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The expiration of miles and points is an issue that infrequent travellers often confront. Loyalty programmes are geared towards “loyalty”, and many airlines and hotel chains – or at least their accountants – prefer to purge the balances of those who “aren’t loyal enough”. In general, there are three main types of expiration policies:

1. Miles / Points expire after a certain period of inactivity
2. Miles / Points expire after a set period (often three years) – i.e. “hard expiry”
3. Miles / Points do not expire if you maintain “elite status” – something tricky to do without account activity but a higher hurdle!

Many readers will be keen and active in their pursuit of this hobby, but others might struggle to find a way to keep certain accounts “active”. For those readers, it would be nice to have a FREE method of earning a handful of miles, thereby keeping an account “active” – at least for those loyalty programmes that expire miles / points after a period of inactivity.

Mileslife to the Rescue

Mileslife is a Singapore-based App that appears somewhat similar to Groupon. You can earn a few miles for booking restaurants, hotels, etc.

 

I Thought You Said Free?

I did… if you click on the “Account” button on the lower right-hand side of the App you will see something called “Check-in Bonus”.

And if you “check-in” for seven consecutive days, you will receive a random number of miles.

 

Checking in for seven consecutive days is easier said than done, especially since you need to be wary of Singapore’s time zone!

What Miles Can I Earn?

The good news for Avios collectors (if infrequent ones) is that both British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus are Mileslife partners.

Miles & More and Singapore Krisflyer are also popular options for those in the UK, but of course they have “hard expiry” policies, so earning a couple of free miles won’t help you much…

It’s also worth noting that United Mileage Plus is a partner. Since United has an “activity-based” expiration policy, Mileslife could be the perfect way to keep your United miles from expiring.

What Else?

Mileslife also offers something called Mileslife Health, which appears to offer more free miles based on the number of steps one takes in a day / week. I haven’t tried it yet, but if you don’t want to check-in to a random Singaporean app every day, perhaps just taking your phone for a walk will be easier…

YMMV, but you might even receive 800 free miles for Signing Up!

When it seems too good to be true, it often is.  But I noticed that the App seems to offer a referral bonus to those who sign up via my link. I would assume that the spend requirement also applies to my “friends”, but I can’t quite tell for sure.  Click here to give it a shot nonetheless.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a free way to keep a handful of airline programmes “active”, then Mileslife might be the answer for you. And you might even receive 800 free miles just for trying…