Your Miles have an Expiration Date
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American Airlines launched its AAdvantage program in 1981. United Airlines followed soon after with Mileage Plus. Today, virtually every airline has its own frequent flyer program.
As they've spread, these programs have evolved beyond their initial purpose of encouraging air travel; today, they're lines of business unto themselves. Rather than being limited to miles actually flown, members can earn miles for dining, shopping, and using credit cards. They can also redeem their miles for gifts, electronics, and other merchandise as well as the traditional free tickets and upgrades.
With these enhancements has also come a price: airline miles expire.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Am I telling you that after you've spent all of that time building up miles, they're going to disappear before you can use them. Well, maybe. That actually depends on the airline.
Not all frequent flyer programs are created equal. On one side are the programs maintained by the legacy carriers, a term for the seven airlines that remain from the days of regulation. (We used to call these the major airlines, but that's a category based on revenue; today, they aren't the only ones that qualify.)
The legacy carriers--American, United, U.S. Airways, Delta, Northwest, Continental, and Alaska Air--generally award travelers one frequent flyer mile for every actual mile flown, plus bonuses and whatever other specials apply. These miles are valid for three years from the date of last activity, defined as the last time that miles were earned or redeemed. That's important, because you can maintain your miles with a legacy airline with just one activity every three years.
On the other side of the coin is the low-cost model, favored by popular leading carriers like Southwest, Airtran, and JetBlue. The low-cost model awards points or credits based on travel within regions. These points generally expire one year after the date of issue, and while specific terms and special offers vary by carrier, there may be no way to extend them.
Now, a few considerations. First of all, not every low-cost carrier follows the low-cost model. Frontier Airlines, for instance, is a low-cost airline, but its EarlyReturns frequent flyer program uses miles rather than points, and they don't expire as long as there's activity within a two-year window.
Ssecondly, while the legacy airlines allow their frequent flyers to buy magazines, cameras, and other merchandise, the programs run by the low-cost carriers tend to focus on air travel (meaning free tickets and, for the few low-cost carriers that offer two classes of service, upgrades). All things being equal, it usually takes fewer flights to earn the credits that you need to get a free "anytime" ticket with a low-cost airline than it takes to earn enough miles for the same ticket with a legacy carrier.
With that in mind, if you plan to join a frequent flyer program, here are some tips that can help you decide which type of program to join to get the most value out of your personal travel habits:
Choose a single airline and do your best to always fly with that carrier. If your airline of choice has partners, you can fly with them, but don't sign up for their loyalty programs. Miles can't realistically be transferred between accounts or combined, even among partners. Consider where you want to travel. If you want to earn miles to take a trip outside of North America, you'd want to use one of the legacy carriers as your main airline. (No low-cost carrier currently has its own or partnered service outside of North America.) If most of your traveling is inside the United States and you travel often, you'll earn free tickets faster with a frequent flyer program that follows the low-cost model. If you don't travel often, go with a program that uses the legacy model. The key factor is that there be a way to extend your credit so that it doesn't expire. You don't want to have 96 credits and find out that the first 20 expire two days before you'd get the four you'd need for that 100-credit free fare.
There's no doubt that it takes some effort to learn the workings of frequent flyer programs, and true mastery is downright challenging. If you follow the guidelines presented here, though, you can make informed decisions that will help you get the most value out of your travels and allow you to see more of the world on whatever budget you can afford.
That's what matters.
Related Tags: travel, airline, rewards, mileage, miles, elite status, frequent flyer
James C. Samans is the author of Spontaneous Tourism: The Busy Person's Guide to Travel. He travels more than 200,000 miles each year by air, rail, road, and sea and holds elite status with United, Continental, and Amtrak.
Visit his web site at http://www.spontaneoustourism.com or email him at author@spontaneoustourism.com.
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