Do Qantas Points Expire? The 18-Month Activity Rule

Yes. Qantas Points can expire after 18 consecutive months without eligible activity. You do not have to fly to keep them active, but a family transfer is not enough. Check your Qantas activity statement for your account's deadline before choosing an action.

By Daan Zwets, founder of Miles Mosaic. Reviewed 5 November 2026.

What counts as qualifying activity?

Qantas's expiry guidance says earning or using points through eligible activity, including programme partners, keeps the account active. It excludes family transfers in either direction and transfers from Qantas Business Rewards. The period runs from your last eligible activity, not your latest login.

When is the cutoff?

Section 9.2 of the Qantas Frequent Flyer terms specifies midnight Sydney time at the end of the eighteenth consecutive inactive month. It includes earning Status Credits as activity. For eligible flight earning, the relevant date is the flight date, so a future booking alone is not protection.

Use the account's displayed date rather than estimating from a bank transfer or from the day you noticed the balance. If the statement and your records disagree, ask Qantas which activity date it has used.

A practical plan before your points expire

1. Check the statement now. Record the deadline, balance and last qualifying transaction. A reminder you created months ago may no longer match the account.
2. Choose an eligible action you can complete in time. Qantas lists options such as flight rewards, hotels, car hire and Marketplace. Check the terms and timing before spending.
3. Leave a margin. Do not assume every partner transaction appears immediately, or that submitting a claim proves it has been accepted.
4. Verify the result. Keep the receipt or booking reference, then check the activity statement again. Resolve a missing transaction with Qantas or the partner.

A small action may be enough, but its usefulness depends on eligibility and timing. Compare the cost with the balance at risk. Do not make an unnecessary large purchase simply because it earns points.

What if the deadline has already passed?

The terms say expired points cannot be re-credited. They also describe warnings within the preceding 60 days through activity statements and, for members receiving the relevant communications, newsletters. Do not rely on an email as your only reminder.

If you believe eligible activity was missed, gather the transaction date, receipt and membership number and contact Qantas through its official website. A missing-credit correction and a request to restore expired points are different questions. Neither should be assumed successful before Qantas confirms it.

Points expiry is different from status qualification

Your redeemable balance and your progress towards a status tier answer different questions. Keep a separate note of each deadline. Our Qantas points calculator guide separates earning from redemption value, while the double Status Credits guide explains how to check a flight promotion.

Explore My Mosaic to organise information you enter or import. Always check Qantas for the authoritative account balance and deadline; Miles Mosaic does not automatically sync that account.

Earn, redeem or transfer: choose the action that actually helps

It is easy to confuse a change in your balance with activity that protects it. The official Qantas expiry page explicitly excludes family transfers and transfers from Qantas Business Rewards. Someone can receive points, see a larger balance and still have the same inactivity deadline. That is why checking the transaction's category matters more than simply looking for a recent number in the account.

Work backwards from the deadline

Start with the deadline displayed in the account, then identify an action that can be completed comfortably before it. If a transaction involves a merchant, allow time for both the merchant's processing and the airline's crediting process. Avoid treating a pending order, a tracking email or an unaccepted missing-points request as if the account had already recognised eligible activity.

Suppose your statement shows a deadline in six weeks. You might have an eligible trip planned in two weeks, but the trip could be cancelled. A reasonable plan records that flight, the expected activity evidence and a backup action you would be willing to take before the deadline. This is not a recommendation to spend twice. It is a way to avoid discovering after a cancellation that the only planned activity disappeared too.

If there are only a few days left, an overseas partner purchase with an unclear crediting period is a poor basis for certainty. Read the action's terms and contact Qantas if the relevant date is ambiguous. An adviser cannot guarantee that an action qualifies simply because another traveller says it worked for them. Your account record and the published rules decide the outcome.

Put the cost of protecting the balance in perspective

Consider a hypothetical balance of 20,000 points that you expect to use at 1.00 US cent per point. That is a planning estimate of USD 200, not a cash balance. An eligible USD 20 purchase you already need is a different decision from an unnecessary USD 300 purchase made only to earn a few points. Compare the incremental cost, not just the headline number of points earned.

If you would otherwise buy the same item for USD 18 elsewhere, the extra cost of choosing the eligible USD 20 option is USD 2, before delivery or other differences. If the item has no use to you, the whole USD 20 is extra spending. This distinction keeps a small account-maintenance decision from becoming an excuse for a much larger purchase.

A redemption also has an opportunity cost. If you spend 5,000 points on something you would otherwise buy for USD 25, the realised saving is 0.50 US cents per point. That may still suit your circumstances, but it is not automatically good value because it serves an account-maintenance purpose. Compare it with a modest eligible earning option and with using points on a trip you actually need.

Keep expiry records for each family member

Make a separate entry for each account: member, current balance, last recognised qualifying activity, displayed expiry deadline and next planned action. A family trip does not mean everyone has the same activity date. One person may have credited the flight elsewhere, another may have an unposted transaction, and a child may have a different history from the adult who made the booking.

Because family transfers do not reset the clock, do not mark every family account active after moving points for a redemption. Check each affected account after the transfer and after the qualifying transaction. Record only what the statement confirms. If you are helping someone else, have them verify the account details rather than sharing passwords or guessing from an old screenshot.

Understand missing activity before asking for restoration

There are two different situations. In the first, the account was inactive under the rules and the points expired. In the second, eligible activity happened in time but is missing or recorded incorrectly. The Frequent Flyer terms govern expiry; a correction request should explain the actual transaction and date rather than assuming all expired balances can be restored.

For a missing-flight query, collect the ticket, boarding evidence and the airline details. For a partner transaction, collect the order or booking reference, date, eligible amount and the terms that applied. Keep a short timeline so the support team can see what happened before and after the displayed deadline. Avoid sending unnecessary payment or identity information unless the official support process requests it.

A complaint is easier to assess when it identifies a specific discrepancy. “The flight taken on this date is missing from my activity statement” gives the airline something to investigate. “My points disappeared and I need them back” does not establish that eligible activity occurred. Neither wording guarantees a remedy, but clear evidence reduces avoidable back-and-forth.

Set reminders that lead to a check, not an automatic purchase

A reminder several months before expiry should prompt you to inspect the statement and your travel plans. A second reminder closer to the deadline should confirm the chosen action has actually appeared. Once the account shows a new activity date, update your record. Leaving the old reminder active can lead to unnecessary spending or confusion about which date is authoritative.

Keep the point-expiry reminder separate from membership-year and status reminders. A trip can contribute to one objective without completing another. If the status year ends soon but the points are safe for much longer, there is no expiry reason to book an additional flight. Conversely, a healthy status plan does not excuse ignoring a pending account deadline or missing transaction.

What to do if the account date and your reminder disagree

Open the activity statement and identify the transaction you expected to reset the period. Check whether it is an excluded transfer, a pending transaction or a completed eligible activity. Record the date shown beside it rather than relying only on the date of an email or bank statement. A purchase, posting and account activity date can be different pieces of information, and only the applicable rules establish which one matters.

If you cannot reconcile them, contact Qantas before the displayed deadline with the specific discrepancy. Ask which transaction it considers the last eligible activity and what deadline applies. Keep the response with your evidence. Do not silently replace the airline's date with a later date calculated in your own tracker, especially when that would postpone an action you intended to take.

Consider two hypothetical account records. One shows a family transfer yesterday but no other activity for many months. The other shows a recognised eligible redemption last month. Those recent transactions have different implications even though both accounts display activity. The first member should still investigate the inactivity deadline; the second should check that the redemption is correctly recognised before updating a reminder.

If the balance is already zero, first confirm whether it was redeemed, transferred, adjusted or expired. These events require different questions. A family member who used points with permission, an unrecognised account transaction and an inactivity expiry should not be handled as the same problem. Use official support promptly for an unexplained change, and keep account-security concerns separate from the decision about future earning.