Prevent Your Alaska or Hawaiian Miles From Expiring With the Frequent Flyer App

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If you collect Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines miles, there’s a new way to keep your miles from expiring with no effort!  Frequent Flyer is an app for iOS or Android that earns you points in return for sharing your location.  Then, you can redeem them for miles!

However, it can take 5+ months to earn 100 miles.  

You can also complete surveys or refer your friends to speed up the process.  If you don’t mind having the app on your phone, it’s an easy way to reset the clock and keep your miles active without flying.

Frequent Flyer App
The Frequent Flyer App Is an Easy Way to Keep Your Alaska or Hawaiian Mileage Account Active, in Exchange for Sharing Your Location

I’ll show you how it works!

Should You Download the Frequent Flyer App?

Link:   Frequent Flyer App

Link:   Download for iOS

Link:   Download for Android

Frequent Flyer (available for iOS and Android) is an app that aims to improve location data.  So in exchange for sharing your location through your phone, you earn points.  Then, you can exchange the points for miles.

So far, only Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines participate in the program.

Frequent Flyer App
You Get 100 Points for Downloading the App. Then, You Earn ~33 Points a Day for Sharing Your Location

I’ve had the app for a few days now.  And it looks like you earn ~33 points per day. 

Frequent Flyer App
It Will Take ~5 Months to Earn Enough Points to Redeem for 100 Alaska or Hawaiian Miles

You can redeem:

  • 1,500 points for 25 Alaska or Hawaiian miles
  • 3,000 points for 50 Alaska or Hawaiian miles
  • 5,000 points for 100 Alaska or Hawaiian miles

You can also get a $10 hotels.com or Southwest gift card for 12,000 points.  Or choose from several $25 gift cards for 25,000 points.

Frequent Flyer App
At 33 Points per Day, It’ll Take at Least 5 Months to Earn the 5,000 Points Needed for 100 Miles

However, the earning rate is extremely slow.  If you set up the app and forget about it, you’d have enough points for 100 miles after ~5 months (1,000 points a month X 5).  

That’s a long time to wait for such a small amount!

Of course, you can earn more points by completing surveys within the app.  Or referring your friends to download it.

I haven’t seen any surveys in the few days I’ve had the app.  So I don’t know how long they are, or how many points you can earn.  But even if you earn, say, 100 points, it would still take a while to redeem for anything meaningful.
Frequent Flyer App
If You Don’t Want to Wait, You Can Try Your Luck on a Sweepstakes

If you don’t like waiting (like me!), you can redeem your points for a sweepstakes entry starting at 200 points for a $100 gift card.  That’s definitely a better prize, but there’s no guarantee you’ll win.  And I like sure bets. 🙂

Are There Drawbacks?

Even if you decide to wait 5+ months to earn 100 miles, that’s not enough to do, well, anything with.  The only use I can find is to extend the expiration dates of the miles in your Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines loyalty accounts.  Because you won’t be taking any award flights with the Frequent Flyer app in this lifetime!

To earn ~33 points per day, you have to keep location sharing on all the time.  So it refreshes in the background and uses your phone data.  If you have a limited cellular data plan, that can contribute to higher usage.  And drain your battery faster while you’re out and about.

Frequent Flyer App
Using Location Data Can Contribute to Quicker Battery Drainage. So Keep an Extra Charge Handy!

So is it worth it to use your cellular data for 5 months to earn 100 miles?  That’s for you to decide.  But if I need to delete an app to make room on my phone, this one will be the first to go!

Because there are easier (and faster!) ways to keep your miles active.  Here are my tips!

There’s also no guarantee you’ll earn 33 points per day.  Because Frequent Flyer can change their earning rates whenever they want.

Bottom Line

If you have lots of patience, you can earn Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines miles with the Frequent Flyer app (available for iOS or Android).  Because you can redeem 5,000 points for 100 miles with either airline.

You’ll earn ~33 points per day for sharing your location.  But at the rate of ~1,000 points per month, it’ll take you about 5 months to earn enough to get 100 miles.

That said, once you install the app, there’s zero effort on your part.  The biggest drawback is you have to always share your location.  This can use your cellular data and drain your phone battery.

But if you want an easy way to keep your points balance from expiring, this might be for you.

Would you consider downloading this app?

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)

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