When I traveled around the world for six months in 2007, I racked up more than 80,000 frequent flier miles. Once I returned to the U.S., all of my travel was by car, so I didn’t have an opportunity to redeem any of my mileage. I discovered that my frequent filer miles were due to expire because there had been no activity on my account for 18 months – and my 18 month deadline was fast approaching.
Initially I thought about going out to California to visit some friends, but the more I tried to purchase a ticket, the more frustrated I became. At one point I thought I had figured it out, until discovering at the last minute that the airline’s web site had booked me into Santa Barbara on the outbound leg but through San Diego on the return leg. Eventually I decided I just wasn’t meant to go and started looking for another solution. I phoned the airline and asked if I could buy a certificate with my frequent flier miles and redeem it any time during the next year. No, they don’t do that. Could I pay a fee to extend my miles? Nope, they don’t do that either.
The customer service representative’s only suggestion was to buy a magazine subscription through the web site, which would extend my mileage for another 18 months. But the last thing I need is more garbage in my mailbox; with the amount of travel I do I am always trying to get rid of extraneous mail. Her suggestion did, however, get me thinking. I discovered that in addition to partner airlines, hotels, and car rental firms, airlines have partner retailers. One of them, Office Max, was the solution to my problem. With a quick purchase of printer ink – which I needed anyway – I saved my mileage. I also discovered that I could have donated a minimum of 1,000 miles to one of several non-profit organizations, bought 1,000 miles for 2.5 cents per mile, or even enrolled into the airline’s dining and entertainment program and had dinner at a participating restaurant to extend my mileage.
I was lucky; I figured this out only seven days prior to my 18 month deadline. Airlines rarely tell you that your miles are about to expire. They also frequently change their programs without notice – many mileage programs used to allow 36 months of inactivity before taking miles away. (Forbes has a great web page that lists the specifics of every frequent flier program). Even when I logged on to my airline account page, my expiration date was nowhere to be found, so if you have frequent flier accounts it’s wise to check them regularly in order to keep frequent flier miles from expiring.
In my view, in fact, doing so is right, very supportive of your point of view.
Feel your article is very unique, great, reading your article is a pleasure.
I have had a thousands of miles get lost by airport rules and regulations. So much so that i have switched plans as my own form of protest. I travel a lot, and if they can’t be bother to help me, than I can’t be bothered to give them money 🙂
keep it away. come on
You wouldn’t believe it but I have wasted all day digging for some articles about this. You’re a lifesaver, it was an excellent read and has helped me out to no end. Cheers,
United threw away tens of thousands of my miles. I used to fly them all the time, even when they were a bit more expensive, because they would sometimes upgrade me for nothing because I was a good customer.
Then they changed their policy. They wouldn’t even move me closer to the front of economy class unless I paid them $100. Their service was the worst. Their prices were the highest. I stopped flying them…
Living in England I didn’t have options, like you, of participating retail outlets (but thanks for letting me know of the charity idea — I probably could have saved my miles that way), so I just let the miles expire. They weren’t much use — United never had flights available for air miles when I wanted to travel (no matter when it was!) to spend their miles and collecting more meant paying more for less.
In the end, I think they were stupid. I was a good customer. Now I never fly them if I can help it.