Do your points expire? Every major program compared
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Expiry quietly kills more balances than most collectors realise: a stash built over years can vanish because you went eighteen months without earning a point — or simply because three years passed. The rules differ wildly, and the difference dictates where you should hold points and where you should only send them. Here's how the major programs handle expiry for Australian collectors, and the one small habit that protects almost any balance.
The three expiry models
Every program an Australian flyer is likely to hold uses one of three approaches. Work out which model each balance lives under and the rest of your strategy falls out naturally.
1. Activity-based expiry
Your points never expire on age — but the account must show qualifying activity (earning or redeeming) within a rolling window. Go quiet for the whole window and the entire balance is wiped.
This is the model both big Australian programs use:
- Qantas Frequent Flyer — points survive as long as the account earns or redeems at least once every ~18 months. Any qualifying transaction resets the clock for the whole balance.
- Velocity — the same idea on a longer leash, historically around 24 months of inactivity before points lapse.
- Cathay's Asia Miles now works this way too — it dropped hard expiry in favour of an activity window — and most Avios schemes run their own, longer inactivity windows.
These windows have shifted before, so treat the figures as the shape of the rule rather than gospel — check the current terms on each program page before you rely on them.
The critical detail: not everything counts as "activity". Earning or redeeming points generally does; family transfers or status-credit events may not — read your program's definition, not just the headline window.
2. Hard expiry
Miles die a fixed time after they're earned, regardless of how active your account is. No transaction resets the clock, because the clock attaches to each batch of miles, not to the account.
- KrisFlyer is the famous example: miles expire three years after the month they're earned. Singapore Airlines does sell a short six-month extension on expiring miles (and waives the fee for its top-tier members), but that's a stay of execution, not a reset.
- Japan's two big programs, JAL Mileage Bank and ANA Mileage Club, run the same fixed-life model — miles carry a roughly three-year shelf life from when they post.
- Emirates Skywards also attaches a fixed life to its miles, with some concessions for higher-tier members. Exact windows vary and change; see our programs index for the current position on each.
Hard expiry catches Australians out most often because it punishes exactly what our local programs reward: patient stockpiling.
3. No expiry while the account stays active
Some currencies effectively never expire while the relationship stays alive. The most important example for Australians is flexible bank points: currencies like Amex Membership Rewards typically don't expire while the card account remains open and in good standing — see our Membership Rewards guide. Among airlines, Air New Zealand Airpoints Dollars carry no hard expiry while the account stays active. "Typically" is doing work here, though: closing the card, missing payments or breaching terms can still forfeit a balance.
Quick comparison
| Model | How it works | Reset possible? | Examples | Risk level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Activity-based | Balance survives while the account shows qualifying activity in a rolling window | Yes — any qualifying earn/redeem resets the whole balance | Qantas FF (~18 mths), Velocity (~24 mths), Asia Miles | Low, if you set a reminder |
| Hard expiry | Each batch of miles dies a fixed time after earning | No — limited paid extensions at best | KrisFlyer (3 yrs), JAL, ANA, Skywards | High for stockpilers |
| No expiry while active | Points live as long as the account/card relationship does | Not needed | Amex MR and other bank points; Airpoints | Lowest — but closing the card can forfeit points |
Windows are indicative and the "activity" fine print matters — confirm on each program's page before relying on a date.
The one-transaction trick
For activity-based programs, keeping a six-figure balance alive costs almost nothing. A single small qualifying transaction resets the entire clock. You don't need to fly:
- A few points from an online shopping or dining partner purchase you'd have made anyway
- A small transfer in from a linked bank rewards program
- Points from a partnered supermarket, wine, insurance or utility offer
- A small redemption through the program's store or points-plus-pay options
Our guides to earning Qantas Points and Velocity Points without flying are full of options that double as clock-resets.
The system that makes this foolproof: set a recurring calendar reminder for every activity-based account you hold — say, every 12 months, well inside your shortest window. When it fires, trigger one small earn, confirm it has posted (posting delays are real — don't leave it to the final week), and move on. Five minutes a year insures the whole balance.
None of this helps a hard-expiry program. Short paid extensions aside, the only real defence for a KrisFlyer-style balance is to redeem before the deadline.
What this means for strategy
Expiry rules should change where you park value, not just when you panic:
- Hold long-term value in currencies that don't expire. Flexible bank points that live indefinitely while the card is open are the safest warehouse — a core argument for earning into a bank program first rather than directly into an airline.
- Treat hard-expiry programs as transfer-on-demand destinations, not storage. Move points into KrisFlyer and its cousins only when a specific redemption is in sight. Award availability, not the points price, is usually the real constraint — find the seat first, then transfer and book promptly; transfers are one-way.
- Budget for the cash component. Points never cover the whole fare: taxes, fees and any carrier or fuel surcharges are paid in cash on top. Don't rush a redemption to beat a deadline without checking that co-payment first.
- Activity-based programs are fine to hold in — with a reminder set. Qantas and Velocity balances are safe indefinitely for anyone running the calendar routine above.
- Audit before you go quiet. A year off travel, parental leave, cancelling a points card — that's exactly when balances die. List every program you hold, note its model, and diarise the reset dates first.
Points you let expire have a redemption value of exactly zero. Know your models, set the reminders, and store value where the clock can't touch it.
Programs, charts, ratios and partners change. Confirm current details with each program before you rely on them — see our methodology.