LoyaltyWhat happens to the points nobody spends

The points graveyard is worth $10,000,000,000.

Every year · in unspent US loyalty points

A quarter of the loyalty points US consumers earn are never spent. Half of members say they'd rather donate their rewards than redeem them. Almost no program connects those two facts. This is the story of the gap — scroll to account for it.

01 · The leakEvery 100 points earned in the US

A quarter of the value members earn goes nowhere.

Lost every year

$10B

Consumer value lost annually to US loyalty points that are never spent. A quarter of everything members earn, gone quietly.

100 points earned

…and where they end up.

74 spent 14 unspent 12 expire

26.2%

of points earned by US consumers never get spent; 11.9% expire outright.

$13–15B

in unredeemed points held by Canadians, with 28% redeeming once a year or less — the same pattern, a second methodology.

Two countries, two independent studies, one pattern. Call it the points graveyard — and note that it's only a graveyard if the points stay buried.

Sources: Antavo Global Customer Loyalty Report 2026; Bond Loyalty Report 2026 (16th year).

02 · The good newsLoyalty is not in trouble

Worth saying now: loyalty itself is not in trouble.

Antavo's 2026 report, drawing on a 10,000-person consumer panel, 3,000 marketer responses, and 500 million member actions, finds participation still climbing.

43.2%

of consumers are more likely to join a loyalty program than a year ago.

65.9%

say loyalty programs are part of everyday life.

5.3×

average ROI reported by the programs themselves. Healthy, by any measure.

The leak sits inside programs that are otherwise thriving — which makes it a design question, not a decline.

Source: Antavo Global Customer Loyalty Report 2026.

03 · Why it fillsMembers explain it themselves

The growing pain isn't joining. It's a redemption worth completing.

49.1%

of members say rewards take too long to earn.

41.1%

say points expire before they can use them.

38.9%

find the rewards on offer unattractive.

Bond's Canadian data adds the sharpest trendline: the importance members place on ease of redemption jumped from 69% to 73% in a single year.

The uncomfortable ledger entry

On the books, expired points look like good news: breakage reduces the liability and flows through as profit. But every expired balance is a member who watched value they earned evaporate. Breakage profit is deferred resentment, booked quarterly.

Sources: Antavo Global Customer Loyalty Report 2026; Bond Loyalty Report 2026.

04 · The gapDemand vs. supply

Members already told us what they want to do with those points.

KPMG asked more than 18,000 consumers across 20 countries what they would rather do with loyalty rewards. The answer turns this from a problem description into a design brief.

Consumers who would rather donate loyalty rewards than redeem them KPMG, 18,000+ consumers, 20 countries

52%

Loyalty programs that offer donation as a reward option EY loyalty research — behind discounts (73%) and points (56%)

24%

2×

Demand is double the supply — and $10 billion in points sits idle between them. The raw material for closing the gap is already on every program's books, depreciating.

US overall 46% Millennials 61% Gen Z 55% Boomers 40%

One honest caveat, because the data includes it: 22% of consumers globally say they're loyal to a brand specifically because of its charitable giving. Donation isn't a loyalty program's engine — it's a redemption path, an emotional one, for the large cohort of members the discount economy has stopped moving, and for balances that would otherwise expire.

05 · ProofIt works at scale — and has for twenty years

This is not a hypothesis waiting for a pilot.

Aeroplan's Member Donation Program marked its twentieth anniversary this year. Its sharpest mechanic is worth stealing: Points Matching Weeks — a silent write-off, redesigned as a co-funded campaign moment.

Longevity

20 yrs

of continuous points-to-donation redemption, since 2006.

Scale

1.8B

points donated by members.

Reach

1,500+

charitable organizations supported.

Momentum

350M+

points driven by matching campaigns alone.

The design lesson from the mature programs: publish the conversion rate. A donation option built on a transparent, disclosed rate is a differentiator in a feature set where opacity is the norm.

Closer to homeTarget Circle Community Giving · powered by in/PACT Target

Customer-directed giving, running at enterprise scale for 7+ years.

Target funds the giving, and Circle members direct it to vetted nonprofits in their own communities. Same principle, proven on one of retail's biggest stages: members engage when the redemption is an act of agency.

$42M+

funnelled to community nonprofits, directed by members.

1B+

member votes cast since launch.

95.5%

nonprofit partner retention.

124

local markets covered.

Sources: Air Canada / Aeroplan Member Donation Program 20th anniversary release; in/PACT program data, Target Circle Community Giving.

The takeawayin/PACT's read

Points that would expire into nothing become donations members direct, to vetted nonprofits in their own ZIP code.

in/PACT turns loyalty breakage into local impact members choose. Verified, local, measurable.

Give it forward.

Sources: Antavo 2026 · KPMG · EY

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Part of in/PACT's loyalty-linked giving work — explore Loyalty Reward Donations.