How to Save Your Expiring Travel Points

Delta, United, Southwest, and JetBlue miles don't expire as long as you remember they exist once every couple years. American Airlines will actually kill your miles after 24 months, because American likes to keep things interesting.

The fix is so simple it feels like cheating. Buy something through the airline's shopping portal. Any airline, any purchase. A $12 spatula from Amazon via the United portal resets your expiration clock for two more years. You now have a spatula and your miles are immortal. This is why capitalism won.

Or transfer 1,000 points from your Chase Sapphire card to your airline account. Takes about as long as this sentence, and your airline interprets this as "activity" so your miles stop threatening to leave you.

Every airline publishes what counts as qualifying activity, usually on a page buried somewhere between "Baggage Fees" and "Why We Cancelled Your Flight." Five minutes of reading might save you from doing something desperate.

Marriott and Hyatt give you 24 months of inactivity before your points disappear into whatever dimension unused loyalty rewards go to. They're not bluffing.

The nuclear option: Book one night at the cheapest property in the chain. Marriott has Category 1 hotels where a night costs about as many points as a decent sandwich. Your account shows signs of life, the expiration clock resets, and you don’t even have to show up.

Or get the hotel's credit card. IHG points literally never expire if you have their credit card, which suggests that preventing point expiration might be the card's primary feature rather than a perk.

Check your hotel loyalty program's website for their specific expiration policy. It's usually in the FAQ, right below "How do I complain about housekeeping?"

The Amex Platinum has a $200 airline credit and a $600 hotel credit that reset on January 1st like it's their job. Because it is their job. These credits don't roll over, don't accumulate, don't carry forward. They expire. Period.

The airline credit officially covers "incidental fees" which is credit card speak for "we'll decide what counts after you try it." CLEAR membership costs $189 and usually works. Airline gift cards under $100 sometimes work, depending on which airline and the phase of the moon.

The hotel credit requires booking through Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts or The Hotel Collection, which sounds fancy because it is. Pick a hotel for a trip next year, book it now, the credit applies immediately. You don't have to actually stay there before December 31st, just commit to the idea of staying there eventually.

Amex Gold has a $50 Resy credit that expires December 31st. Order fancy takeout, get $50 off, feel briefly bougie. This might be the lowest-effort credit in existence.

Chase Sapphire Reserve's $300 travel credit is broader and more forgiving. It covers anything Chase considers travel, which includes flights, hotels, parking, and possibly your Uber to the airport if Chase is in a good mood. This one resets on your card anniversary, not New Year's, so check your statement before you panic.

Every premium card has its own terms and expiration dates. Log into your account, find the benefits section, see what's about to vanish. This is called "reading.” A thing that was popular, apparently, before doom scrolling.

Spending 20 minutes to save $200 in expiring credits is worth roughly $600 an hour. Do it immediately. Buying a $30 gift card to keep 2,000 airline miles alive is financial madness. Those miles won't book you anywhere except maybe a connecting flight through Charlotte, and you don't want to connect through Charlotte. If you're paying a $450 annual fee just to prevent points from expiring, congratulations, you've invented a very expensive savings account that only works at Marriott.

Install a shopping portal browser extension for whichever airline you tolerate most. Your miles stay alive through normal purchases.

Set a December 15th calendar reminder titled "CREDIT CARD CREDITS EXPIRING." This is called planning, and it beats panic.

Register your credit card with an airline dining program. You were eating dinner anyway. Now dinner keeps your miles alive.

Once you've got these systems running, expiring points stop being a problem. Your miles maintain themselves, your credits get used, and you can focus on the actually interesting part—figuring out where to go next.