How to keep your points and miles from expiring

Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

According to a survey by IHG Hotel & Resorts, nearly 72% of travelers would give up fast food, coffee or alcohol for a year to go on a dream vacation. Meanwhile, 42% reported having unused hotel points. When it comes to loyalty programs, having multiple frequent traveler accounts with a wide range of points is key to reaching your travel goals. 

Assuming the same rate for airline miles, that's a lot of unused rewards that could go towards that vacation many travelers would sacrifice to take. More importantly, these unused points could expire if you don't use them regularly. The solution? Audit your loyalty accounts to know exactly how many points you have and which ones are on the verge of expiring. While this might seem overwhelming, there are ways to automate this task. 

When you're saving up for your dream vacation, every point counts. Auditing your loyalty accounts ensures that your rewards balances are accurate and up-to-date. This is especially important if you have multiple accounts, as it can be easy to overlook discrepancies between them. By auditing your loyalty accounts, you can identify any points or miles that may have been missed or overlooked and keep track of when they are set to expire.

Auditing your loyalty accounts can also help to protect against fraudulent activity, such as someone else redeeming points from your account without permission. After all, hackers aren't just targeting your financial accounts – they're also known to wipe out loyalty accounts. Regularly monitoring your accounts can help identify suspicious activity and allow you to take action quickly to get your points back and secure your account.

An easy way to audit your loyalty account is to sign up for a point-tracking program like AwardWallet. AwardWallet tracks over 670 credit card, airline, hotel, car rental and other loyalty programs, allowing you to put this task on autopilot — much like a credit monitoring service. Simply provide your loyalty program login information and the platform will keep track of your points, miles, free night awards and elite status progress. You'll be notified when points are about to expire and can sign up to be notified when your balance drops or increases dramatically.

But you can't leave it entirely to AwardWallet – that's just the first step. Make a habit of routinely reviewing your accounts to ensure points from flights and hotel stays have posted. While rare, sometimes points and elite-qualifying credits don't post properly and you want to avoid that hassle.

In terms of security, AwardWallet uses industry-standard encryption technologies to protect data and offers users the option of two-factor authentication. However, if you don't feel comfortable giving your loyalty program login details to a third party, there are ways to track your loyalty accounts manually. For instance, some frequent travelers have spreadsheets where they manually update their point balances every week.

What's likely keeping some of those people in the IHG survey from redeeming their points is that they don't have enough for a trip. Luckily, there are a few workarounds.

Transfer points

If you have flexible rewards points, such as American Express Membership Rewards® earned with the American Express® Gold Card or Chase Ultimate Rewards® points earned with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees), you might be able to transfer those to boost your rewards balance. American Express has 21 airline and hotel partners, while Chase has 14. There's also the Citi ThankYou® Rewards program with 16 transfer partners and Capital One with 18. If your loyalty program is a partner, you can transfer your points (in most cases instantly) and have enough to cover the flight or hotel you want to book.

Book part of your trip with points

If you can't scrap the points together for an award, consider booking just part of your trip with points. You can split your hotel reservation, so you're covering part of it with points. Some hotel loyalty programs even allow cash + points awards, though you'll want to compare the rates to ensure you're not overpaying on the cash portion.

Buy points

Sometimes loyalty programs will sell points at a discount and buying them can save you money on travel. For example, Avianca LifeMiles regularly offers bonuses of 100% or higher when you buy miles. With the promotions, you can buy enough miles to cover the cost of a business-class ticket to Europe for under $1,600 round-trip. Sometimes all it takes is a few thousand points to save hundreds of dollars. Buying points can put your dream vacation within reach, without breaking the bank.

Barring a low-value award redemption, letting your points expire is one of the worst mistakes you can make. There are many ways to keep your points from expiring, but it comes down to keeping your accounts active. You can do this by either earning or redeeming points consistently. 

Earn points

The easiest way to earn points is to get a co-branded credit card. Use it for everyday spending and you'll not only keep your points from expiring, but you'll also earn additional rewards. For instance, for general IHG One Rewards members, points expire after 12 months if there's no account activity. However, those with the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card (see rates and fees) get complimentary IHG Platinum Elite status so their points never expire as long as you remain a Premier card member. Cardholders also bonus rewards on common spending categories like travel, gas stations, and restaurants.

Of course, if you have multiple loyalty accounts, having as many credit cards can be challenging — especially if they carry annual fees. This is where shopping portals and dining rewards programs can come in handy.

Most loyalty programs offer shopping portals and dining rewards programs where you can earn points without a fee. Simply click through the portal when shopping online and you'll earn points when a purchase is recorded. Dining rewards programs are even easier to earn points with — link your credit card with the program, dine at a participating restaurant and earn points. That's about as easy as earning points gets. 

Redeem points

Redeeming points might be a more challenging avenue for keeping your account active. Most people saving up for a big trip will consistently earn points, thus keeping their accounts active. But others might have small balances they don't have an immediate use for, putting them at risk for expiration. In these cases, redeem points for cheap non-travel purchases.

Many loyalty programs allow you to redeem points for merchandise or digital rewards – music, magazines, ebooks and more. If you can find a cheap award, it can be a great way to save a significant points balance. For example, IHG's Digital Rewards program offers redemptions for as little as 400 points. This is much more preferable than allowing a significant points balance to expire.

Know your program's expiration policy

Regardless of whether you use a point-tracking tool, it's good to familiarize yourself with different loyalty program expiration policies. In fact, you should have this information before you even start collecting points with a program. For example, Air Canada has a stringent 18-month expiration policy on Aeroplan points. The last thing you want is to lose out on your hard-earned points before they expire.

The same goes for hotel rewards. Some hotel credit cards offer annual free night awards as an incentive for renewal. These free nights expire after a certain period. By being aware of the expiration date ahead of time, you can plan your travels to ensure you can take advantage of the free night before it expires. 

Fortunately, credit card rewards generally don't expire so long as your account is open.

Points and miles can make travel much more attainable, especially if you're saving up money for more important purchases. You don't have to sacrifice your daily coffee or the occasional night out for one trip a year. By leveraging your loyalty points correctly, a vacation can be within reach. Just be sure to keep an eye on your account to avoid point expirations while you work towards your goals.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every credit card article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of credit card products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.

Catch up on CNBC Select's in-depth coverage of credit cards, banking and money, and follow us on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date.

For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, click here.