In the spirit of holiday giving, we want to know: Do you have unused airline upgrades, drink vouchers, lounge passes or other travel perks you’re not using that you can share with a fellow TPG reader before they expire?
We recommend first offering your retirement certificates and other benefits to family members, co-workers and friends, or to see if there is a way to take advantage of them yourself. Once you’ve determined that you still have some that will go unused before the new year ends, you might consider sharing them with another reader—perhaps even swapping rewards.
Please keep reading to learn how to participate and benefit from others’ upgrades; Follow our instructions below.
Related: How You Can Donate Your Points and Miles to Charity
What are elite upgrades and benefits?
With elite status and the right travel credit card, you may have perks to share with a companion. for example, Alaska Airlines offers four upgrade certificates to MVP Gold, Gold 75K and Gold 100K flyers. These certificates allow you to secure first-class upgrades on economy tickets. This upgrade also applies to individual members, their companions or other customers traveling independently.
As long as “U” fare class is available, you can use these certificates on most flights operated by Alaska Airlines. These upgrades are easy to share with eligible customers, and are valid until December 31 of the year you earned them.
Likewise, the United℠ Explorer Card includes two one-time United Club Passes per year. You can give this to another person for their own United Airlines travel.
Here’s a more extensive list of various upgrades and benefits that may be expiring that you could potentially share with another person:
- United Airlines PlusPoints: Premier Platinum and Premier 1K members earn 40 and 280 additional PlusPoints for qualifying for their respective status levels. If you earned status in 2023, your PlusPoints are set to expire on January 31, 2025.
- Delta Air Lines Regional and Global Upgrade Certificates: Platinum Medallion and Diamond Medallion members who have selected upgrade certificates as their Delta Choice benefits for status attained in 2023 have until January 31, 2025 to use their upgrades.
- American Airlines Systemwide Upgrade: AAAdvantage Platinum Pro and AAdvantage Executive Platinum members who choose systemwide upgrades as their loyalty point rewards have one year from the time the upgrade is credited to their AAdvantage accounts to use them.
- Hyatt Free Night Certificates: Hyatt lets you gift free night certificatessuch as category 1-4 and 1-7 awards, suite upgrade awards, club access awards and guest of honor awards, to another person with certain provisions.
- Lounge passes, drink tickets and more: This category may include airline lounge passes issued as credit cards or hotel elite status perks and drink tickets sent in airline elite status welcome packets. These benefits expire on a rolling basis, so check the certificate to confirm validity before offering to share. Note that some can be shared electronically while others are only available in paper form and will need to be mailed.
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Expiring elite benefits sharing benefits
If you have unused airline and/or hotel benefits, why not gift them to a fellow TPG reader?
Even if you’re not traveling together, you can brighten someone’s day by sharing an expired benefit or upgrade. You can ask if they can exchange rewards with you.
Best of all, there is no cost involved.
Related: Airline and hotel loyalty programs that allow you to gift elite status
How to participate in TPG’s Elite Perks exchange that expires in 2024
First, make sure you’re following TPG on Instagram. You’ll find our post about sharing the holiday spirit there. Comment with what you would like to offer, but please refrain from simply asking for items.
This is giving reward swap issue. If someone posts something that interests you, please direct message that person.
Your offer cannot be sold or exchanged for money. Our Instagram rewards exchange thread aims to connect our readers with generous people in the TPG community. In addition, TPG is not responsible for anything you give or receive through this exchange.
The bottom line
Our exchange allows travelers to share their expiring airline upgrades, drink vouchers, lounge passes and other travel benefits with fellow TPG readers. This way, you can ensure that these benefits don’t go to waste.
To participate in this exchange, Follow TPG on InstagramComment on what you have to offer and connect with others through direct messages. Remember, this exchange is for giving only and cannot include selling or exchanging items for money. TPG has no responsibility for any transactions or exchanges made through this platform.
This is a great opportunity to spread the holiday spirit and enhance one’s travel experience.