How to Save Expiring Travel Rewards Points
After a year of travel restrictions, nearly a third of all credit card holders have not paid off credit card rewards. But will these rewards expire before you’re ready to use them? Luckily, most cards don’t have a hard end date, although this comes with one caveat – some rewards will eventually expire if you don’t actually use the card. Here’s what you need to know about keeping your rewards.
Know what type of card you have
Travel reward cards fall into two categories: public cards or co-op cards in partnership with an airline or hotel chain. Public cards offer points that either never expire or have a long validity period (up to five years), such as American Express Membership Rewards points or Chase Ultimate Rewards points. On the other hand, co-branded cards offer miles or hotel points, but they tend to expire earlier.
The good news is that the majority of co-branded cards allow bleed your score only if you use the card for a long time, usually from one to three years from the date of your last “account activity” that includes the use of the card for receiving buy. In addition, due to lack of travel due COVID lenders have suspended the effect of any pending expiry of the points, as a rule, until the end of 2021 (however, not all the same – here you can see a breakdown of the airlines or hotels ).
What’s more, programs provided by Delta, JetBlue, Southwest and United Airlines have completely canceled their expiration policies, so no action is required to keep your miles.
But to determine when your travel card’s bonus points will expire, you need to log into your loyalty account and check. Loyalty programs also usually send you an email a few months before the expiry date of your earned points.
How to keep your glasses active
Assuming your points are about to expire and you are not traveling until you receive the vaccine – what else would count as “counting activity”?
The easiest way to keep your points active is to make a purchase with a card for items not intended for travel. It might sound obvious, but for people with multiple cards it can be easy to overlook, which is why some reward enthusiasts regularly review cards when shopping to make sure they are regularly logging activity. There are other options that will also be counted as account activity:
- Loyalty program purchases that can earn you extra miles or points, even for non-travel items, from retailers such as Apple or Staples.
- Shopping for groceries or meals with a card, especially since many passes now offer bonus bonuses based on these categories that can be credited for travel later.
- Donate your bonus points on the loyalty program portal.
Bottom line
Over the years, travel cards have increased the value of their loyalty programs for loyal customers, which in some cases includes bonus points that do not expire. Fortunately, keeping your glasses active is relatively easy as long as you remember to make a purchase or redeem at least once a year.