When do credit card free night and companion certificates expire?
By Calvin. Published .
A free night or companion certificate from a credit card usually expires a fixed time after it is issued, often 12 months. That is usually not exactly your card anniversary, and usually not the end of the calendar year. The date that counts is the one on the certificate itself, in your hotel or airline account. The rest of this page shows the rules on real cards and a routine for not losing one.
Why is the date easy to get wrong?
A certificate runs on two dates, and neither is the one most people remember.
- The day it is issued. An anniversary award is usually issued after your card anniversary, not on it. It can arrive weeks later, in your hotel or airline account or by email from the program, not on your card statement.
- The day it must be used by. The clock starts when the certificate is issued. A certificate that lasts 12 months and arrives in March ends the next March, whatever month you opened the card.
So the date to write down is the one on the certificate itself, in the loyalty account or the email where it arrived. Your card anniversary only tells you when to start looking for it.
Read the rule for what the date means, too. For some certificates the stay or flight must be finished by that day. For others the booking must be made by then. The certificate’s own terms say which.
How long do certificates last on real cards?
The table lists the award each of a few widely held hotel and airline cards grants every year, and what the card’s published terms say about its expiry. Every row is read from the kardfolio catalog. Awards a card grants only after you spend a set amount are covered in the next section.
| Card | Award | How many | Expiry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card | Annual Free Night Reward | 1 certificate a year | Expires 12 months after it is issued. |
| Free Night Reward after 30,000 in Purchases | 1 night a year | Expires 12 months after it is issued. | |
| Free Night Reward after 60,000 in Purchases | 1 night a year | Expires 12 months after it is issued. | |
| World of Hyatt Credit Card | Anniversary Free Night | 1 free night a year | Expires 12 months after it is issued. |
| Spend Free Night | 1 night a year | Expires 12 months after it is issued. | |
| Marriott Bonvoy Boundless | Anniversary Free Night Award | 1 free night a year | Expires 12 months after it is issued. |
| Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card | Free Night Award | 1 free night a year | Expires 12 months after it is issued. |
| Delta SkyMiles Platinum American Express Card | Companion Certificate | 1 certificate a year | Expires 12 months after it is issued. |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card | Anniversary Flight Discount | 1 flight discount code a year | Use the issuer-specified expiration date for your issued certificate or code. |
Each card’s page has the full terms and the issuer pages they were read from. How card facts are sourced explains how those pages are checked and dated.
What about certificates you earn by spending?
Some cards issue a second certificate after you spend a set amount in a year. That one has no fixed month at all. It is issued after you cross the spending line, so it starts its own clock on its own day.
Two certificates from the same card can therefore end months apart. Treat each one as its own item with its own date, not as one benefit of the card.
A routine that catches every certificate.
- Start looking a month after each card anniversary. Check the hotel or airline account and your email, not the card account. Some issuers take 8 to 14 weeks, so ask the issuer only after that.
- When it appears, write down its use-by date. Copy the date printed on the certificate. Do not work it out from the anniversary.
- Set one check well before that date. Good rooms and flights go first, so a month is a sensible minimum.
- Mark it used when you book. A used certificate should leave the list, so the list only shows what is still open.
A calendar or a spreadsheet can hold this. The part that fails in practice is step 1: nothing reminds you that a certificate should have arrived, so one that never posted goes unnoticed until it is too late to ask the issuer about it.
How kardfolio handles awards.
- Anniversary awards. When a card’s terms give a fixed life, such as 12 months, kardfolio adds the award at your card anniversary with a use-by date estimated from that rule. The real certificate usually arrives later, so edit the date to match the one on your certificate.
- Awards with a printed date. When the issuer sets the date on each certificate, kardfolio does not guess. You add the award when you receive it and enter its use-by date.
- Awards you earn by spending. kardfolio does not follow your spending. It shows the award as something you may have earned, and you add it when you have.
- What ends first. An open award with a use-by date sits in the same list as your credits, sorted by the day it ends. Log its use and it leaves the list.
kardfolio does not see your hotel or airline account, so it cannot confirm that a certificate was issued or used. What you record is your own list, kept next to the rest of your card benefits.