Do Your Fast Food Rewards Points Expire?
This page is a companion to our earn-rate comparison — that one covers how much you get back per dollar spent; this one covers whether you'll actually get to keep it. Points you never lose are worth more in practice than points with a slightly better earn rate that quietly vanish.
Side-by-side
| Program | Points expire? | Expiration window | Extra gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chick-fil-A One | No | Never | Tier status (Silver/Red/Signature) resets every January 1st — easy to confuse with points expiring, but your redeemable point balance is untouched. |
| MyMcDonald’s Rewards | Yes | 6 months after earned (1st of the month) | Only one reward can be redeemed per order, though you keep earning points on the rest of that order. |
| Taco Bell Rewards | Yes | 6 months after earned | Once you redeem a reward, you have only 31 days to actually use it before that expires too — a second clock most people don't know is running. |
| Royal Perks | Yes | 6 months after earned (1st day of the 7th month) | One reward per transaction, with a required 60-minute wait before redeeming another; 2x Crowns during your birthday month. |
Ranked most to least forgiving
1. Chick-fil-A One — once a point is earned, it's yours. There's no clock at all on the redeemable balance, only on whether you hold onto elevated tier status.
2. MyMcDonald's Rewards and Royal Perks — both run on a straightforward 6-month earn-to- expiration window, with no extra trap once you know that window exists.
3. Taco Bell Rewards — the same 6-month earning clock as the other two, plus a second, easy-to-miss one: redeem a reward and forget to use it, and you lose it in 31 days even though you already "spent" the points on it.
Why this matters more than the earn rate
A program with a slightly lower earn rate but no expiration (Chick-fil-A One, per our comparison) can out-perform a higher-earning program in practice, if you're not a frequent enough customer to redeem within that program's window. An occasional customer who racks up points at Taco Bell or Burger King and then doesn't visit again for seven months effectively earned nothing — the same points sitting in a Chick-fil-A One account would still be fully redeemable.
This page is unofficial and for informational purposes only — FastFoodPoints is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Chick-fil-A, Inc., McDonald's Corporation, Taco Bell Corp., or Burger King Corporation. Sourced from each program's own site — Chick-fil-A One, MyMcDonald's Rewards FAQ, Taco Bell Rewards, and Royal Perks — cross-checked against independent coverage linked from each chain's own FAQ section. Programs can and do change their terms — always confirm current rules in the official app. Checked October 2026.