The rules and conditions of most frequent-flyer programs mandate that miles expire if a member’s account has been inactive for a specified time period, usually ranging from 12 to 36 months. Program members who discover that their miles have expired may be able to reclaim them.
Go to your frequent-flyer program’s website and access your account. Note the forfeit date, if miles have been deducted due to expiration.
Check your financial records and travel files to determine your most recent program activity. Qualifying activities may include mileage earnings for flights and transactions with partners (such as hotels, rental car agencies and credit card companies), as well as mileage redemptions for flights, magazine subscriptions and other purchases. Confirm whether this activity appears in your mileage account’s activity history.
Navigate to the program’s rules and conditions page. Find the rules governing the expiration of miles. Make note of the language describing the exact time that miles expire. (For example, Delta SkyMiles miles expire “midnight Eastern . . . 24 months from the date of the last activity.”)
Determine whether your most recent qualifying activity occurred within the prescribed time period preceding the forfeit date or outside of it.
Follow the steps in Section 2 if the activity occurred within the time period. Follow the steps in Section 3 if the activity occurred outside the time period.
Contact the program’s customer service by telephone, if you had a qualifying activity during the expiration period.
Explain the relevant activities and dates to the representative. Follow her instructions on how to reverse the mileage forfeit or how to file an appeal. You may have to request a missing mileage credit from the airline or one its partners.
Take notes during all conversations with customer service, including date, time, and the representative’s name, in case you need to file a written appeal.
Keep track of the status of your appeal. Once the miles for the activity posts, the forfeited miles should be reinstated to your account automatically. Unless program rules indicate otherwise, the date listed for the activity should be the actual date of the activity, not the date that the miles are credited to your account.
Follow the steps in Section 3, if the mileage program denies your appeal
Check the rules of your frequent-flyer program to determine whether you can reactivate miles, if you had no qualifying activity during the expiration period. Some programs have strict rules that prevent expired miles from being reclaimed. Others have reactivation procedures that require members to pay a fee to reinstate their forfeited miles.
Determine the cost of reclaiming your miles, if your program allows reactivation. Find the rules governing mileage reactivation on the program's website. Programs typically charge a fee based on the number of miles reactivated. (For example, American Airlines’s AAdvantage program charges a $30 processing fee plus $50 for every 5,000 miles reactivated.)
Determine whether the value of the forfeited miles is worth more to you than the cost of reactivating them. (For example, reactivating 25,000 AAdvantage miles—usually the lowest amount needed to redeem miles for one domestic round-trip ticket—costs $280.)
Call your program’s customer service line and request that your miles be reactivated. Be prepared to provide your account number and credit card information.
