Your air miles will not exist forever. In the case of many airlines, your air miles expire every 18 months if you do not redeem them or fly with the air carrier. Often, you can redeem a minimal amount of miles to keep your air miles account active. For example, United Airlines allows frequent flier members to redeem between 400 and 2,500 miles for magazine subscriptions. Such redemption keeps the miles active, allowing additional miles to be built up within the air mile arsenal.
With air miles earned from a credit card or incentive program, you will find a bit more flexibility with expiration dates. Air miles may reactivate themselves each time you charge a purchase, however, you may be given a limit as to how many air miles can accrue before a ticket needs to be redeemed.
Many air mile redemption options are conditional upon certain dates. Traveling during peak times, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Spring Break and Labor Day weekend, may not be allowed with your air miles program. Read all of the fine print, online and in paper form, that comes with your air miles' statement. Black out dates may only kick-in if you book on too short of notice so it is best to know if there is a window that allows you to travel on your air miles at peak times.
The gift of air miles in the form of a free ticket is an excellent gift to receive. Your air miles, however, may or may not be transferable to another party. If the credit card or frequent flier air miles are in one person's name, it may be impossible to book a ticket or redeem the air miles in the name of another. Before promising a free ticket to a friend or loved one it is best to know what the rules of transferability are for your air miles.
