Check Your Loyalty Program Accounts For December 31 Expiring Points & Miles!

Most loyalty programs have extended member tiers and points expiry due to the pandemic that has ravaged the globe for the past 24 months.

Then there are some programs, three that I am a participant in, that have decided that they allow points expire if there is no activity or used by tomorrow, and here’s what I did.

Lufthansa Miles&More

There were 22,000 miles about to expire. So I decided to throw away one Finnair flight ticket that I had purchased (I need to see if I can change it or get a credit) due to a change where I need to be. So I redeemed one award ticket on LOT for 17,000 miles and a $15 Apple gift card for 4,500 miles.

Avianca LifeMiles

I had 5,400 LifeMiles that were about to turn to dust. I utilized the 120% transfer bonus, paid the fee, and a friend received 11,000 miles.

Shangri-La Golden Circle

2,000 Golden Circle points would have been enough for a free night at some of the hotels during the current award sale, but I cannot commit to a date at this point. I ended up redeeming 2,000 points for 2 $100 gift cards at Shangri-La Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

Conclusion

Programs love when points or miles don’t get used, and they expire (breakage). They get to wipe the liability associated with them off the balance sheet (there is always a built-in assumption that certain % never get used).

I hate when programs have fixed mileage expiry, often 36 months, or they expire without any activity, considering that some countries have been soon closed for two years. For example, a friend of mine has 17,000 or so Turkish Miles&Smiles expiring tomorrow and no way to use them.

Have you had miles expire, or what last-minute redemptions have you done to get some value out of them?