Tag Archives for points expiration.
Even as Hilton offers double elite nights for the last two and a half months of 2022 against still-reduced elite requirements for 2022, Honors has laid out what elite status-earning will look like in 2023: a snap-back to pre-pandemic rules, mostly.
Hilton and Marriott have extended expiring free night certificates. Hyatt has not. They’ve even said they’ll begin expiring points again December 31st. However they’ve quietly gotten much more generous in offering points for expiring awards, and in some cases even extending them on asking.
There’s even a surprise of points for top tier elites.
In January 2020 Hilton moved from requiring activity in an account every 12 months to keep it active to a 15 month expiration policy. Then the pandemic hit and many programs, including Hilton, paused points expiration. Hilton points won’t expire until at least December 31, 2022. Now they’ve moved to a ‘permanent’ 24 month expiration policy, with points first expiring again in a year. Why the change?
Hyatt’s plan to expire points again is a stark contrast to Hilton which says they won’t expire points in 2022. Of course Hilton also extended status and free night certificates again. We’re still waiting to hear from Marriott on their card certificate plan for next year and whether they’ll make any more pandemic accommodations.
Hilton Honors is straight up extending elite status again. They’re also rolling all elite nights earned in 2021 over to qualifying for status in 2022 (for the 2023 elite year) as well as reducing elite qualification requirements in 2022. They’re also extending the pause on points expiration.
At the start of 2020 a New York state Senator introduced a consumer protection bill to protect bank points. It prohibits bank points expiration and requires banks to give consumers 90 days to use their credit card rewards points if their account is closed either by the consumer or the bank.
I noted last summer that the legislation had passed the state’s Senate. Now the bill has passed both the Senate and state Assembly, and awaits the Governor’s signature.
Hyatt is out with its new summer promotion offering triple points on all stays of two nights or more, and they’ve announced they’re delaying the ‘high and low season redemption’ award chart devaluation by about three and a half more months. They’re also extending the pause on points expiration.
If you’re an American AAdvantage member and you’re Under 21, your miles don’t expire. If you’re a United, Southwest, Delta, Hawaiian or JetBlue member your miles don’t expire.
But if you’re a lifetime elite member of American AAdvantage, having accumulated over 2 million miles, you have to stay on the treadmill of either earning or burning points every 18 months to avoid losing all your accumulated points.
Marriott free night awards, such as those awarded each year with their credit cards, won’t expire until January 2, 2022. They’ve also extended the pause on points expiration again through March 31, 2022.
The Hilton Honors terms and conditions rolled back and started showing 12 month expiration again. That’s a mistake. Hilton points still only expire after 15 months of inactivity (and expiration remains paused throughout 2021).
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
