American Airlines AAdvantage - No minimum age limit. Minors are exempt from miles expiration before the age of 21.
Delta Air Lines SkyMiles - No minimum age limit. Miles do not expire.
United Airlines MileagePlus - No minimum age limit. Miles do not expire.
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - No minimum age limit. Children under 13 cannot have an online account but can still be enrolled in Mileage plan by calling 1-800-252-7522. Miles do not expire.
British Airways Executive Club - Only household accounts are available for minors. Children must be 2 or older. Avios won't expire as long as you collect, spend, buy or share at least one Avios every 36 months
Air Canada Aeroplan - Children must be 2 or older. Family sharing pool available. Aeroplan points will expire if account is inactive for 18 months.
Qantas Frequent Flyer - No minimum age. Mikes will expire if account is inactive for 18 months.
Emirates Skywards - Children must be 2 years and above. Miles are valid for 3 years after date of travel.
Lufthansa Miles & More - Children must be 2 years and above. Miles expire 36 months after they are earned.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer - Children must be 2 years and above. Miles expire 36 months after they are earned.
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Children must be 2 years and above. Miles can be kept if you earn or redeem miles every 18 months.
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards - No minimum age limit. Miles do not expire.
JetBlue TrueBlue - No minimum age limit. Miles do not expire.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club - No minimum age limit however children under 12 must be enrolled by calling customer center. Gold status members can have a household account. Miles do not expire.
ANA Mileage Club - Children must be 13 or older. Family accounts are available to ANA members who live outside of Japan. Miles expire 36 months after being earned.
Korean Air SKYPASS - No minimum age. Family account available. Miles expire 10 years after they were earned.
Air France-KLM Flying Blue - Children must be 2 and above. Miles do not expire for members under the age of 18. Family accounts are available. The frequent flyer program offers a 25% discount on award tickets for children aged 2 to 11, travelling with an adult.
Etihad Guest - Children must be 2 and above. Family accounts available. Miles will expire after 18 months if no account activity.
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles - Children must be 2 or older. Miles expire 3 years from the time they are earned.
Qatar Airways Privilege Club - Children must be 2 and older. Family pooling is available. May link Qatar and British Airway accounts. Miles expire after 36 months if account is inactive.
Japan Airlines Mileage Bank - Children must be 2 to earn miles for international travel and 3 for domestic travel. Family accounts available. Miles expire after 36 months of them being earned.
Avianca LifeMiles - Miles expire 12 months after accrual unless you hold elite status then it’s 24 months from accrual.
Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus - Minimum age is 2 and older. Miles expire 3 years after they are earned.
Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles - No minimum age limit but parents must call service center to enroll minors. Miles do not expire.
Miles can be used to buy award tickets, seat upgrades, and obtain status. For the miles that expire I recommend using them for award tickets or upgrades since you can’t accumulate them. If miles expire due to inactivity look up simple ways to renew them such as shopping portals.
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that you can only obtain miles for you children if they have their own booked seat. So if you have your child booked as a “lap infant” this will not work.
As you can see there are a lot of airlines with minimum age limits of 2 however there is often a way around this. I recommend searching the partners in your airline alliance and seeing if the other airlines have age limits. For instance, we flew British Airways when my daughter was 1 and I was able to obtain American Airline miles for her flight rather than Avios since they are in the same OneWorld Alliance.
If you have any issues signing up your children on the website give the airline a call. If there are any other airlines you want me to add please email me or comment!
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