My 5 year old's mileage points expire in 60 days - what to do?

Howdy,

I got a polite little email from Alaska saying that my daughter's points are going to expire because of inactivity for almost 2 years.

I'm wondering what the cheapest options is to keep her points alive.

- She has 15,028 points.
- We have no trips planned in the forseeable future on Alaska
- She's too young for a credit card.
- I don't have any hotels stays planned.

I'm thinking that a 1,000 point transfer to or from her dad (me) would be the cheapest option. I'll probably transfer the points to her because we don't want to drop below 15,000 points.

Am I missing some other easy way to keep her points alive?

P.S. We live in Canada if that makes a difference.

 

For the cost, you're better off with a 1,000 mile purchase. It's actually cheaper than a transfer when the fees are included.

How about signing up for the dining program and using her name and MP number? The associated credit cards can be in any family member's name - just the number is required.

 

You can sign her up for a ThanksAgain account: http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/partners/specialty-partners.aspx#thanksagain

This is essentially the Mileage Plan shopping portal. You register a credit card (I'm pretty sure it doesn't have to have her name) in her ThanksAgain account, and click through one of the shopping links to a merchant and make a purchase. The purchases usually credit in about a week.

There isn't a great selection of merchants compared with the other shopping portals - but it has some relatively good ones : Walmart, Sears, Kohls, BestBuy.

That way you can make a $5 online purchase through the shopping portal to keep her miles alive.