# Purchasing expired airline miles

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purchasing-expired-airline-miles/644458>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 18, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purchasing-expired-airline-miles/644458 "2012-12-18T21:47:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purchasing-expired-airline-miles/644458/1 "2012-12-18T21:47:22Z")

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I had 27,000 miles on United that expired a short while ago, and they offer a deal to reinstate them for a price. I can spend $50 to get 25,000 miles back, and I’ve just took a recent trip to DC and have a Feb trip to Switzerland coming up, plus some possible work travel in the works including back to India so it’s unlikely they’ll expire soon if I get them back.

Is it worth buying back those 25,000 miles for an occasional upgrade or future flight?

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**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purchasing-expired-airline-miles/644458/2 "2012-12-18T22:25:32Z")

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That totally depends on if you are going to use them.

25k points will get you a round trip economy class ticket on United, and you can’t find a flight for only $50. On the other hand, you obviously don’t use the points, or they wouldn’t have expired in the first place.

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**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purchasing-expired-airline-miles/644458/3 "2012-12-18T22:43:10Z")

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I’ve used points for flights several times in the past, this is the first time I’ve lost any substantial amount. It’s getting harder to use them for vacation flights, but I can use them for upgrades on business travel.

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**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purchasing-expired-airline-miles/644458/4 "2012-12-19T00:12:35Z")

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In that case I’d go ahead and buy the points back, since it sounds like you have some uses coming up for them in the near future.