Purchased miles extended expiry

[bwhouse]

So I had ~90k worth of miles sitting in an account that were due to expire in Jan 2020. As most people would know LM changed their expiry policy a little while ago and miles are now only good for 12 months. That coupled with the fact that purchasing miles did not count as activity on the account was a real bummer.

Well given how buggy LM can be I thought I would take a punt with the current promo and purchased 5000 miles for $165usd. The 10,000 miles deposited in my account straight away but the expiry didn't change, however checking again 24 hours later and the expiry has been updated to Sep 2020

YMMV but it worked for me.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

yes, that's how it is supposed to work Any mileage addition to your account will reset the validity. The account expiry updates overnight.

 

[bwhouse]

My mistake. I thought the change to expiry they put through last April explicitly excluded mileage purchases.

TBH this is the first time I have had to worry about expiry thanks to the lack of Thai availability.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

My mistake. I thought the change to expiry they put through last April explicitly excluded mileage purchases.

TBH this is the first time I have had to worry about expiry thanks to the lack of Thai availability.

You’re right in remembering there was some talk when the change was introduced about whether a miles purchase would extend expiry. It was confirmed reasonably quickly that they would.

 

[jarradbrown]

Thanks @MEL_Traveller, i'm sitting on a bunch of miles that I can't use up due to no flights when i want to use them, they expire in a month and i was beginning to worry

 

[mushypeas]

i'm in the same boat, got 120K+ and literally every port seems to have no availability and when i can find one way to a destination, can't find a return journey ..... starting to think it may be easier to just forfeit these miles and move on.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

i'm in the same boat, got 120K+ and literally every port seems to have no availability and when i can find one way to a destination, can't find a return journey ..... starting to think it may be easier to just forfeit these miles and move on.

Yeah. you might find it easier to use your LM in conjunction with say QF or VA points to get you to Asia. Or one way with LM and the other with another program. TG's current restriction is a major issue, but I'd be keeping your 120K active - that's a lot of money to lose.

 

[mushypeas]

it's a bitter pill to swallow - i used to be able to get TG almost anywhere ex-mel however appears to be nothing but major pain in the backside.... i've been "renewing" my points each year since 2014, i bought a truck load for an F trip to Europe (honeymoon) and miscalculated how many i required ... looking at an old spreadsheet, i bought these when AUD/USD was 0.94c and on the back of their infamous 2-4-1 promos but you're right, walking away does feel a little bit like pissing good money up the wall.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

As posted elsewhere you can do combos like SYD-NRT-USA on NH J/F. Ex Asia you can pick up BR/TK J. CA has availability to Europe and return. Air India is usually wide open out of most of Europe to MEL and SYD. To get to Europe you could fly ex SIN on LH/TK/LX etc. Just need the positioning fare one way to SIN.

AI might not be the first choice, but it's better than throwing away the miles.

 

[Gold Member]

Logged into one of the LM accounts I'm managing and noticed that miles due to expire January 31st 2021 now expire 31st July 2021. I assume everyone else is getting 6 month miles validity extensions for miles expiring shortly?

 

[RB]

Logged into one of the LM accounts I'm managing and noticed that miles due to expire January 31st 2021 now expire 31st July 2021. I assume everyone else is getting 6 month miles validity extensions for miles expiring shortly?

Thanks for the prompt. Checked a couple of days ago & mine were still showing Jan 2021, today July 2021