In what I'm sure is an effort to get back in good standing with its Advantage members, American is offering to reinstate frequent flyer miles that expired on or after 12/31/02.

There is no limit to the number of miles you can reinstate, but there are costs:

$50 for every 5,000 miles plus $30 per transaction per account.

This offer is good until 12/31/08. Call 1-800-882-8880 or go to www.aa.com.

$50 for every 5K miles? wow, I think they are doing that because they want some cash, not out of the goodness of their hearts

I didn't say American had a heart, but this might be good news for people who lost miles and would like to get them back.

This is not new actually. They have been offering this for at least the last couple of years.

Here's a link to the actual page on AA.com
http://tinyurl.com/bxzoc

But thanks for posting, Jean.

hmmm. 50,000 miles usually gets one an award ticket to Europe.... that would be $500, not bad.

Thanks Jean,

Good to know if we're close to free trip level!

Here's another tip on expired miles:

I got United (or USAirways-can't remember which) to reinstate my miles for free a couple of months ago, just by sending an email to Customer Support that I was shocked to discover that my miles had suddenly disappeared from one month to the next, with no warning that this was about to happen.

They reinstated as a "one time courtesy". Just for what it's worth, sometimes it doesn't hurt to ask...