How Long After A Flight Does a Passenger Have to Request A Mileage Credit?

Weekends are always the best when they involve travel. Except when you’re traveling and you realize that you don’t see your credit from your miles on your previous flight. This weekend my husband and I, as well as our best couple friend, flew to Chicago for a long weekend. We flew through an airline we use regularly, the last time being in October. When I booked our tickets, I noticed that I didn’t see the past mileage credit on my account. It seems that somehow I forgot to add my number to the order when I booked it under my husband’s account, and it made me wonder something; how long do I have to request the mileage from a past flight?

There are a few things to know about this: All airlines are different. I can tell you that Alaskan Airlines will give you 11 months to claim a past mileage credit. Delta will give you only 9. American will give you a full year after the date of any flight you want to receive credit for. Some of these airlines will even give you flight credit for a past flight even if you don’t have a membership with their airline when you actually flew. Others will not.

There is not a specific time frame for any particular airline when it comes to this. The best we can tell you is that you should contact the airline and ask them what their policy is for past mileage credits. Most will be happy to do it, but a good rule of thumb is that the sooner you request mileage, the better. When you can do that, you have a much better chance of getting the credit. As a matter of fact, I’m checking right now to see if I can get my own credit from my October flight.

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