Credit cards with miles that don’t expire

A lot of you are worried about miles expiring, and we understand why — not a lot of people are frequent enough travelers to always keep their mile accounts active. But there are a number of mile and airline credit card programs that have no expiration dates on their miles as long as you keep the card active.

They include…

American Express Membership Rewards (Green, Gold, and Platinum Card) – No expiration as long as your account is open and in good standing. Just note the full program requires an annual fee based credit card.

Capital One No Hassle (includes Capital One Venture) – No expiration as long as your account is open and in good standing

Chase Ultimate Rewards (includes Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Freedom, Ink) – No expiration as long as your account is open and in good standing. You can switch from an annual fee to a no annual fee card to preserve your points as well.

Delta Airlines SkyMiles – Points never expire for all members, regardless of whether you have a Delta credit card.

Priority Club hotels (Chase Sapphire Preferred transfers 1:1) – Never expire for all members, regardless of whether you have a credit card.

United Mileage Plus (United Explorer) – No expiration as long as you hold a United credit card, even if you don’t spend with it.

Programs and cards with an expiration

The good news is, almost no program requires you to fly or stay at their hotel to maintain your points, but you have to earn in some way with these programs, whether it’s via credit card spend, or earning miles with a partner merchant.

American AAdvantage – Even if you have the credit card, you must have some sort of activity on it once every 18 months or they will expire 18 months after the last activity

Hilton HHonors – Must earn points once every 12 months, including credit card spend

Hyatt Gold Passport – If there is no activity for 12 months, the points account may be closed

Marriott Rewards – Points account may be closed if none are earned over a 24 month period

Southwest Rapid Rewards – All miles in the program expire after 24 months of no activity. Credit card spend counts toward this.

Starwood Preferred Guest – Must show account activity once per year. Credit card spend counts toward this.

US Airways Dividend Miles - All miles in the program expire after 18 months of no activity. Credit card spend counts toward this.