How to retroactively credit flights to your frequent flyer account

Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information.

We’ve all been there: You arrive at the airport, take your flight and realize you forgot to add your frequent flyer number to the reservation upon landing. Maybe it’s your first time flying a new airline, or perhaps someone booked the flight for you. Regardless of the reason, you earned zero miles on your flight.

Thankfully, you’re not totally out of luck. Many major U.S. airline loyalty programs let you retroactively claim miles for flights. Even better, some let you do this even if you weren’t a loyalty member when you flew.

That said, it can be difficult to claim these miles. Many airlines hide retroactive crediting deep within their websites. So in this article, we’ll run through how to retroactively credit flights to the major U.S. carriers.

But first, we want to walk through some best practices to follow as a points and miles traveler. These will ensure that you’ll always earn miles for your paid flights and give you leverage for requesting credit after the fact.

Sign up for frequent flyer accounts before you travel

We recommend that points and miles newcomers sign up for accounts with all the major U.S. airlines and hotels before traveling. Even if you don’t have immediate plans to travel, this will make it easier to earn rewards when you head out of town.

Additionally, you can credit flights on alliance partners to these accounts. So if — for example — you find yourself booked on a Lufthansa flight, you can add your United MileagePlus number to the reservation and earn United miles on the flight.

On the airline side, you’ll want to sign up for accounts with the Big 3 (American, Delta and United) and some of the major budget carriers. Here’s a short list:

• American Airlines AAdvantage.
• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.
• Delta Air Lines SkyMiles.
• JetBlue TrueBlue.
• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards.
• United Airlines MileagePlus.

On the hotel side, we recommend signing up for accounts with Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt and Marriott Bonvoy. There are other major hotel groups, but these are the hotels you’re most likely to encounter when traveling in the U.S.

Add these account numbers to the Notes app on your smartphone and refer to them whenever you book a flight or hotel room. This way, you’ll never miss out on valuable points and miles when you travel for work or fun.

Related: Loyalty programs are offering free points for new members

Regularly conduct frequent flyer account audits

We recommend performing a monthly audit on all of your frequent flyer accounts with a balance — even if you didn’t earn points in a given month. Doing this protects you from fraud, as you can see if miles mysteriously disappear from your account.

Performing a mileage audit is simple. Just log in to each of your accounts and ensure the airline has posted the flights you’ve taken to your account. Additionally, check that all credit card spending, shopping portal purchases, dining rewards and other rewards you should have earned appear correctly.

If you see that you never earned miles for a flight, follow the instructions for retroactively claiming miles later in this article. On the other hand, if miles from credit card spending never appear, you may need to call your bank to ensure it has the correct frequent flyer number.

Don’t see miles in your account right away? Don’t worry — most airlines take at least 24 hours to post miles earned from flights to your account, though some are getting much faster.

Additionally, it can take even longer if you’re crediting a partner flight from one airline to another (say, crediting an Air France-operated flight to Delta). However, if you don’t see a flight post to your account after a week or so, it’s time to request retroactive credit from the airline.

Related: What to do if you don't get miles for a flight

Save your receipts and boarding passes

One last thing before we start: Save all of your boarding passes and flight ticket receipts until the flight posts to your frequent flyer account. You’ll need information from these if you request retroactive flight credit later down the line.

Digital boarding passes are great for this — just save them to your phone’s wallet app, so they don’t disappear after the flight. You’ll also want to save email confirmations with ticket numbers, as you’ll often need this information for crediting miles after a flight.

Related: How to credit miles to a partner airline program

Retroactive credit policies for each airline

Now let’s move on to actually requesting retroactive credit for your past flights. Each airline has a different policy around this. For example, some airlines require you to claim credit within a set period after taking a flight. Others require that your account is open for a specific amount of time before you fly, making our earlier point about creating accounts ahead of time even more important.

Here are the specifics for the major U.S. airline loyalty programs. We’ve included the link to the corresponding policy, how to request credit and important details to bear in mind.

Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines has one of the most restrictive retroactive flight credit policies. For example, you must be a member at the time of travel to request mileage credit.

To request flight credit, go to this page on Alaska’s website, fill out your information and upload a copy of your boarding pass and ticket receipt. You can request credit for both Alaska Airlines-operated and partner flights.

Here’s what you need to know:

• When to submit: At least seven days after the Alaska flight date or 14 days after the partner flight.
• Deadline for submission: Within 12 months of travel.
• Need to be a member at the time of travel?: Yes.

American Airlines

American AAdvantage members have a little more lenience when requesting retroactive flight credit. For American and most partner flights, you must enter your ticket number and AAdvantage number on American's flight credit request site.

Review the individual carrier's page if you’re missing miles from a partner flight, as you may not be able to request some information online.

Here are the details:

• When to submit: At least three days after the flight date for American-operated flights or 15 days for partner flights.
• Deadline for submission: Within 12 months of travel.
• Need to be a member at the time of travel?: No, but flights more than 30 days before your enrollment date are not eligible for mileage credit.

Related: How to claim missing American Airlines AAdvantage miles

Delta Air Lines

Like American Airlines, Delta makes it easy to request mileage credit for past flights using an online form. And Delta has one of the more lenient policies regarding flights taken before enrolling.

To request flight credit, log into your Delta SkyMiles account, go to your account page (My Delta), click "View My SkyMiles," and then click "Request Mileage Credit."

From here, you can enter your ticket number and submit your request for mileage credit so long as you follow these guidelines:

• When to submit: At least seven days after the flight date.
• Deadline for submission: Within nine months of the flight date.
• Need to be a member at the time of travel?: No, but the same nine-month submission window applies.

If you don’t have your ticket number, fill out the "All Other Miles Requests" form on the same page where you'd otherwise request mileage credit. You’ll need to provide additional details regarding your flight, but the trouble is worth it, so you can later request mileage credit.

Related: How to claim your missing Delta SkyMiles

JetBlue

JetBlue is another airline with a relaxed policy for retroactively requesting mileage credit. To claim mileage credit, log in to your JetBlue account and fill out the "Request Points" form. This form covers flights operated by JetBlue and partner airlines.

Here are the criteria for these requests:

• When to submit: At least 14 days after the flight.
• Deadline for submission: Within 12 months of travel.
• Need to be a member at the time of travel?: Not specified in the terms and conditions, so you should be able to request credit for all flights within the last year even if you weren’t a member at the time of travel.

Southwest Airlines

Southwest also has a great retroactive flight credit policy. To request credit, log in to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account and go to the "My Account" screen. Click on "Rapid Rewards" in the blue top bar and then find the "Request past flight points" box.

You’ll receive credit so long as your request meets these requirements:

• When to submit: At least 48 hours after the flight.
• Deadline for submission: Within 12 months of travel.
• Need to be a member at the time of travel?: No.

United Airlines

Finally, we have United. To request flight credit, find your ticket number and sign in to your United account. Then head to this page and enter your ticket number at the bottom of the screen. If all is accepted, the miles will be credited to your account after United confirms eligibility.

That said, the eligibility requirements are a little convoluted. Here’s a look:

• When to submit: At least five days after the flight for United or United Express flights, seven days after the flight for most partner airlines and 14 days after the flight for Virgin Australia.
• Deadline for submission: Within 12 months of your flight date.
• Need to be a member at the time of travel?: New members can request credit for United-operated flights taken up to 30 days before enrolling at no charge. You can also pay a $50 fee to claim credit for flights taken more than 30 days but less than six months before enrollment, though you'll need to submit a separate request.

Bottom line

There are many reasons why you may need to request retroactive flight credit at some point. If you were new to points and miles, you probably didn’t even belong to a given frequent flyer program at the time of travel.

Fortunately, most U.S. airlines make it simple to request missing miles, with some letting you request mileage for flights taken up to a year before enrollment. Keep a copy of all boarding passes and receipts so you can request miles when they don’t post.

Additional reporting by Ehsan Haque.