The Smartest Way To Keep Your Airline Miles From Expiring

It’s heartbreaking to watch your airline miles vanish in an instant, especially if you’ve worked hard to earn them. Apart from a few exceptions like Delta and JetBlue, airline miles are set to expire after a certain period of inactivity. Loyalty members can pay a fee to have them reactivated, but it’s smarter to keep your airline miles from expiring in the first place.

Read: The Only Beginners Guide To Frequent Flyers You Need

1. Book A Reward Ticket

One of the smartest ways to keep your airline miles from expiring is to book a reward ticket. There needs to be some movement in your account, any movement, to keep your account from expiring. Go on the holiday that you’ve longed for. Take a weekend or maybe even a week off and fly somewhere. Use your airline miles, because that is what they are there for. When you book a reward seat, it resets the expiration calendar to the last date of activity.

Read: Buying Airline Tickets With Credit Card Miles

2. Donate Airline Miles To Charity

The ever so popular The Points Guy did an experiment where he donated 1,000 airline miles from his father’s account to Make A Wish Foundation. His father’s airline miles were days away from expiring, and if they had expired he would have had to pay $200 to have to reactivate again. So rather than spending some money, they donated 1,000 out of 27, 638 airline miles. Since there was movement in the account it stayed active and during the process, the father and son duo managed to do a good deed.

Read: Airline Miles Secrets Worth Knowing

3. Transfer Your Airline Miles Or Buy Them

A lot of airlines allow their members to transfer their airline miles to their partner programs. Airline miles can be transferred to a hotel loyalty program or transferred to another member for free. There is also a possibility to buy airline miles as well. You can easily top up your airline miles account by buying airline miles directly through an airline or a mileage broker. Since buying airline miles will cause some activity in your account it will reset your mileage balance clock.

Read: Common Mistakes To Avoid When Redeeming Airline Miles

4. Shop To Keep Your Airline Miles From Expiring

Don’t worry we’re not going to tell you to run around in a mall and buy everything you see. Airlines have made it easy for you to shop in the comfort of your home. You can keep your frequent flyer miles from expiring if you shop through the airlines shopping portal. Shopping through the airlines portal will not only keep the account active but during the process, you can easily earn more airline miles.

5. Rent A Car Instead Of Flying

A lot of car rental companies who have partnered with different airlines provide a handful of airline miles to those who rent their cars. Be sure to pay particular attention to car rental websites and airline websites, which have airline miles bonus offers. Yes, it is true car rental companies levy a surcharge (which costs about a buck), but that tiny amount is worth it if you need to rent a car and keep your airline miles from expiring.