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
| Airline | Mile Expiration Policy |
|---|---|
| Aer Lingus | 36 months with no qualifying activity |
| Aeromexico | Never expire (miles earned after 4/10/23) |
| Air Canada (Aeroplan) | 18 months with no qualifying activity |
| Alaska Atmos | Miles don't expire, but your account can be shut down after 24 months with no account activity |
| American Airlines | 24 months with no qualifying activity |
| ANA | 36 months after they are earned |
| Asiana | 10-12 years, depending on your status and how the miles were earned |
| Avianca Lifemiles | 12 months with no earning activity |
| Breeze Airways | 24 months from when they are earned. |
| British Airways | 36 months with no account activity |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 18 months with no qualifying activity |
| Delta | Never expire |
| Emirates | 3 years from when they are earned, then they expire in your birth month of that year |
| Etihad | 18 months from last qualifying activity; miles never expire for Platinum elites. |
| Finnair | 18 months with no account activity |
| Flying Blue (Air France / KLM) | 24 months with no account activity |
| Frontier | 12 months with no earning activity |
| Iberia | 36 months with no account activity |
| Japan Airlines | 36 months after they are earned, regardless of other activity |
| Jetblue | Never |
| Korean | 10 years from when they are earned |
| Latam | 3 years from when they are earned |
| Lufthansa | 36 months after the miles are earned; unless you have elite status or a Lufthansa credit card, which allows you to extend them |
| Qantas | 18 months with no account activity |
| Qatar | 3 years from when they are earned; if earned in the first half of the year, they expire June 30; if earned in the second half of the year, they expire December 31 |
| Singapore | 3 years after they are earned |
| Southwest | Never |
| Spirit Airlines | 12 months without qualifying activity |
| Starlux Airlines | 36 months from the end of the month in which they were earned. |
| TAP Portugal | 36 months from when earned. You can pay to extend them. |
| Thai Airways | 3 years (end of the quarter) from when earned |
| Turkish Airlines | 36 months from when they are earned |
| United | Never |
| Virgin Atlantic | Never |
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.
[…] Expiration Policies: Bookmark this updated page from Miles to Memories for all the different airline mileage expiration policies. This is especially important if you […]
Time to update this post as it will be 2024 soon..
Thank you,
Giovanni
[…] Here is a nice summary of airline mile expiration policies, by Miles to Memories. […]
Etihad and Qatar no longer expire with acticity.
Activity (sorry)
Air France/ KLM??
Added it in – thanks!
Air France/Flying Blue requires a Sky Team flight every 24 months – or one of their credit cards.
Thank you so much. I gather ANA miles, and falsely assumed that each time I earned more miles with credit card usage, ALL my miles would be extended 36 months! But this is definitely bad news, as my miles will slowly vanish now if unused! We really have to be careful with everyone nowadays!
I think Lufthansa is wrong- they can’t be extended unless you have the credit card. Even if you have the card I think there is some weird rule about needing to use it each month or something like that.
Asia Miles/Cathay Pacific miles expire after 18 months of no activity. This is a new change for since you now can keep miles from expiring by adding, using or transferring miles.
SQ could be added. Krisflyer miles expire in January after 36 months. No extensions unless you pay.
what about frontier?
[…] reference with all the airline mile expiration policies. Remember, only Delta and JetBlue miles never […]
you might recheck Avianca Lifemiles, I believe the policy is you need to earn every 12 months not just have some activity.
I think you’re right – transferring in works, using miles does not. The 10 years from the flight on Korean is confusing. I’ve never flown Korean, but I’ve transferred miles in their and earned them on the branded CC. Does it just mean 10 years from when you earned? I think Turkish should be added to this list, since it is a TYP partner
Thank you guys! I’ll fix this over the weekend.