American Airlines to pause mileage expiration, reinstate previously expired miles

American Airlines has remained one of the only major U.S. carriers with miles that expire as competitors Southwest, United, Jetblue, and Delta have all done away with mileage expiration.  Activity, whether in the form of flying, redeeming, co-branded credit card usage, compensation, online shopping portal, etc., is required once every 18 months to prevent your miles from expiring.  But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, AA paused all mileage expiration until June 30, 2020.  But on July 1, miles began to expire again, even though passenger traffic is still at a phenomenal low.  After over a month, it looks like AA had another change of heart as they are no pausing the expiration of miles until the end of the calendar year (December 31, 2020) according to serial leaker JonNYC (H/T).  In addition, miles that expired after July 1 will be reinstated without a fee.

.. (at a later date) to offset the price paid. AAdvantage is working on plans to communicate to members, pause the mileage expirations, and automate the mileage reactivations for members who have recently lost miles.

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) August 7, 2020

AAdvantage members who paid to have their miles reinstated after July 1 will not be given a refund.  Instead, they'll be compensated with bonus miles based on the fee they paid for the reinstatement.

Quick thoughts

AA is far behind on their mileage expiration policy.  Whereas it's not difficult for many of us to have activity on our AAdvantage accounts once every 18 months, it's still one hassle to deal with, especially during this time when very few people are flying.  It's good to see AA pause this until the end of the year, but it would have been better to see AA match like the likes of their competitors in eliminating mileage expirations entirely.

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