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Just read an article about this and confirmed it in the app. I have about 250k all of which were scheduled to expire in January. Delta has been this way for awhile. I hope American joins the club soon. I have 34k on them and they expire in 90 days. For American you can donate as few as 1k and that counts as activity and extends the expiration. I’ve done that the last several years. A big Thank You United!
Don't be so thankful. On November 15, United is also switching over to "dynamic award pricing" - meaning no fixed award chart, so you have no way to know in advance how many miles you'll need for any given redemption (except that, as in Delta's case, it will be a LOT more than before). If you're smart, you'll burn those 250k United miles now, while they're still worth something, then switch over to actively collecting transferable bank points from Chase/AmEx/Citi and/or cash back.
Miles that never expire but which are never worth more than 1 cent each (and often less) are hardly worth worrying about. The major benefit of MileagePlus miles never expiring is that now I can save $95/year by canceling my United Airlines Mileage Plus Explorer card.
Thank you Aredhel for the education. I retired a little over 4 years ago where I flew on average two round trips per month. I’ve only flown two round trips in the 4 years since I have been retired and the airlines have changed drastically since then, it seems. Planning a trip for Bangkok soon so it is good to know about this now. Thanks again.
You're welcome! Yes, the frequent flyer game has changed a lot over the last few years, and unfortunately not for the better. The old pattern of having a fixed miles price on a saver award and a higher fixed miles price on a standard award at least allowed a customer to have some idea of the highest amount he or she would have to pay out in miles to get a ticket, and it also allowed some strategic planning: you could wait and check regularly to see if saver space might up, knowing that if it didn't a standard award could be procured. Dynamic award pricing is going to wreak havoc with advance planning, as there's no way to know if tomorrow's price will be more, the same, or less than today's. I suppose it might benefit a few travelers who can be extremely flexible with their travel dates and who travel on lower-demand routes, but for most of us it's a serious devaluation.
Like you, I'm currently in the process of planning a major trip (Australia/New Zealand next summer, with fixed dates). I'm probably just going to burn all my United miles and American miles on this trip and switch to using Google Flights and Kayak to find best-price paid tickets going forward, and only actively collect cash back and flexible bank points. Obviously I'll keep any miles that I may incidentally earn while flying, but I won't deliberately seek them out (although I'll be able to transfer bank points to either Delta or United if either should happen to offer a screaming frequent flyer deal on a ticket I need). The difference between the miles cost of a good award ticket and the cash cost of the same flight has shrunk enough that IMHO the game's ceased to be worth playing in most cases.
I hope American joins the club soon. I have 34k on them and they expire in 90 days. For American you can donate as few as 1k and that counts as activity and extends the expiration.
I forgot to mention this: to keep AA miles from expiring, use the AAdvantage Shopping portal once a year to buy something inexpensive that you need. You'll earn a few miles on the purchase, and that will keep your account active. (That's assuming you still care enough about the miles to want to keep them around, of course.)
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Be certain that UA changing mileage program will not be good for future award travel. Many of us have 1m + and still seldom find award travel useful. We only used 2 segments of awards on our one yr RTW. I give most away to people to flying for funerals. (As I have for 40+ yrs).
BTW, if heading to Oceania.... Check air NZ flights with free stopover in Cook islands.. 2020 is Great time to be away from USA for a year. Travel is CHEAP.... poof - Gone!
Be certain that UA changing mileage program will not be good for future award travel. Many of us have 1m + and still seldom find award travel useful. We only used 2 segments of awards on our one yr RTW. I give most away to people to flying for funerals. (As I have for 40+ yrs).
BTW, if heading to Oceania.... Check air NZ flights with free stopover in Cook islands.. 2020 is Great time to be away from USA for a year. Travel is CHEAP.... poof - Gone!
In the 10+ years I’ve been playing the points and miles game, I have yet to see a frequent flyer program make a significant change for the better. Yes, I’m cynical. As I recently argued on FlyerTalk, when airlines move to dynamic award pricing with the goal of fixing the value of a mile at 1 cent, they destroy the value of frequent flyer programs in comparison to flexible bank points (that can be used to book tickets on any airline through a travel portal, with a point bonus for doing so) or plain old 2% cash back. Why bother to collect miles if it’s impossible to ever use them to book an aspirational award? (And aspirational doesn’t have to mean international premium cabin travel; for a lot of people, snagging 4 economy class award tickets to Hawaii for a cost equivalent of 2 cash tickets is aspirational.) It’s easier to just use a Capital One “miles” card to book exactly the flights you want than to struggle to find a decent ticket on a limited set of airlines using the United (or Delta, or American) award calendar.
Oh, well, it was a good game while it lasted. I’m grateful for the past award flights I did get to take; they represented good value, and allowed me to see a lot of wonderful places.
Seriously- points have become harder to use, indeed much harder to use. If you have them, use them now if at all possible. And use them where it counts (for me, that means above-economy long-haul flights).
First class tickets for me, but I’ll settle for business class.
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. 2020 is Great time to be away from USA for a year. Travel is CHEAP.... poof - Gone!
