When Do Your Hotel Points Expire?
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You’d be hard-pressed to find a financial expert who would advise against saving money, but when it comes to the currency of hotel points, many travel experts agree it would behoove you to spend them, not save them.
For starters, points can undergo devaluations, meaning the same amount of points that booked you five nights last year might only cover four nights now.
Even worse, points can expire completely. Often, hotel loyalty program points expire if your account is inactive for a period of time — typically one to two years.
To help make sure your points don’t evaporate before you're ready to escape on vacation, we’ve put together a guide with hotel point expiration dates for eight major hotel chains:
Hotel points expiration dates and terms
Here's how points expiration works, broken down by brand.
Hotel Program | Expiration Terms |
---|---|
Best Western Rewards | Points never expire. |
Choice Privileges | 18 months since last account activity. |
Hilton Honors | 15 months since last account activity. |
World of Hyatt | 24 months since last account activity. |
IHG One Rewards | 12 months since last account activity for Club members (though no expiration for current members with elite status). |
Marriott Bonvoy | 24 months since last account activity. |
Wyndham Rewards | 18 months since last account activity or within four years after the checkout date of the stay for which the points were posted, whichever is sooner. |
How to keep your hotel points from expiring
The good news is that you don’t actually have to stay at a hotel within that expiration period to keep your points active. In most cases, you can prevent your points from expiring by earning points through other means — such as using hotel-branded credit cards — or spending them on other non-hotel bookings.
Here are some specific, non-stay ways to keep your hotel loyalty accounts active, broken down by hotel brand (this is not a comprehensive list):
The bottom line
It can be a bummer when you think you’ve accrued enough points for your vacation, only to find that they’ve expired. Check your accounts for when you last showed activity.
If you don’t plan on using your points before they expire, take action now. You might have to fill out a survey or donate a small chunk of points to charity. But the small sacrifice in time or charitable donations is likely worth it to make sure your hotel points don’t expire completely.
How to maximize your rewards
You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are some of the best travel credit cards of 2024:
Flexibility, point transfers and a large bonus: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
No annual fee: Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card
Flat-rate travel rewards: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
Bonus travel rewards and high-end perks: Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Luxury perks: The Platinum Card® from American Express
Business travelers: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card