Mile Expiration Policies By Airline: Our Complete Guide

Mile Expiration Policies By Airline

Airline mileage programs have different policies regarding your frequent flier accounts and miles. The policies relating to mileage expiration are among the most important for you to be aware of. We’ve compiled this chart to give you the mile expiration policies for the more popular programs. Updated 3/4/26

Related: Guide to Airline Award Change and Cancellation Fees

Types of Mileage Expiration Policies

There are several types of different mile expiration policies that we should go over first. These will be different by airline program.

• Miles expire after specified period of inactivity – this generally means that as long as there is some activity in your mileage account either from earning or redeeming miles your time period resets
• The miles expire after a specified period from the date of travel or when the miles were earned, regardless of account activity.
• The miles expire after a specified period of time with no earnings activity. Some airlines specify the earning activity must come from paid flights.

Mile Expiration Policies by Airline

Airlines With The Best Expiration Policies

Which airlines have the best expiration policies you ask? That is an easy answer, any that never expire! Those airlines are:

• Aeromexico
• Alaska Airlines
• Delta Airlines
• Jetblue
• Southwest
• United
• Virgin Atlantic

There are a few other lesser known / used airline programs out there that offer this excellent expiration policy too.

Airlines With The Worst Expiration Policies

How about airlines that have the worst mileage expiration policy? There are a couple that I would like to point out:

• The following airlines have their miles expire after 12 months with no qualifying activity:
  • Avianca Lifemiles
  • Frontier Airlines
  • Spirit Airlines
• The following airlines have your miles expire after 18 months with no qualifying activity:
  • Air Canada Aeroplan
  • Etihad Guest
  • Finnair Plus
  • Qantas
• Breeze Airways miles expire 24 months from when they are earned
• ANA & Japan Airlines miles expire in 36 months no matter what you do

I think a short 2 year, or 3 year hard cap is probably worse than the 18 month programs that allow you to extend with any qualifying earning. Which set up do you think is worse?

Ways To Extend Your Miles

For any airline programs that require earning to extend their miles, there are a few easy ways to accomplish that. Here are some of our favorite ways to extend airline miles before they expire (airline program dependent):

• Use the airline’s shopping portal
• Use the airline’s dining program
• Transfer from a transferrable currency
• Transfer a small amount from a hotel partner program
• Buy a small amount of miles during a sale
• Carrying an airline card is good enough sometimes, other times it requires minimal spend every so often.

Just be sure to check your frequent flyer accounts after any activity to ensure their shelf life was extended.

RELATED: Hotel Point Expiration Policies By Loyalty Program

When Do My Miles Expire?

Increasing how long your miles remain active, as well as making it easier to achieve qualifying activities, is a bonus. Nothing is worse than losing miles from your frequent flyer account. Holding miles in programs that have no expiration policies makes life a little bit simpler. It also gives you a little more security, should you have a stash of miles from recent cancellations or miles you transferred for a booking that didn’t work out. It’s nice when you don’t have to constantly monitor those miles or keep doing required activities to avoid losing your stash.

Which airlines have your favorite miles expiration policies? Let me know down below or over in our Facebook Group.

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