Breathing life into expiring miles

Current rules surrounding frequent flier miles are much stricter than they used to be.  For example, at United, your miles expire after 18 months if there is no activity in the account.  So what do you do, if you don’t fly.

I have miles in accounts with United, British Airways and Continental.  This article is focused mostly on United, but the principles apply to pretty much all frequent flier plans.

There are a number of options.  Here are a few:

• Rent a car. You may not get many miles, but at least you will create a transaction in your account.  Weekend car rentals can be really cheap too.
• Get a Visa card that is affiliated with an airline, and use it every month.  This eliminates the problem altogether since you can make sure that you purchase something every month.
• Stay in a hotel. Hilton gives you points in their HHONORS plan and also puts miles into your account.
• Buy some miles. This is a last resort option as airlines charge a lot of money when they sell you miles.
• Donate some miles. Although this forces you to give up a few miles, it costs you nothing, and donating 1,000 miles is a much better option than allowing several thousand to expire.  Almost every airline allows you to donate miles to a charity of your choice — and this triggers a transaction in your account giving you another 18 months.
• Take a trip. Earn some miles in the program that is about to expire.
• Spend your miles. Miles don’t collect interest, and, as the airlines make economies, it becomes increasingly difficult and expensive to spend your miles.  So don’t let miles hang about in your account.  Book a trip as soon as you have enough to do something nice.

If you follow one of these tips, you can be sure that the miles you have accumulated never expire.