How to Use Airline Miles Before They Expire This Year

If your miles expire for inactivity, almost any small earning or redeeming transaction resets the clock — and you need to confirm which kind of clock your program runs on before you do anything else. Inactivity programs restart when you touch the account; fixed-term programs count down from the date you earned the miles, and nothing you do short of spending them or paying for an extension changes that. That difference decides your whole plan.

A reader with American AAdvantage miles and a few weeks left has cheap options; a reader with Emirates Skywards miles dated three years back has a deadline that activity will not move. Below are the rules the major programs publish, and what each one leaves you able to do this year.

Verification note: Program terms and availability can change. This page was checked against linked sources on November 13, 2026.

First, find out which clock you are on

Two systems dominate. In an inactivity program, the balance stays alive as long as the account sees qualifying activity inside a set window — American's AAdvantage window is any 24-month period, per the AAdvantage credit card terms published by American Airlines. In a fixed-term program, each batch of miles has its own death date regardless of how often you fly.

Emirates Skywards is the clearest example of the second type: Skywards Miles are valid for three years from when they were earned, and Emirates' Skywards FAQ states they currently drop out of the account at the end of the member's birth month. Earning more miles there does not rescue the older ones. Log into the program and look for an expiry date beside the balance.

If the page shows one specific date for the whole balance, you are likely on an inactivity clock. If it shows different dates for different chunks, the miles are expiring in batches and the oldest batch is your real deadline.

What resets an AAdvantage balance

American's rule is activity-based: AAdvantage miles expire when an account goes 24 months with no qualifying earning or redeeming activity. Any qualifying transaction inside that window pushes the date forward again, which is why a very small earn is usually enough. There is an exemption that removes the problem entirely for some members.

American's credit card terms say miles in the account of a primary co-branded AAdvantage cardmember do not expire while that card account remains open. Note the wording — it applies to the primary cardmember, not to every authorized user on the card, and it depends on the account staying open. If you are inside the 24 months but close to the edge, the cheapest fixes are ordinary transactions rather than a flight:

• Earn through a program-partner purchase and keep the confirmation email
• Redeem a small award so the account records a redemption
• Check whether a co-branded card you already hold makes the expiry moot

Spending a balance too small to fly on

Most stranded balances are small, and the awkward range is a few hundred to a few thousand miles. American publishes a floor-level option for exactly that: AAdvantage members can donate from 1,000 miles at aa.com/donate, or donate an entire balance if it sits under 1,000 miles, according to American's Giving Tuesday announcement in November 2025. Donations process in up to 48 hours, and American states they are not tax deductible — so treat it as clearing the account, not as a write-off.

Donating is also a redemption, which matters on an inactivity clock. It empties the balance rather than extending it, so use it when the miles are too few to be worth keeping alive and you would rather they went somewhere than nowhere.

If the miles already lapsed

An expired balance is not automatically gone. American runs a reactivation path that lets members reinstate expired AAdvantage miles within 24 months of their expiration date, capped at 500,000 miles per transaction, on American's reactivate miles page. It costs a fee, so the arithmetic only works if the reinstated miles are worth more to you than the price of buying them back.

Emirates publishes short grace periods on both sides of expiry: per its Skywards FAQ, miles due to expire within three months can be extended by 12 months, and expired miles can be reinstated within six months. Both are member-initiated — nobody applies them for you. Emirates has also announced a change to the method rather than the length.

Under the Emirates Skywards programme updates, miles earned from June 1, 2027 stay valid three years from the earn date with expiry rounded to month-end, while miles earned before that date keep the birth-month rule.

Dormant accounts facing a restart date

Air Canada's Aeroplan is the one large program with a scheduled cliff rather than a rolling rule. Its pause on points expiry runs through November 29, 2026, and the standard 18-month inactivity rule returns on November 30, 2026, CTV News reported on November 4, 2025. For an account that has been dormant longer than 18 months, points can expire the moment the rule comes back.

Aeroplan has said it will give up to 60 days' notice before points expire. Notice depends on reaching you, so an old email address on a long-dormant account is the quiet failure mode here. If you have an Aeroplan balance you have not touched since early 2025, the useful step this month is logging in, fixing your contact details, and recording some activity before the end of November 2026.

You may not have a deadline at all

Several of the largest US programs have no inactivity expiry — Delta SkyMiles, United MileagePlus, Southwest Rapid Rewards, JetBlue TrueBlue and Alaska's program, now rebranded Atmos Rewards, as reported by Newsweek in 2026. For balances in those programs, "expiring this year" does not apply, and rushing a redemption to beat a deadline that does not exist is the actual mistake. That does not make those miles permanently safe in value terms.

Programs can change award pricing without changing an expiry rule, so the reason to spend them is a trip you want, not a clock. Confirm your own program's current terms on its site before acting — the rules above are the ones each program publishes, and they are revised from time to time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does redeeming miles count as activity?

It depends on the program. American's 24-month AAdvantage rule counts both qualifying earning and redeeming activity, so an award redemption resets it. Check your own program's wording, because some count earning only.

Can I move miles into another program to save them?

Transferring out of an airline program to another airline is generally not possible. The practical equivalents are the ones the program itself publishes — a qualifying earn, a redemption, a paid extension, or a donation.

How late can I reinstate expired American miles?

American's reactivation page allows reinstatement within 24 months of the miles' expiration date, up to 500,000 miles per transaction, for a fee.