Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Jul 20, 2025

How to avoid losing expiring airline miles – no flying necessary

How to avoid losing expiring airline miles – no flying necessary

Keep those valuable frequent flier points, but don’t become a miles millionaire
Air miles are great – if you use them. It’s so easy to sign up for a loyalty programme, and then forget that you’ve done so, and never bother to check your status. Even if you remember (or are reminded by the airline that a bunch of your frequent flier miles are going to expire), often people just can’t be bothered to deal, and let those valuable loyalty points go.

According to a report by Bankrate.com, almost half of American adults who participate in airline and hotel rewards programmes have let points or miles expire. And they’re underestimating the value of that loss.

“We wanted to do this [study] to show people that you’re probably sitting on some value that you might not even know about,” says Bankrate.com credit card analyst Ted Rossman. “A lot of people do let [airline miles] expire, and a lot of people don’t know how much they’re worth.”

Although everyone’s guilty of letting miles go, millennials are doing so at a higher rate, even though they’re the demographic more likely to sign up for airline loyalty programmes in the first place.

“People in that age group might not be realising how valuable they could be,” Rossman says. “They think, ‘Oh, it’s only 10,000 miles, or something, how much could that be worth?’ What people don’t realise is that there can be a compounding effect – that you save these up and don’t let them expire, and then it does turn into a real trip.”

While you want to hold onto your miles and make sure you don’t let them expire, you also don’t want to hoard them forever. They’re more valuable being used than saved.

“You don’t really want to be a points millionaire,” Rossman says. “I know it kind of sounds fun, but really, the purpose of these is to use them, and they generally will not get more valuable over time.”

Rossman’s advice is to save your airline miles until you reach a certain goal, then spend them. It’s dangerously easy to let them expire, but there are more strategies out there to keep them active than people realise.

One strategy to top up the expiration clock is to shop for things you would have normally needed to buy.

“If you don’t have a trip coming up, you can still keep these points and miles active by making a purchase through an airline’s shopping portal,” Rossman says. “American Airlines is a good example. You can click through their shopping portal and go to retailers that you would have made a purchase from anyway.” Asiamiles is another programme that allows you to earn miles from a vast range of stores all over the world.

Airlines may be associated with major retailers; buying a TV or a tank top will buy you time on your airline miles. Just log into the airline’s shopping site with your frequent-flier number and look for everyday items. Some airlines also offer the option to buy magazine subscriptions.

If your airline of choice allows it, you can go even cheaper by using iTunes.

“You could make a 99-cent purchase through iTunes, bank that mile to your American Airlines account or any other programme that offers this, and that’ll reset the clock,” Rossman says.

Another closely related mile-extending trick is using a dining rewards programmes.

“Most airlines and a bunch of hotels have these dining rewards programmes that you could participate in,” he says.

“As long as you enrol and you go to a participating restaurant – this could be a neighbourhood place you were planning to go anyway – and bank those points or miles there, that’s going to be qualifying activity that’s going to reset your expiration clock.”

For those feeling generous, you can also gift miles to friends, family or donate them to charity. For example, Etihad Airways partners with Doctors Without Borders as an option for frequent fliers who would like to donate miles. Virgin Atlantic partnered with WE, a charity that empowers people in rural communities to break out of the cycle of poverty. Several airlines give you the option of donating to a range of charities. You can give away even a fraction of your miles to a person and organisation to add more time to the rest of the miles you’re saving.

Better yet, skip the hassle of worrying about your expiring miles by becoming loyal to an airline that doesn’t let your miles expire in the first place, like Delta and JetBlue. The good news is that it may even become a trend in the industry: just this August, United Airlines announced that its miles would no longer expire, as well, while in December, Cathay Pacific announced the same.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
President Trump Visits Flood-Ravaged Texas, Praises Community Strength and First Responders
×