Avianca’s LifeMiles program is known for their frequent bonuses on purchased miles. Buying LifeMiles is one of the best ways to score a deal on first and business class Star Alliance tickets. While they already offer frequent bonuses on purchased miles, LifeMiles has just introduced a new way for members to acquire miles through a monthly subscription service.
Interestingly at the beginning of the month Copa’s ConnectMiles program introduced a similar offering, so it looks like LifeMiles is following their lead on this.
Through this offering you can sign up for a subscription that gets you a certain number of miles every month, and then a further bonus if you stay subscribed for an entire year. There are six different subscription plans here, ranging in cost from $10.99 to $129.99 per month. The subscription automatically renews, and you can cancel at any time (though you only receive the bonus if you stay subscribed for at least a year).
Let’s look at how many miles you’d earn over the course of a year for each of these plans:
- For $10.99 per month you can receive a total of 8,000 miles after a year (~1.65 cents per mile)
- For $19.99 per month you can receive a total of 15,000 miles after a year (~1.60 cents per mile)
- For $32.99 per month you can receive a total of 28,000 miles after a year (~1.41 cents per mile)
- For $49.99 per month you can receive a total of 42,500 miles after a year (~1.41 cents per mile)
- For $92.99 per month you can receive a total of 80,000 miles after a year (~1.39 cents per mile)
- For $129.99 per month you can receive a total of 112,000 miles after a year (~1.39 cents per mile)
Those are some pretty compelling prices for purchased miles. LifeMiles frequently sells miles with anywhere from a 125-150% bonus, which would translate to ~1.32-1.47 cents per mile (though a 150% bonus is incredibly rare). So being able to buy miles for ~1.39 cents each over the course of a year potentially represents a solid value.
As much as I appreciate the creativity of this new offering, personally I probably wouldn’t sign-up for one of these types of subscription services. That’s because I generally like to buy miles with a short term use in mind, as there’s very much a cost to holding onto miles long term. Personally I’d want for there to be a significant discount over the usual sale price in order to lock myself into a subscription service like this over the course of a year. However, I’m sure others feel differently, especially since this is basically a way to acquire miles while spreading out the purchase price over time.
(Tip of the hat to Point Me to the Plane)
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