How to prevent your child's miles from expiring

One of my least favorite parts of the miles and points hobby is managing the travel rewards accumulated by each family member. While some airlines allow families to pool miles into a household account, many U.S. programs do not offer this option.

Although numerous airlines have become more lenient with expiration policies during the pandemic, it would be ideal if all airlines eliminated their expiration rules permanently, similar to what Southwest and United Airlines did in 2019. Two other prominent U.S. airlines — JetBlue and Delta — have provided this benefit for quite a while.

Before having children, it was much simpler to manage my and my husband’s accounts since our miles rarely faced the risk of expiring. We frequently used our cobranded airline credit cards and paid for business travel, keeping our accounts active.

However, now that we have two kids, the effort required to manage all aspects of points and miles has increased significantly. If I let my guard down, I risk losing miles to expiration.

Even if your children aren't accumulating a lot of miles and points, it's a waste to let any rewards expire. Therefore, it’s crucial to understand the airlines' policies on mile expiration. AwardWallet is a great tool for tracking your family's loyalty program accounts.

Below is a chart detailing the expiration rules for airline miles. As noted, the pandemic has temporarily altered some of these policies.

Airline mileage expiration policies

Fortunately, there are numerous ways to prevent miles from expiring, even for kids, that don’t require boarding a plane. In fact, all of these can be accomplished from the comfort of your home.

How to prolong the life of your child's airline miles

Subscribe to magazines

Numerous airline programs collaborate with MagsforMiles, allowing you to exchange your miles for magazine subscriptions.

Although this method of using your miles is generally not advised due to its low redemption value, it does count as account activity and will refresh your miles' expiration date for programs that require some form of activity. (Even better, you can start a magazine subscription for as little as 500 miles.)

Contribute to a charitable cause

One of the simplest methods to prevent your miles from expiring is by donating a specific number of miles to a charity. Most airlines provide this feature, with donations beginning at 1,000 miles.

For instance, you can give your American Airlines miles to Miles for Heroes. While this may not be the most cost-effective method to "use" your miles to maintain their validity, you'll appreciate knowing your rewards are aiding a noble cause.

Some mileage programs also allow you to earn miles by making cash contributions to certain charities. For example, American Airlines collaborates with Stand Up to Cancer, rewarding you with bonus miles for your donations.

Utilize a shopping portal

Rather than redeeming miles to maintain your account status, accumulate miles through purchases you’re already making. Most U.S. airline programs offer online shopping portals that enable you to earn miles on your online transactions.

Essentially, you begin your journey at the shopping portal and are then redirected to the retailer's website. Your purchase is tracked seamlessly, and miles are credited based on the total spent (typically excluding taxes and shipping charges).

Remember that it may take up to eight weeks for the miles earned through the shopping portal to appear in your account, so if your miles are about to expire soon, this option might not be feasible. Additionally, if you have multiple frequent flyer accounts, make sure to log into the shopping portal with your child's frequent flyer number to ensure the miles credit to their account if that's the one you wish to extend.

The credit card used for the purchase doesn’t need to match the name on your loyalty account.

Buy miles

This approach should be viewed as a last option, but if your miles and points are nearing expiration, think about buying miles. Unfortunately, this can be pricey — often costing at least $35 for 1,000 miles. However, if you have many miles or points set to expire and keeping your account active is at stake, it might be worth the expense.

In summary

There are several methods to ensure your child's frequent flyer accounts remain active, so there's no need to let their miles vanish.

With a little tracking and effort, your child(ren) can continue to accumulate miles in their loyalty programs, which could eventually lead to a free flight.