Do American miles expire?

As an AAdvantage member, you must have some mileage earning or redeeming activity once every 24 months or have an open AAdvantage credit card account to retain your miles. If not, your AAdvantage miles will expire unless you pay a fee to reactivate them.



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It's simple to keep your miles from expiring. Each time you have qualifying activity in your account, you defer the expiration of all of your miles for 36 months. Qualifying activity is defined as earning mileage credit from any AAdvantage participant or redeeming miles for any AAdvantage award.

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For example, points and miles within Best Western Rewards, Delta SkyMiles, Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles, JetBlue TrueBlue, Southwest Rapid Rewards, United MileagePlus and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club don't expire. That being said, it's important not to hold onto your points for too long.

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How far back can you claim AA miles? American allows you to request credit for missing flights up to 12 months after flying. The carrier requests that you wait at least three days after flying before requesting missing miles.

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But if you forgot, it's OK. Most airlines, Keyes said, allow travelers to request miles three to 14 days after booking and within 12 months of travel.

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Sometimes it's not until you've unpacked your bags that you remember the miles. Instead of leaving them behind, log in to aa.com/aadvantage and select “Request Mileage Credit.” It's the easiest way to get credit for past mileage transactions.

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If you cancel your trip on aa.com, your miles will be reinstated and your refund will be requested automatically in most cases.

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Here's the catch. Air Miles themselves do not expire. But, if your account “expires” by being “dormant” (or inactive) for 24 consecutive months, then the points on it will disappear. An account is considered inactive if there are no points transactions within that period.

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An AA mile's value typically varies from 1.5 to 1.7 cents when redeemed for a flight. You usually get the best value for your AA miles if you use them for business-class seats, and you may even get upward of 10 cents per mile in some cases.

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Can I combine my Accounts with anyone else? You may transfer Miles and even merge your profile with another Collector Account in order to pool your collecting efforts and the Miles existing currently in your AIR MILES Cash and Dream Accounts.

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You've got flexibility with your miles with the ability to book Award Travel for yourself or for someone else – even if you're not flying with them. Plus, you can always buy more, gift or transfer them, or even donate your miles to a cause you care about.

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You cannot convert American miles to cash. However, you can redeem your miles for Admirals Club memberships, rental cars and hotel stays, vacation packages, luxury experiences, and donations to partner charities.

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You can use miles to buy a seat for an existing flight reservation. To do this, you'll: Find your trip. Select or change seats to load the seat map.

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We sampled flight awards available with U.S. carriers and found that consumers need between about 8,000 and 57,000 miles to get a free one-way coach flight. Free flights in business or first class start at around 25,000 miles and climb to well over 150,000 miles one-way.

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If you purchase a ticket that is an unrestricted fare, you can make changes to your flight with no change fee (based on seat availability). However, an additional collection of fare may apply.

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