Who buys AA miles?