Do airline miles expire? The rule for each program

Do airline miles expire?

Twelve programs, four answers, read from the airlines' own rules on 28 September 2026.

It usually starts with an email about account activity. You open it, look at a balance you had half forgotten, and try to remember the last time you flew that airline. What happens next depends entirely on which program holds the miles.

The twelve programs below split four ways. Five keep a balance for good. Four run a clock on the account, two run one on each mile from the day it lands, and one belongs to an airline that stopped flying in May 2026.

The distinction that matters is what the clock watches. An inactivity clock watches the account. Fly, redeem, buy or transfer, and the entire balance gets a fresh window. A validity clock watches each mile: earn it today and it lapses three years from today, whatever else happens in the account. American and Frontier run the first kind. Emirates and Lufthansa run the second. ^{1, 7, 9, 10}

Which airline miles never expire?

Five programs on this page keep your balance for as long as the account stays open. Delta's program rules say miles do not expire, and have said so since 1 January 2011, when the change took effect for every account at once. Before that, SkyMiles lapsed 24 months after the last qualifying activity, the same window American still uses today. ^{2, 17, 1}

United followed on 28 August 2019, announcing that MileagePlus award miles never expire and giving members a lifetime to spend them. Southwest's terms settle it in two sentences: points have no expiry date, and a member who closes an account forfeits what is in it. JetBlue prints the answer as a field on its own expiration table, beside the separate dates that apply to Mosaic status and its Perks You Pick benefits. ^{3, 4, 5}

Alaska's answer arrived through a merger. Atmos Rewards launched on 20 August 2025 and folded Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles into one currency at one mile to one point, and the launch release states plainly that the points carry no expiration. Hawaiian had already dropped its own 18-month rule on 12 April 2021, ending the wait for members who had been posting activity to protect a balance. HawaiianMiles accounts finished moving across on 1 October 2025. ^{6, 18}

The word 'miles' is doing quiet work in those sentences. United's award miles have no expiry date. TravelBank cash, a separate balance living in the same MileagePlus account, expires 12 months after the date it is issued. Read every currency in the account, not just the headline number. ¹⁹

Which programs still run a clock on your miles?

Four inactivity clocks, from 12 months to 36, and the single transaction that restarts each one.

American's window is 24 months. Frontier's is 12. American's terms, effective 1 March 2026, say that an account with no qualifying activity in any 24-month period loses every mile in it. What counts as qualifying is broad: redeem an award, earn on American or a partner, or buy, gift or transfer miles. Any one of those restarts the full 24 months. ¹

Frontier runs the same mechanic on half the calendar. Miles survive as long as the member generates accrual activity every twelve months, and unredeemed miles lapse at the end of the twelve-month period following the last accrual date. Flights count. So do purchases on the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard, and redemptions. Frontier also offers a donation to charity as an alternative for a balance about to run out. ⁷

Air Canada sits between the two, at 18 months, with a wrinkle worth knowing. Aeroplan's inactivity page states the 18-month rule, then adds that points expiry is temporarily on pause. The page carries no end date for that pause. Plan around the 18 months as the rule that returns. ¹⁶

Frontier's window is exactly half of American's, and that is the whole risk. Twelve months means one year without a Frontier flight, a card purchase or a redemption clears the balance. Twenty-four months covers most people's natural gap between trips on the same airline. Same rule, very different exposure. ^{7, 1}

How do international programs count the three years?

Three programs use the same number, 36 months, and mean three different things by it. British Airways sits closest to the American model. A member who collects, spends, buys or transfers no Avios for 36 consecutive months loses everything accrued to that date. One Avios of activity protects the lot. ⁸

Emirates counts differently, and the difference costs people miles. Skywards Miles are valid for three years from the flight or partner transaction that earned them, and they expire on the last day of the member's birthday month after that period ends. Earning new miles in year three leaves the older batch on its original clock. Your birthday, oddly, is the date to put in the calendar. ⁹

Lufthansa's Miles & More works the same way on a calendar quarter. Miles are valid for 36 months from the day they are earned and lapse at the end of the quarter that follows. Miles & More also sells the escape hatch: hold a Miles & More credit card for three months, make at least one qualifying purchase a month, and the miles get unlimited validity instead. ^{10, 20}

How do you keep miles active?

One qualifying transaction, one calendar reminder per program, and the card or status tier that may already cover you.

On an inactivity clock, the cheapest qualifying transaction counts as much as a transatlantic flight. What qualifies is set by each program, and the lists are wider than most members assume. The work is finding one date and protecting it.

1. 01

   Find the date, not the balance

   Your account page leads with the balance. The number you need is the date of your last qualifying activity, because that sets the deadline in every inactivity program. Air Canada emails members up to 60 days before points are due to expire; take that as a courtesy and keep your own date anyway. ¹⁶

2. 02

   Earn one mile, or spend one

   American counts a redemption, an earn on American or a partner, or a buy, gift or transfer transaction. British Airways counts collecting, spending, buying or transferring Avios. Frontier counts flights, Frontier Airlines World Mastercard purchases and redemptions. One of those restarts the whole window. ^{1, 8, 7}

3. 03

   Put the card to work if you already hold one

   Air Canada exempts primary TD, American Express and CIBC Aeroplan cardholders outright, along with members holding Aeroplan Elite Status. Lufthansa gives unlimited validity to a member who has held a Miles & More card three months and makes one qualifying purchase a month. ^{16, 20}

4. 04

   Check the age rule before you worry

   American exempts AAdvantage members under age 21 from the 24-month requirement entirely, and the standard clock starts once they turn 21. Emirates stopped expiring Skysurfer miles on 1 April 2024 while the member is a minor; whatever is in the account on their 18th birthday expires at the end of the month they turn 21. ^{1, 9}

5. 05

   Set one reminder per program

   Twelve months for Frontier, 18 for Air Canada, 24 for American, 36 for British Airways. Emirates and Lufthansa need a reminder per batch of miles, which is why a card exemption is worth more in those two programs than in any other here. ^{7, 16, 1, 8, 9, 20}

The card question is where loyalty programs and credit cards meet. A card that protects a balance is worth real money in Emirates and Miles & More, where fresh earning leaves the older miles on their clock. MMT's guide to credit card points and transfer partners covers which cards feed which program, and the airline loyalty programs by alliance page lines up every program these rules apply to.

What happens if your miles already expired?

Two programs publish a price list, and one sells miles back cheaper than most people guess. Frontier's Miles Buy Back charges $50 to reinstate up to 25,000 miles, $100 up to 50,000, $150 up to 75,000 and $200 up to 100,000. At the top of each tier that is exactly 0.2 cents a mile: 50 over 25,000, 100 over 50,000, 150 over 75,000, 200 over 100,000, the same rate four times. ¹¹

Frontier also runs a free route. Register at its expired-miles page, complete travel within 60 days of expiration, and the miles come back within seven business days. Members whose miles lapsed more than 60 days ago lose that option and fall back on the fee. ²¹

American's fee is wider and steeper: currently $60 to $2,000, scaled to the number of miles, with a cap of 500,000 miles per reactivation and a 24-month deadline from the date the miles expired. American publishes the range and the cap, without a rate per mile, so the price on your own balance is a quote to ask for. At the top end it is ten times Frontier's highest published tier. ^{1, 11}

Air Canada publishes no price list. Fly Air Canada within six months of expiry and the points come back at no charge; a buy-back inside the same window is quoted on request. You may book after they expire as long as travel happens inside that six-month window. ¹⁶

Before paying to restore a balance, price what it buys. A reinstatement fee earns its keep only when the award you have in mind beats the cash fare on the same route. MMT's points versus cash worksheet runs that arithmetic after taxes and fees, and that is where a lot of apparent bargains fall apart.

Spirit: when the program outlives the airline

Spirit's Free Spirit points are in a courtroom, not on a clock. Spirit started an orderly wind-down of operations on 2 May 2026, in the airline's own words, with all flights canceled and customer service closed the same day. Free Spirit points can no longer be earned, redeemed or transferred, and Spirit's own site told members the points could go nowhere else. ^{12, 15}

What happens to a balance now runs through the bankruptcy process. A spokesperson for a consulting firm working on Spirit's behalf said compensation for customers holding vouchers, credits or Free Spirit points would be determined later in that process. In practice that puts loyalty members in line with the other creditors Spirit owes money to. ¹⁵

The case is Spirit Aviation Holdings, Inc., et al., number 25-11897 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, before Judge Sean H. Lane, filed 29 August 2025. On 28 September 2026 it was still open: the day's latest docket entry, number 1664, noticed an agenda for a hearing two days later. Members with a balance can follow the docket through the court's official claims agent. ¹³

What should you check before planning around a balance?

Ten minutes with your account pages settles most of this. The rules above are the ones each program published on 28 September 2026. The two numbers that decide your own case are your last activity date and your program's clock.

• Your last qualifying activity date, taken from the account page or a statement, for every program holding more than a token balance. ¹
• The clock your program runs: 12 months at Frontier, 18 at Air Canada, 24 at American, 36 at British Airways, and a three-year validity per batch at Emirates and Lufthansa. ^{7, 16, 1, 8, 9, 10}
• Whether a card or a status tier already exempts you, which is the cheapest protection going in every program that offers one. ^{16, 20, 9}
• Air Canada's expiry pause, which its page states with no end date on it; confirm where that stands before relying on it. ¹⁶
• Atmos Rewards account inactivity, which is separate from the points: a published summary describes a freeze after 24 months and a further year to reactivate, three years in total. Alaska's own terms page was unreadable on the research date, so confirm this one directly. ¹⁴
• The award you actually want, priced against the cash fare with the points versus cash worksheet, before any reinstatement fee.
• Where the balance sits in your yearly numbers. MMT's annual travel budget review treats miles as an asset with a date attached.

The best protection is a plan for the miles, not a reminder in the calendar. Every program here can rewrite its rules the week after this page was researched, and one airline on the list stopped flying altogether. A balance aimed at a trip inside the next 12 months sits inside every clock on this page, including Frontier's, the shortest of them. ⁷