Plaza Premium’s Smart Traveller adopts new points expiry rules

Smart Traveller, the loyalty program of Plaza Premium Group, is tweaking its points expiry rules.

Members who earn or spend points will now find their entire points balance valid until the end of the next calendar year.

This replaces the previous policy of a rolling 12-month expiry date, based on when the cardholder last accrued or used points.

For example, a member who earns or spends Smart Traveller points in February 2021 would see their entire balance valid until December 31 2022, being the rest of the current calendar year (2021), plus one year.

Under the previous rolling 12-month rule, those points would have been valid only until February 2022.

The move acknowledges the difficulties that many members are facing in being able to earn or use points in light of international travel restrictions, combined with the temporary closure of numerous Plaza Premium lounge locations, including all facilities in Australia.

Smart Traveller’s published Terms and Conditions haven’t yet been updated to reflect the change, although Plaza Premium has confirmed the policy shift with Executive Traveller, which we’ve tested and verified to now be in place.

More points relief for Smart Traveller members

The adoption of a new points expiry policy follows a separate points extension offer in late 2020, which saw all members’ points extended until December 31 2021.

With the new expiry rules now in place, any member who earns or spends points throughout 2021 will find their remaining balance valid until the end of 2022.

Normally, the most popular way for members to earn points is when visiting Plaza Premium lounges.

Points can also be earned when clicking through the Smart Traveller website before shopping at a selection of retailers or travel booking providers. This includes Trip.com, where points can be earned on flights, hotel bookings, train journeys, tours, and other activities.

Can’t visit a Plaza Premium lounge, and don’t need to travel right now?

You may be able to earn 10 easy points – which in turn, extends all your other points until December 31 2022 – just by logging in to your Smart Traveller account and updating your profile information.

That way, your points will remain ready and waiting for you to use when international travel returns.

Previously: Smart Traveller extends points to December 2021

Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.