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| ON BOARD WITH RANDY PETERSEN |
THE SHELFLIFE OF MILES
October 2003
by Randy Petersen
What if you dropped by the bank one day, only to discover your money was gone?
"Sorry," the teller would say, "we haven't seen any activity in your account for a while, so I'm afraid it's expired."
Sound silly? Perhaps it is—when it comes to money. But with miles, it's all too familiar.
Many frequent travelers still don't fully understand that all major programs have basic mileage expiration policies in place. While they differ in the fine print from program to program, miles in these programs can and will expire if a member's account is completely dormant for three years.
"Dormant" usually means that there is no type of active transaction during those three years. For some programs this requires flight activity; for others it includes partner activity and even award redemption. In the case of American AAdvantage, for example, miles will expire on the third anniversary of your last account activity.
Time does fly, and truly, three years can go by rather quickly.
Frequent flyer programs can be pretty inflexible about mileage expiration, because the dormant period is a full three years after all, and activity might include anything, including a telephone call.
Should you find yourself suddenly bereft of those miles you were counting on for that big rainy—day trip, you really only have one possible remedy—call your program. Explain what happened and why you need your miles, and see if you can get a sympathetic ear. Remember, there is no formal protest procedure in place—what matters more than anything is if you and the representative of the program are both having particularly good days. You cannot sue or otherwise force a program to amend their policy of expiration, so put that avenue out of your mind.
Keep in mind that it could be worse. Many programs, particularly those of international airlines, will expire your miles in a set period of time regardless of the activity in your account.
If you're one of the thousands who have miles stashed in the nooks and crannies of a dozen different programs, remember that managing your miles is a worthwhile investment of your time. There are a handful of computer programs available to help you manage your miles: MaxMiles, MileageManager, MilePro, MileTracker, MyAirMiles, TotalMiles, and Yodlee. Each has its own unique blend of strengths, and each varies to some degree with regard to cost, security, ease of use, supported programs and functionality.
In fact, one of them, MileageManager.com, has a feature that alerts you to expiring miles in many of your accounts.
Ultimately, the service that is right for you is the one that best helps you track and manage your miles and points, and allows you to get the best value from your programs. In the most basic sense, these services are tools that can be used to maximize the efficient use of your frequent travel programs, giving you more control than if you simply left the management and accumulation of your miles and points to random chance.
You can contact Randy Petersen at randy@insideflyer.com.
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