Year-End Loyalty Checklist: Points Expiry, Free-Night Certificates, and Status Deadlines Before December 31

The loyalty calendar has a quiet season and a loud one, and the loud one starts about now. Between October and the end of December, status deadlines close, certificates lapse and inactivity clocks that nobody was watching tick over. None of it is hard to manage. The trouble is that rules differ by program, and an expiry you miss is usually permanent. This checklist sorts the audit by type of asset, using the current terms reported by major travel-rewards publications. Program terms change, so treat every date below as something to confirm in the program’s own account page.

Step 1: Points and miles that expire on inactivity

Most expiry rules are not calendar-based. They are inactivity windows, and almost anything that counts as account activity resets them. Frequent Miler’s May 2026 guide lists the following windows:

Some exemptions are worth knowing. AAdvantage miles do not expire for members under 21 or for holders of AA credit cards, according to the same guide. Southwest and JetBlue points are reported not to expire. Atmos Rewards points, the Alaska and Hawaiian program, are reported not to expire either, though we recommend reading the program’s current terms.

Air Canada had paused Aeroplan expirations; one report we reviewed says the normal policy resumes on November 30, 2026. We could not confirm that date in a second source, so check your Aeroplan account.

What counts as activity varies. Earning, redeeming and transferring generally reset the clock. Bank transfers into a program are often a low-cost option: Frequent Miler’s guide lists Chase, Amex, Bilt and Capital One transfers for several of the programs above. One caution from the same guide: an IHG reader reported that a bank transfer did not reset their clock, and booking and cancelling a stay did. Check the account’s expiry date after the activity posts.

Step 2: Free-night certificates and other certificates

Certificates are the easiest asset to forget because they sit in a separate section of the account and rarely send reminders.

• Check every certificate’s expiry date in the account itself, not the card’s marketing page. Hilton has repeatedly extended certificate expirations in the past, but extensions were the exception and were not announced uniformly. Do not plan around one.
• Hyatt certificates vary by type. Reporting we reviewed lists certificates valid for 12 months or 180 days from issue, and says Hyatt agents’ ability to extend expiration dates became limited after an IT upgrade. A January 2026 report suggests the compensation sometimes offered for expiring certificates was reduced and was never an official policy. Do not count on a bailout.
• Check the category cap before booking. A certificate that covers Category 1-4 may not cover the property you want, and Hyatt’s award chart changed on May 20, 2026, so prices you remember may be out of date. If you book a stay in the first quarter, confirm the certificate’s expiry covers the stay date as well as the booking date.

Step 3: Status deadlines

Status is where the biggest dollar losses happen, and the dates split into two groups.

Calendar-year deadlines (December 31):

• IHG One Rewards: status is based on activity from January 1 to December 31; status earned lasts through the end of the following year.
• Wyndham Rewards: qualifying nights must be completed by the end of the calendar year.
• Choice Privileges: members who do not requalify drop one tier on January 1 under a “Status Soft Landing.”
• Atmos Rewards: status points reset after December 31, and earned status benefits run through January 31, per reporting we reviewed.
• Hilton Honors: qualification is based on the calendar year, with status typically continuing into the following March.

Off-calendar cycles:

• World of Hyatt: status is based on that year’s activity, with perks running through the end of February.
• Marriott Bonvoy: status is based on that year’s activity, with renewal in early the next year and status lasting through February of the following year.
• American AAdvantage: reporting we reviewed describes a cycle that ends in February rather than December. Confirm your exact qualification dates in your account.

For each program where you are close to a threshold, compute the gap in dollars or nights, compare it with the benefit you actually use, and decide whether the last push is worth the spend. Loyalogy does not give personal financial advice, but the arithmetic is the same for everyone: a status tier is only worth the incremental spending it takes to reach it if you would use its perks.

Step 4: Other things to check

• Credit card annual fees and renewal dates. If a card’s benefit year resets on January 1, unused credits expire December 31.
• Transferable currencies. Chase’s transfer ratio to Hyatt changed for some cards on October 1, 2026, from 1:1 to 4:3 for Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred. If you were saving points for a Hyatt redemption, reprice it. Flying Blue also repriced awards on September 8.
• Retail and restaurant programs. Open each app and look for rewards, stamps or points with an expiry date. Rules vary widely, and we did not survey them for this checklist, so read each program’s terms.

A short audit routine

1. List every program where you hold points, certificates or status.
2. For each, log the expiry date or activity window from the account page.
3. Mark anything expiring before February 28.
4. For inactive balances, do one small qualifying action instead of letting them lapse.
5. Set one calendar reminder for early December, when action is still possible.

The loyalty industry runs on balances that members forget about. An hour with your accounts now costs nothing and tends to find something: a forgotten certificate, a balance one earn away from expiring, or a status tier two nights short.