What To Do With “Orphaned” Miles & Points

If you’ve been in the Miles & Points game a long time, you know just how easy it can be to lose track of what you’ve been up to.

Whether you made a bad transfer and forgot about it, accidentally deleted your favorite points tracking spreadsheet, or just remembered recently that at one point during the COVID years, you stacked a huge number of miles in some obscure airline, you can sometimes find yourself in the position of having points you don’t know what to do with.

These points could be significant in scale, or a balance that is small enough to be frustratingly useless. So the question arises: what do we do with our orphaned points? Let’s take a look.

Honey, I Orphaned My Points

Orphaned points are points that fit into one of two categories.

The first category are points that are in a program in which you have no interest, or which might have limited availability in the market you’re living in. For example, a Canadian taking a job in Atlanta might find it hard to use their Air Canada Aeroplan points in a city that is so powerfully dominated by the Delta powerhouse and its SkyMiles loyalty program but could get by through utilizing positioning flights or booking on partner airlines.

The second type of orphaned points is when you’re left with fiddly amounts of “small change.” This can for example occur if you acquired enough British Airways Avios to Southeast Asia on Qatar Airways QSuites but were left with only a couple thousand Avios after the redemption with no easy way to get more or expend what’s left.

Both of these situations are far from ideal, so today Frugal Flyer wants to provide you with a few ways to deal with orphaning points. You can also choose to be proactive, and thus avoid ever being in the situation of having lots of orphaned points.

On the other hand, if you are stuck with some leftover miles or points, there are some (albeit maybe more limited) options available to you, and we want to give you a short breakdown of what you can do with every loyalty program we cover.

Pro Tip: How to Avoid Orphaning Points

First up, let’s talk about how to avoid getting in the position of orphaning points in the first place.

The most meaningful way to prevent this from happening is to only transfer points for which you have a clear-cut plan that you know you can fulfill. It can sound cool or tempting, for example, to load up with transfers from US Amex Membership Rewards points to the Emirates Skywards program when there is a transfer bonus to book Emirates First class. 

Remember, though: transfers can only go one way. Once points in convertible currencies are turned into an airline or hotel program’s currency, there’s turning them back. So ensure that you have a plan to use these miles.

However, if you know you have a big wedding you’ve been invited to in southern France, you really are better served transferring those points to Flying Blue. If you had previously transferred those points, then they are likely stranded in the Emirates Skyward program, where they could expire if their warning flares aren’t heeded in time.

If you have a clear plan on how to use your points to travel, this won’t happen to you. It also means that once you’ve transferred points, book your arrangements as soon as possible lest the reward space you desired may disappear.

The next best way to prevent this from happening is to accumulate only in programs of points you know and trust you’ll be able to use consistently. In Canada, Air Canada Aeroplan and Marriott Bonvoy are some of the best options because they can be used pretty much anywhere coast-to-coast, as well as in the United States.

An easy and simple way to manage this is by getting a co-branded credit card denominated in the rewards program you find the most valuable. Here at Frugal Flyer, we even offer cash rebates for some of these products, so check out the FlyerFunds Rebate program for more details.

What Do I Do With My Orphaned Points?

What to do with orphaned points can be subjective to the holder: if there are only a few thousand points left over, this may not be worth your time. 

However, if there’s a significant balance built up that may have taken you time and effort, then the most important thing to do is to make sure that they don’t expire. This risk of expiry can be mitigated in a few different ways depending on the loyalty program, so read up on Miles & Points Expiration Rules for more information.

The first, which many Canadians don’t know about, is that even obscure programs are often available on car rentals. If you ever rent a car, you can make sure your balance never expires by punching in your frequent flier number in your preferred program to make sure that a small amount of points enters the account, thus prolonging those points’ shelf life.

Another excellent way to maintain activity on your account, or to get rid of your entire orphaned points balance, is to donate them to charity. This can make a big difference in someone else’s life and will help clear that balance off your mental and digital spreadsheets.

One charity that specifically specializes in this and is close to the loyalty industry is Miles4Migrants, which uses the miles to help resettle people affected by war.

If you’re short on orphaned points and want to “top them up” toward a new redemption, then you may be in a position to consider buying points. Calculate whether this is worth the cash, but if you have a decent balance just at the cusp of a brilliant redemption (such as 10,000 Marriott Bonvoy points short of a holiday in the Maldives), this could be a great option.

If this doesn’t grab your attention, do note some hotel loyalty programs will allow you to transfer a certain number of points to friends or family in a given year. Some, such as IHG One Rewards, charge for this transaction so this is better done with programs where transfers are free, such as Hilton Honors.

Another useful option is to convert points from one program into another, assuming such conversions are permitted. For example, Best Western Rewards allows transfers from its program to Air Canada Aeroplan. While the conversion rate isn’t the best, it can be much more helpful to have 2,000 Aeroplan instead of 10,000 Best Western Rewards if that’s the difference between visiting family at Christmas or not.

Finally, you could always choose to just double down on the program and earn points organically until you want to redeem. For currencies such as bank loyalty programs, or universal programs available at the grocery store (such as Scene+ Rewards) this may be the ideal option.

Key Strategies for Orphaned Miles & Points by Type

Frequent Flyer Programs

Airline mileage programs often don’t allow direct transfers of points between account holders. Many do allow for family sharing or pooling, and this can be a great way to use even small amounts of a thousand points. Most also integrate the option to donate points to charity onto their own in-house redemption portals.

Hotel Loyalty Programs

Hotel programs tend to be more lenient on transferring points between members, although they don’t always allow pooling. Therefore even a relatively small balance is best transferred to another member; in the absence of this, many can be converted to airline miles in your preferred program.

Bank Loyalty Programs

As Canadians, it can be very easy to get bank credit cards denominated in reward programs controlled by the Big Five, such as RBC Avion Rewards or CIBC Aventura points. These can be hard to use up, because while some (such as Avion) are convertible currencies that can be turned into points such as British Airways Avios, not every program is.

For example, BMO Rewards points can only be redeemed for travel credit or be transferred to specific BMO savings and investment accounts as a cash contribution. In this situation, it’s best to get another card denominated in that currency and hopefully receive its welcome bonus so that you can get enough points to redeem towards something actually worthwhile.

Also, because it can be so difficult to spend these bank programs’ points, don’t feel bad about redeeming, even if “sub-optimally”, for rewards such as gift cards or merchandise, especially if you have a low balance worth less than $100.

Finally, while not a bank program, it would be untoward not to mention the Starbucks Rewards program if you are interested in maximizing coffee rewards programs. While the app and email notifications will often urge you to use your stars before they expire, everyone knows the best way to redeem these is on the 100-star bakery items or 200-star handcrafted beverages.

Conclusion

We hope that we have explained the best ways to avoid orphaning points, and what recourse you have in the unfortunate case you managed to do so anyway.

While it’s never fun to feel like your rewards are lying fallow and collecting dust rather than helping you jet-set around the globe, there are some methods to bounce back from this or at least ensure your miles never expire.

Until next time, earn and burn, don’t hoard and be bored.