Update 12/15/20: One more reminder that AARP Rewards points will start expiring in a couple of weeks a year after they were earned. Unfortunately most of the point redemption options are sold out right now.
Update 11/5/20: Just a quick reminder that this policy change comes into force on January 1, 2021. If you have points that were earned more than a year ago, you’ll want to redeem them soon.
AARP Rewards announced today that they’ll be implementing a points expiration policy from the beginning of next year. From January 1, 2021, points earned more than a year ago that haven’t been redeemed will expire.
They’ve tried to dress up this 12 month expiration policy as a program enhancement despite points not currently expiring. In their email, they advise that they were originally planning on having points expire after six months, so look – we should rejoice that they’re being incredibly generous by doubling the length of time we have to redeem them. That’s like someone saying ‘Don’t be angry that I punched you in the face – I was originally planning on kicking you in the nuts which would have been much more painful’. Er, thanks?
It means the AARP Rewards expiration policy will work in a similar way to how stars earned with Starbucks Rewards expire a year after they’re earned. The difference with Starbucks is that you can tend to get more meaningful rewards when redeeming a smaller amount of stars versus how many points you need to redeem to get anything meaningful from AARP Rewards.
Here’s what AARP’s email had to say:
We wanted to let you know that AARP Rewards has updated our points expiration policy available in the Terms & Conditions. Originally we planned to expire all points after six months without any qualifying earn or redemption activity. We have since changed the plan to expire points on a rolling basis after 12 months without any redemption activity.
What does that mean?
Starting Jan. 1, 2021, unused points older than 12 months will expire on a rolling monthly basis. For example, if 5,000 points were earned in June 2020 — and are not redeemed — they will expire 12 months later on July 1, 2021. Unused points earned from September through December 2019 will expire on Jan. 1, 2021. The oldest points will be used first for redemptions. Points balances can be viewed and tracked via the Transaction History and in the monthly statement email.
There are many ways to use points.
• Contribute to the AARP Foundation: Help end poverty, hunger and isolation among older adults by contributing points.
• Points-Only Offers: Get gift cards from top local and national brands in retail, grocery and more.
• Sweepstakes: Use points for a chance to win fabulous prize packages, some worth thousands of dollars!
• Local Deals: Try local offers, from dining to entertainment, and help local businesses — only 500 points each.
AARP Rewards Point Redemption Options
Gift Cards
On the gift card side of things, you’re generally looking at redeeming 7,000-10,000 per $5 of gift card value – the amount required varies by gift card value and brand. That’s a pretty poor redemption rate, so it’s generally not going to be worth redeeming your points for gift cards.
Local Offers
A much better option is redeeming points for Local Offers. These are offers that are powered by the company that produces Entertainment Books and will often have the coupons you’ll find in those books.
That means you get access to what can be some decent deals by redeeming points rather than needing to buy an Entertainment Book. For example, before setting off on our 50 state road trip we lived in Portsmouth, VA. Just across the Elizabeth River was the city of Norfolk and one of the riverside attractions is the Spirit of Norfolk. This is a small cruise ship which runs lunch and dinner cruises while floating up and down the Elizabeth River.
This is listed as a Local Offer with AARP Rewards, costing only 500 points for a BOGO coupon for a free lunch or dinner cruise.
How much would this normally cost? The Spirit of Norfolk normally charges $62.90-$79.90 per person depending on time of day and date of the week of your cruise. Redeeming only 500 points for at least $62.90 is excellent value if you were planning on taking a lunch or dinner cruise anyway.
You won’t always get value as good as that when redeeming for Local Offers. For example, a popular spot in Olde Towne, Portsmouth (pre-pandemic) was The Coffee Shoppe. You could redeem 500 points for a BOGO coupon for a free menu item or a coupon for 10% off your bill.
Neither of those are worth the same as the $62.90 you could get with the Spirit of Norfolk, but 500 points for $5-$10 of value is still far better than redeeming 7,000-20,000 points for a gift card worth that same amount.
Other Points Redemption Options
If there aren’t any Local Offers nearby which work for you, you can donate points to the AARP Foundation or redeem them for entries to sweepstakes that you have a slim-to-no chance of winning.