Keep Your Airline Miles From Expiring
with
Jonathon E. Stewart
It can take a long time to build up a healthy stockpile of airline miles, but if you're not careful they can vanish in a flash. See how to keep your frequent flyer miles from expiring.
Transcript: Keep Your Airline Miles From Expiring
Hey guys -- Jonathon Stewart here for About.com. Ya know, ya save up all those miles over the years -- a few here from that spring break trip to Albuquerque, a few there from a mileage plus credit card you had in the '80s -- all just waiting for that perfect opportunity to cash in and disappear to Thailand for a few weeks, or forever. And just when you're ready to go, you get the bad news: they've expired. Say what? But this doesn't have to happen to you -- check it out.Know Your Frequent Flyer Miles Rules
Amassing frequent flyer miles is a great way to earn free travel, but especially in an economy in which even the big guys are trimming the fat, you just mind find new restrictions cropping up with regard to their use. Before you do anything else, be sure to read up on the rules and regulations regarding your miles on an airline by airline basis - in many cases you'll find that the expiration thresholds for inactive accounts have shrunk over the years. These days you might even discover your favorite airline no longer exists. So even if you have a billion TWA miles stockpiled, at most airports, that and six bucks pretty much only gets you a small latte and a napkin.Keep Track of Your Miles Online
Next, make sure that you have online access to your mileage plan. Registering is generally very easy, and if you have any trouble, you can always call your airline to assist. Once you're logged in, you should be able to see exactly when your miles are set to expire. All you have to do now is act before that date. And, fortunately, keeping your miles active is pretty simple. You don't even need to fly anywhere.Using Frequent Flyer Miles
Most frequent flyer programs require any kind of activity, which can include the following: redeeming miles for travel or merchandise, shopping for merchandise in an airline's network of online retailers, signing up for an airline mileage credit card, registering with select dining programs, buying groceries, and signing up with websites that offer a modicum of miles for filling out a survey or questionnaire.You can also transfer miles to a family member for a fee or pay real money to buy miles, but in both cases you pretty much end up spending more than the miles are actually worth, especially considering how many other ways there are to keep them alive.
Finally, consider donating a small chunk of miles to charity, which generally doesn't cost anything other than the miles you donate, and typically go directly to organizations that rely heavily on donations to cover travel expenses, like Make-A-Wish or the Red Cross.
Be sure to check directly with your airline's program to be sure what works and what doesn't, but all in all, you should be able to keep stockpiling those miles for years to come. Or until they find some new way to make them unusable.
Thanks for watching! To learn more, visit us on the Web at About.com.