Do Travel Credit Card Points Expire? The Rules by Scheme

The short answer: most travel credit card points expire, but almost never because they got old. They expire because the account went quiet.

That distinction matters more than people realise. Points sitting untouched for three years are usually fine. A balance you forgot about after one promotional offer is the one that disappears — and it disappears on a clock you can reset in about two minutes.

Here’s how the rules actually work, which schemes are safe, and the single action that protects your balance.

Inactivity, not age

Nearly every major loyalty programme uses the same structure. Your points don’t have an expiry date attached to when you earned them. Instead, the whole balance expires if there’s no qualifying activity on the account for a set period.

Any qualifying activity resets the clock on your entire balance — not just the points you earned that day.

So someone with 40,000 points who earns a single point in month 35 keeps all 40,000 for another full period. That’s the mechanism, and it’s why expiry is genuinely avoidable.

The expiry rules by scheme

Virgin Points are the standout. They stopped expiring in September 2020, when the currency was renamed from Flying Club miles. If you hold a small balance you’re likely to forget about, that’s the safest place for it.

Emirates is the exception worth noting. Skywards miles expire three years after the year in which they were earned, at the end of your birthday month — and activity doesn’t extend them. Earning or redeeming makes no difference. You can pay a fee to extend by 12 months, but only within six months of expiry.

That’s a fundamentally different rule from everyone else, and it catches people who assume the inactivity model applies everywhere.

The Avios traps most guides miss

Avios is the currency most UK travel credit cards feed into, so the details matter.

Transferring between Avios programmes doesn’t reset the clock. Moving points from Iberia to British Airways doesn’t count as activity — and worse, your balance adopts the expiry date of the account you transferred into. If that account is closer to expiring, you’ve shortened your window rather than extended it.

Finnair works differently from the rest. Finnair Avios expire after 18 months, not 36, and moving Avios in from another programme doesn’t count as activity there. Two rules that both break the pattern.

Household Accounts have their own provision. If a British Airways Club Household Account contains a Bronze, Silver or Gold member who has earned or redeemed within 36 months, other members’ balances aren’t subject to expiry. Useful for family accounts where one person does all the flying.

How to reset the clock in two minutes

You don’t need to fly. Almost anything counts as activity:

• Transfer a small amount from a rewards programme you already hold
• Shop through the airline’s shopping portal — a single small purchase works
• Credit a hotel stay or car hire to the account
• Spend points on anything, including a small redemption
• Buy the minimum points — usually 1,000 — as a last resort

One caveat worth knowing: with some programmes, redeeming doesn’t count as activity — only earning does. Avianca works this way. Check your specific scheme rather than assuming spending protects you.

Set a calendar reminder for 30 months after your last activity on any Avios account, and 18 months for the shorter schemes. That single reminder is worth more than any strategy.

What actually expires in practice

Here’s the honest picture: if you use a travel credit card regularly, your points almost certainly won’t expire. Card spending generates activity.

The balances that disappear are the forgotten ones — 3,000 points from a promotion you signed up for once, sitting in a scheme you’ve never used since. Small amounts, in secondary programmes, that nobody thinks about until they check years later. That’s where travel credit card points expire in practice.

Which suggests a practical habit: list every loyalty account you hold, note the expiry rule for each, and put the shortest one in your calendar. Most people have more accounts than they remember.

What your points are actually worth

Before worrying about whether travel credit card points expire, it’s worth knowing what you’d be losing.

Points don’t have a fixed value. What they’re worth depends entirely on how you redeem them, and the range is wide:

The practical implication: a balance of 30,000 points might be worth several hundred pounds against a well-chosen flight, or a fraction of that spent on a gift card.

So “my points expired” and “I redeemed my points badly” can cost you similar amounts. Both are avoidable, and only one gets any attention.

One consistent rule: redeeming for merchandise, gift cards or cash back is almost always the worst value. If you’re clearing a balance purely to reset an expiry clock, redeem the smallest amount possible rather than cashing the whole thing out.

Taxes and fees still apply

A reward flight is rarely free, and this surprises people who’ve saved for years.

Most airlines charge taxes, fees and carrier charges on reward bookings, payable in cash. On long-haul routes with some carriers these can run to several hundred pounds per passenger — enough that a reward seat sometimes costs more in cash than a cheap paid fare.

Two things follow.

Compare before booking. Check the cash price alongside the points cost plus fees. Sometimes paying cash and keeping the points is genuinely better.

Carrier charges vary enormously by airline. The same points transferred to a different partner airline on the same route can carry dramatically lower fees. If your scheme allows partner redemptions, that comparison is worth ten minutes.

This also affects the expiry question. If you’re holding points partly because redeeming feels expensive, that’s a reason to review your options rather than to keep waiting — and waiting is what leads to expiry.

What happens if you cancel the card

A separate question, and the answer depends on where the points live.

Airline-branded cards — the points are already in your airline account, so cancelling the card doesn’t remove them. Normal expiry rules continue to apply.

Bank rewards programmes like Amex Membership Rewards — the points sit in the bank’s programme, and closing the account can forfeit them. Transfer them out to an airline partner before you cancel.

That’s the mistake worth avoiding: cancelling first and asking afterwards. The transfer is irreversible in one direction only.

The bigger risk than expiry

Worth being blunt about. Expiry is avoidable and rare. Devaluation is neither.

Airlines regularly change how many points a given flight costs. A reward seat that needed 25,000 points can quietly become 35,000 with no notice and no compensation. Your balance didn’t shrink — what it buys did.

The practical conclusion: points are a depreciating currency. Hoarding a large balance for years is a slow loss even if nothing expires. Earn them, use them within a reasonable timeframe, and treat any big stash as something to spend rather than save.

How this fits your card choice

If you’re picking a travel credit card partly on the rewards scheme, expiry rules are a legitimate tiebreaker — particularly if you’re an occasional traveller who might go quiet for a year or two.

But it shouldn’t be the main factor. For most UK travellers, the bigger costs are foreign transaction fees, typically around 3% on every overseas purchase including online ones, and annual fees on premium cards. Our guide to travel credit cards for UK travellers covers what actually matters when choosing.

Loyalty schemes also sit outside financial services regulation in most respects — points are a contractual promise from the airline, not a protected asset, and terms can change with notice. UK consumers can check how their card provider is regulated on the FCA Register, and MoneyHelper publishes free guidance on comparing rewards cards against their costs.

And whichever card you use, put at least the deposit for any holiday on it — Section 75 protection is worth considerably more than any points you’ll earn.

Frequently asked questions

Do travel credit card points expire if I use the card regularly?
Almost never. Regular card spending generates activity, which resets the clock on your whole balance. Expiry mainly affects forgotten accounts.

Which points never expire?
Virgin Points and Delta SkyMiles don’t expire at all. Amex Membership Rewards points remain while your account is open and in good standing.

Does redeeming points count as activity?
Usually yes, but not always — some programmes only count earning. Check your specific scheme’s terms.

Can I get expired points back?
Sometimes. Several airlines will reinstate recently expired points for a fee, or occasionally as a goodwill gesture if you call. Worth asking before assuming they’re gone.

The bottom line

Most travel credit card points expire after 18 to 36 months of inactivity, and any qualifying activity resets the clock on your entire balance. Virgin Points and Delta SkyMiles don’t expire at all. Emirates is the outlier where activity doesn’t help.

If you use the card, you’re almost certainly fine. If you have small balances in schemes you’ve forgotten, those are the ones at risk — and a single transfer, portal purchase or 1,000-point purchase protects them for another full period.

Then use them within a few years. Devaluation takes more from most people than expiry ever does.

Sources

Expiry rules in this article are taken from each programme’s own published terms, which are the authoritative source for loyalty scheme conditions:

• British Airways Executive Club — Avios expiry and Household Account terms
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club — Virgin Points terms
• Emirates Skywards — mileage validity and extension terms
• Flying Blue — Air France-KLM programme terms

Regulatory context is from the FCA Register and MoneyHelper.

Loyalty programme terms change without much notice. Confirm current rules directly with your scheme before acting on anything here.

Last reviewed: 15 August 2026. This article covers figures and programme rules that change — we review it when they do.

General information only, not financial advice. Loyalty programme terms change frequently — verify current expiry rules directly with your scheme before relying on them.