If you followed #8 on my Lets Get Started page, hopefully, you have opened frequent flyer accounts for your children. However, many airlines have account mileage expiration dates due to lack of activity in an account. United MileagePlus miles expire 18 months after the date of your last activity
I will not make the same mistake that I did last year when I allowed my boys’ United MileagePlus miles to expire. This year, I happened to see an email indicating that Rob’s MileagePlus balance was expiring on June 30, 2018. This led me to investigate the date that the rest of our United miles are expiring and I learned that 4/5 of us had miles expiring in June of this year. Daniel has a later expiration date till 2019 because he traveled for camp this summer and I ensured that he got credit for his miles.
So, as I have often done in the past (mostly with American AAdvantage Miles), I just ordered magazine subscriptions to prevent mine, Jessie and Mason’s United MileagePlus miles from expiring. I renewed subscriptions to Travel and Leisure and Sunset and subscribed to a new Food and Wine subscription. I can’t help it, I am a dinosaur and still like reading magazines, especially when I travel. Not to mention, it is an easy way to extend your expiration date using just a small amount of miles. The subscriptions ranged from redemption amounts of 500-800 miles.
As for Rob’s miles, I used a different method to extend his expiration date. Rob still has a United Visa card. Back in 2016, I downgraded Rob’s United MileagePlus Explorer card to this no fee United Visa card to avoid paying the annual fee on a card that Rob did not use. Although just owning a regular United MileagePlus Explorer Visa keeps your United Miles from expiring so long as you pay your annual membership fee, and your account is open and not in default, I am not sure if this is the case with this downgraded regular United Visa. This non-sexy card, may not keep the expiration clock open. I actually contacted Chase on Rob’s behalf and got this confusing answer…
Robert, I’ve reviewed your account and it is United
MileagePlus Rewards card. You won’t lose any miles earned
and transferred to United as long as you don’t lose them
for any of the reasons described in the Reward Program
Agreement. The miles already in your MileagePlus account
will expire according to MileagePlus program rules and
will continue to be subject to MileagePlus program rules
and conditions.
I requested a new card member agreement and will try to decipher what the correct info is with respect to this card and whether it keeps the miles from expiring. I will let you know…..
Regardless, on our recent trip to Amsterdam and Paris, I had Rob use his card at the airport for gum and water and he spent a whopping $19. That activity has reset Rob’s United MileagePlus expiration clock another 18 months. I will be back in late 2019 to let you know if we need to extend again!