When a frequent flyer program has a devaluation, should it be boycotted? If so, for how long? And should that happen if most other frequent flyer programs are devaluing (or have recently devalued) as well? Y’all tell me…
In this post:
The argument for boycotting airline frequent flyer programs
Recently, avianca lifemiles’ program had a significant devaluation, both in terms of the number of miles required for many redemptions, plus an increasing amount of availability seemingly being blocked. I was one of the first to call out the lifemiles program for these changes, and did so in no uncertain terms.
Several days later, I wrote about the details of the program’s monthly promotion on buying miles. To be clear, I don’t get any sort of a kickback if you buy miles from the program, but instead, for years I’ve been consistently covering the promotions that are available, and readers can decide for themselves if a deal makes sense or not.
In the introduction section of that post, and in bold, I wrote the following:
Historically, I’ve found lifemiles to be one of the most useful frequent flyer programs for redeeming miles, thanks to the ability to redeem for long haul premium cabin Star Alliance awards. However, let me emphasize that the program recently devalued miles considerably, both increasing award costs, and seemingly blocking more award space. At the moment, I see fairly limited value with redemption options through the program.
Despite that caveat, several readers gave me a hard time about the post:
- “Why are you recommending the purchase of LifeMiles when you know they are essentially worthless now?”
- “You are kidding, right?”
- “In light of the most recent devaluation, it’s disappointing to see this post :/”
- “These caveats/CYAs don’t cut it considering the massive devaluation. You’re promoting a terrible deal, disclaimers or no disclaimers.”
- “Only a street corner pimp would try to sell this as good p***y. You are a fraud for posting this b***s**t program.”
- “Ben, I’ve learned a lot from your blog; and I have immense respect for you. I hope that you reconsider promoting LifeMiles again on here given the twin punch of the devaluation and blocking partner award availability. Caveats of buyer beware don’t justice under these circumstances.”
Readers are more than welcome to call me out for these things, so there’s no hard feelings with any of these comments. I hear you, though let me explain the other side of this, and why I have a different take (and again, I have zero financial upside from any readers buying miles from the program).
Why I cover deals even with programs that devalue
If you’ve read OMAAT for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed me consistently make two points when it comes to earning and redeeming miles:
- You should always earn and burn, and not view miles as some sort of a long term investment
- You should only buy miles with a short term use in mind
Let’s be clear — when you buy miles & points from a program, it should be viewed as a transactional relationship. You’re not buying miles from the program because you absolutely adore it, or because you want to make a donation to the program. You’re buying miles (hopefully) because you have a short term use in mind for those miles, and you’re going to come out ahead.
Is the lifemiles program as valuable across the board as it was a couple of weeks ago? No. Are there still situations where buying lifemiles offers massively outsized value, and is the best option? Of course! For example, say someone want to fly from Sydney to Tokyo in ANA business class — this is actually an example a reader provided.
They can buy those miles from lifemiles for 1.27 cents each, and book the ticket for 50,000 miles. That’s like paying under $700 for a one-way business class ticket, including taxes and fees, and that’s amazing. As a point of comparison, a cash ticket would cost around $3,000.
What should I recommend they do instead? Should I tell them to buy United MileagePlus miles for 1.88 cents each (the lowest price during a promotion), and then redeem 90,000 miles for that same ticket, just to spite lifemiles? Never mind the fact that MileagePlus has had several devaluations in recent times, which were much more extreme than lifemiles’.
Or should I tell them to buy Air Canada Aeroplan points, when Aeroplan doesn’t even show this award availability, so doesn’t give you access to these awards?
If you ask me, we have to approach miles & points in a pragmatic way. When programs sell miles, we should view it in terms of the value those miles offer us now, and not in terms of the value the program will offer us years down the road.
Part of the reason that I cover deals on buying miles even after devaluations is because I think it makes sense for people to buy miles as close to when they can redeem as possible. Even post-devaluation, there are plenty of great uses of lifemiles. Most people won’t get as much value as before, and most people shouldn’t buy miles. But for those people who can get outsized value from miles, of course they should still take advantage of those deals.
When it comes to the business of selling miles, devaluations are nothing personal, as far as I’m concerned. There are lots of programs selling miles, and if a program devalues to the point of not being useful, it’s going to regret that, and see a drop in business. But I think that can happen organically.
A theoretical boycott primarily harms those people who could be getting good deals on redemptions, rather than the program. For that matter, I’d argue that in some ways, not writing about promotions after a devaluation would help the program — lifemiles (and other programs) always send out emails about sales on miles. Obviously that email won’t mention that the program has been devalued. Meanwhile if you read about it here (or elsewhere), you’ll at least have a heads up on that, if you would’ve missed it otherwise.
Bottom line
If people don’t want to buy miles from lifemiles or any other program that devalues, I totally get it. I’m not buying any miles at the moment either. However, that won’t stop me from covering promotions on buying miles. Why? Well, there’s still a lot of outsized value to be had, and people should always buy miles from the program that offers them the best value.
If you ask me, the most important thing with buying miles is to do so with a short term use in mind — buying miles isn’t a long term investment in your retirement portfolio, it’s a transactional decision. If you’re interested in a Star Alliance redemption this month, you should go with whichever program has the best value. If that’s lifemiles, you should use that, in my opinion, rather than spiting yourself, and paying more to use another program.
Besides, if we’re going to start boycotting certain programs, please do tell me which programs we’re not boycotting, which haven’t seen devaluations in some form or another.
Where do you stand on this topic?
Hi Ben, serious question - what's your criteria for covering point sales? To my awareness, you don't cover most program point sales (ex: Alaska, United), yet there are likely arbitrage opportunities for most program's points purchases (ex: I had a recent United redemption at 5.6 cents/point, way higher than 1.88 sale price). So what's the cutoff?
@ Daniel A -- I cover sales from all of the programs where I think there's potentially value, including the ones you mention. For example, see my Alaska and United posts on buying points here:
https://onemileatatime.com/deals/buy-alaska-mileage-plan-miles/
https://onemileatatime.com/deals/buy-united-mileageplus-miles/
There is a lot more to this than just devaluation. The program itself was like a Dollar Store...it served a purpose. Customer service was nonexistent, the website and tech is dismal, the availability is completely unpredictable. So, when that Dollar Store decides it's Neiman Marcus with its pricing and service it defeats the purpose and is a scam. Another comparison would be getting a discounted J ticket on an OTA. If the OTA's charge the...
There is a lot more to this than just devaluation. The program itself was like a Dollar Store...it served a purpose. Customer service was nonexistent, the website and tech is dismal, the availability is completely unpredictable. So, when that Dollar Store decides it's Neiman Marcus with its pricing and service it defeats the purpose and is a scam. Another comparison would be getting a discounted J ticket on an OTA. If the OTA's charge the same as the airline directly why would you ever book through an OTA knowing they provide no service, difficult changes and shady practices? You sometimes take the chance because of the discounting. Nothing else.
While the boycott term may be strong - I imagine all out avoidance would be more apropos.
@ Antwerp -- I'm curious, which frequent flyer program would you consider to be the Neiman Marcus when it comes to the ability to buy miles, get great service, etc.?
My primary concern is not with an ability to buy miles. It is completely centered around back end service and the website. LifeMiles provides little or no easy way to make changes or deal with issues that occur with a booking. The website is clunky and glitchy. Phantom space has been more prevalent than others. And there is a trust issue as well in that I have no desire to transfer anything there given worries...
My primary concern is not with an ability to buy miles. It is completely centered around back end service and the website. LifeMiles provides little or no easy way to make changes or deal with issues that occur with a booking. The website is clunky and glitchy. Phantom space has been more prevalent than others. And there is a trust issue as well in that I have no desire to transfer anything there given worries about glitches or phantom space. With that, have I used them in the past? Yes. A couple of times. Only though at last minute and out of desperation - and with an absolute 100% that I will get on that flight. Still, I held my breath through the entire transfer/booking/travel process with prayers that all will go well. Kind of like landing in Cheyenne Wyoming in winter and realizing you forgot your hat on the last plane. Desperation will lead you to the Dollar Store for a quick throwaway fix.
So, who is better in my mind from a trust perspective? Pretty much any major airline when it comes to support, tech, and customer service. Not saying the others are great - but they certainly give me more confidence.
Again, I think my comparison to an OTA is the better one. They can offer significant value at times for premium cabins (especially ex Europe), albeit with trade offs in knowing full well that any support or service will be non-existent. However, if that OTA charges the same as booking direct it would be absurd to use them.
LifeMiles has always been a risk/reward equation like OTA's. When the reward is devalued the risk is too great. I think at least that this is what Matthew was getting at.
Let me add, if LifeMiles at least improved SLIGHTLY their website, service etc to at least be at the level of Aeroplan (which is just ok) than I would be far more confident in using it for redemptions. As Matthew alluded to, perhaps they should have considered mass improvements to the program interface and customer service before asking for more from customers.
Thank you for the clarification. However, the USD is currently so high against the EUR and AUD that any "buy" miles options from any program, even with a significant promotion, become very expensive. This is to take into consideration in addition to all devaluation of so many programs. I am thinking about readers who are not paid in USD...
Lifemiles still has some incredible redemptions.
Examples:
Tokyo to Sydney on ANA in biz for 40K.
Europe to South Africa for 55K.
The challenge is more about finding availability, not the unreasonable rates.
You're 100% right Ben. There's no point in getting offended by what FF programs do. Just pick the best option for the moment, earn and burn the miles and be done. There is no point in holding grudges as every single program has done something unethical in the past 20 years.
I could go both ways on this. I think that if you have the points and there is a good deal out there then there should be no hard feelings. Afterall the company is acting like a company in their interests. Keep in mind that loyalty programs for companies have made them A LOT of money. On the otherhand, we have seen airlines change their policy with enough customer pushback. For example the Delta lounge...
I could go both ways on this. I think that if you have the points and there is a good deal out there then there should be no hard feelings. Afterall the company is acting like a company in their interests. Keep in mind that loyalty programs for companies have made them A LOT of money. On the otherhand, we have seen airlines change their policy with enough customer pushback. For example the Delta lounge access or other airlines/hotels with devaluation. I think that just boycotting will not do much, but other actions could make more of a statement.
Some region to regions are still unaffected by the devaluation. For example, there is a wide availability of a well known Taiwanese carrier in business class for just 40k on a non-stop 8hr flight.
I seemed to be the lone dissenter in the comments section on the other article. Couldn’t agree with you more lucky. Lifemiles all around is still the program I would keep if I had to choose one star alliance program.
I effectively have boycotted United…. But only because their redemption rates are so ridiculous and buying points is expensive.
If I see flights from Australia to Asia for 20k in economy or 40k...
I seemed to be the lone dissenter in the comments section on the other article. Couldn’t agree with you more lucky. Lifemiles all around is still the program I would keep if I had to choose one star alliance program.
I effectively have boycotted United…. But only because their redemption rates are so ridiculous and buying points is expensive.
If I see flights from Australia to Asia for 20k in economy or 40k in biz on lifemiles I’ll book them. And if they go to 30 and 50k I’ll prob still book them. If they go to 80k I won’t. United is 90k.
Def buyer beware (you have to be uber flexible!!!) and some awards are blocked (see Alaska and aeropln) but def keep lifemiles in your matrix if you want cheap flights.
It’s not just LifeMiles. Alaska and Aeroplan also have seen changes lately that aren’t good whether it’s through devaluation or lack of available award space seats. It’s almost cheaper paying cash now for business class seats than buying points for redemptions. Recently, I was able to book a round trip business class ticket out of JFK to Mumbai with a stop over in Abu Dhabi on Ethiad for $3100. That’s a steal especially for a...
It’s not just LifeMiles. Alaska and Aeroplan also have seen changes lately that aren’t good whether it’s through devaluation or lack of available award space seats. It’s almost cheaper paying cash now for business class seats than buying points for redemptions. Recently, I was able to book a round trip business class ticket out of JFK to Mumbai with a stop over in Abu Dhabi on Ethiad for $3100. That’s a steal especially for a premium carrier like Ethiad which lacks business class award space availability through its partners like Aeroplan or American Airlines.
Unfortunately the fraction of one percent of your readers (with a small number of exceptions) who comment sound like they're in the sixth grade trying to decide who's cool enough to talk to and who isn't. Good content, lousy commenters.
Award blocking is the biggest problem with LifeMiles, not just devaluation.
Lifemiles was an excellent value 5-6 years ago. I spent a lot on purchasing miles and used them to redeem amazing first class and business class awards. However, the program has significantly declined over the past two years. All my miles are now gone, and I wouldn't consider getting involved with it again. It truly was one of the last great ways to travel in luxury at an affordable price!
Buyer of Lifemiles be warned!!!!!
Lifemiles was even a better value 10++ years ago when it first started (until Jeff Kwok ruined all the miscoded cities)
Avianca uses a lower case letter A in their logo, but its still a proper noun. If you look at how Avianca spells its name in news releases, its Avianca, not avianca. Star Alliance does the same.
Also, if the logo spelling is how the OMAAT style guide dictates, then Brussels Airlines should be brussels airlines. But its not.
I agree with you on that.
I’m glad I’m not the only one :)
Taking pride in your work means focusing on the details, not just the content. We swim in a sea of content so you stand out by focusing on the details.
It's tedious reading Ben's valid, true defense of his valid, true previous posts. What if Ben just runs out of morale reading the Comments, and stops? it'll depend, largely I expect, on how grotesquely stupid the criticism is.
If I had USD$5,000 and I had to spend it today on airline points at today's price, LifeMiles would be my second choice, not my fifth, or twentieth. Virgin Atlantis would be my first at the moment...
It's tedious reading Ben's valid, true defense of his valid, true previous posts. What if Ben just runs out of morale reading the Comments, and stops? it'll depend, largely I expect, on how grotesquely stupid the criticism is.
If I had USD$5,000 and I had to spend it today on airline points at today's price, LifeMiles would be my second choice, not my fifth, or twentieth. Virgin Atlantis would be my first at the moment but it would vanish from the list when the current sale ends. This, in spite of the true, valid criticism of LifeMiles.
For you who "can't find any" seats or think the program is pure ripoff or fraud or whatever, you'r hair is on fire, jump in the cold pool and come back when you're calm and rational. Ask yourself why smart, experienced people are still finding value. You can slap me, dismiss me, but that just means I'll be in ANA F while you're in Polaris for 14 hours.
Being loyal to one airline for the sake of miles is the biggest scam today. Why would I pay more to collect useless miles? Makes no financial sense. Cheaper to just buy a business class ticket when you need it then paying more for each flight to earn that award that won’t ever be available to redeem.
Matthew of Live and Let's Fly disagrees with you.
Boycotts are sometimes the right thing to do, sometimes not.
Matthew is a sensible guy.
*sensitive
Boycotts can be but... boycotting Avianca seems a bit strange and out of the blue as your first airline when every US carrier has been devaluing their program
Another example of a great redemption is flying from Canada to Europe in business class - still 63,000 miles as before. Sign up for lifemiles+ and get another 10% off.
People that focus on points and miles often suffer from main character syndrome. They assume that they, points and miles maximizers, are the target audience for a program. They are not. A program does not need a maximizer to engage with it. That person is usually not that profitable, if at all. They want normal people to engage with them. Those normal people have comfort zones and habits. Once a program is part of that...
People that focus on points and miles often suffer from main character syndrome. They assume that they, points and miles maximizers, are the target audience for a program. They are not. A program does not need a maximizer to engage with it. That person is usually not that profitable, if at all. They want normal people to engage with them. Those normal people have comfort zones and habits. Once a program is part of that person's habit, then it can drive behavior. The fact that Delta is by far the most popular Amex transfer partner should tell you everything you need to know about normal people's interest and behavior. Delta points are poor value, but they are very easy to use. Programs are always going to default toward ease of use, not value. It matters more for most people.
So I agree: keep it transactional. If a program can help you, use it. If not, don't bother. And yes, you should assess risk. A program that changes pricing without notice or communication should be used only when needed for a specific purpose. It is not a good place to accumulate or store miles from cash bookings.
I agree that "Boycotting" an airline for a devaluing is a meaningless thing to for a Points & Miles hobbyist, as any real problems will take care of themselves organically. To get best value in this hobby, we behave no more loyally to corporations than they do to us. We identify what trips we want to take, identify the best value proposition based on our research (for that particular trip) and pull the trigger. The...
I agree that "Boycotting" an airline for a devaluing is a meaningless thing to for a Points & Miles hobbyist, as any real problems will take care of themselves organically. To get best value in this hobby, we behave no more loyally to corporations than they do to us. We identify what trips we want to take, identify the best value proposition based on our research (for that particular trip) and pull the trigger. The fact that a trip I booked was through Turkish Miles & Smiles rather than Air Canada Aeroplan doesn't say anything about my feelings on either of those two airlines.
When an airline devalues, they decrease their likelihood of coming out on top in that research stage. If a program devalues, but they're still the best price around, I'll book with them. Who do I think I'm teaching a lesson to by paying more to another program? Conversely, if they devalue to a point where they're no longer the best price around, I'll "boycott" them without even thinking about it.
The only time I'd boycott a company would be out of concern for something other than the pricing. For example, I don't rent with Hertz because they have a reputation for falsely prosecuting people for car theft due to their own bureaucratic incompetence.
Well said
There is still plenty of value in Lifemiles. Just yesterday I booked EWR-IST-MLE in J on TK for 81k miles. Hard to beat that. That redemption would be an amazing reason to purchase points.
@Ben, IMHO, your disclaimers/recommendations/warnings need to be more prominent and *repeated* - at the top, as a heading (or different font size), and in the conclusion. Regardless of bolding, your warnings simply get lost in the sea of text, especially since attention spans are short and people tend to skim through things.
Whether you're writing about Avianca, Hertz, or anyone else, a simple copy & paste warning throughout a post would be helpful.
This is a reading problem, not a writing problem.
Brilliant response.
I would wager that none of those who responded read the post. Sure, they looked at it but they didn't read it.
I think the lesson here is that with 15+ million Americans using points to book flights last year, there's slim pickings to/from USA airports. But as you can see below e.g. in Australia/Asia, there's still some good options out there for the rest of us.
I guess that multiple credit card feeding-frenzy you've been on for the last decade has finally caught up with you and the airlines are locking you out.
I live in the US, get all the rich credit card points from our interchange fees, and travel all over the world.
I'm competing with you for those good options. Best of luck.
@Never in Doubt - that's nice. With all those points you're racking up from those fees, I'm sure the recent devaluations aren't an issue for you. You're swimming in points. 100k or 150k for a J seat is immaterial. Right? :)
Missed the point @UncleRonnie.
I'm competing with you for the flights in Australia and Asia. Best of luck.
Way more availability of award space ex Australasia than I can see ex North America.
hahah couldn't agree more. Boycotting for the sake of boycotting is just as irrational and emotionally charged as being blindly loyal to a loyalty program at all costs. May be different emotions, but both are entirely emotionally driven.
I've been boycotting Delta SkyMiles for years now. By that I mean I think they're worthless and I don't ever make any decision based on them.
There's a fine line between another website calling for a boycott of avianca miles and simply admitting skyReais (or other programs) are useless.
I think by covering the devaluations and promotions of any program is super useful! I purchased 150,000 Lifemile points back in last September and so far I redeemed two business tickets with them!
To Ben, play "Shake it off" by Taylor Swift and sing along:
"And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate
Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
I shake it off, I shake it off (hoo-hoo-hoo)"
Ew, Taylor Swift.
If you have a PhD in miles, and do not have all your eggs in one basket, and can make miles work for you on demand, there is still game to be had.
Agreed but not worth putting an excess amount of time doing this anymore than any other hobby. Would rather focus on the stockmarket and pay for trips that way. Any sweet spots and above average value programs devalue very quickly. I find I’ve been booking more economy seats these days as premium seats are just too hard or expensive to try and book.
Going too far out of your way to do anything for a frequent flyer program is silly and a waste of time. That includes both boycotting a program or spending a lot on a program (to get points / status). There is little value left in airline loyalty programs.
@Toby,
I would tend to agree.
You can also get SYD-HND for 40K AA miles on JL or QF metal - better than any of the Star Alliance programs for NH metal.
My comment got lost I think. I agree with you Yoshi. The whole ANA product kind of sucks now. And 40k for biz on qf and jal (I much prefer the former) is great value. But AA points cost 2c unfortunately when they are able to be purchased. So that’s another big premium on lifemiles. If I could buy AA points for 1.3c I’d buy a million right now.
Asia for 40k, Middle East...
My comment got lost I think. I agree with you Yoshi. The whole ANA product kind of sucks now. And 40k for biz on qf and jal (I much prefer the former) is great value. But AA points cost 2c unfortunately when they are able to be purchased. So that’s another big premium on lifemiles. If I could buy AA points for 1.3c I’d buy a million right now.
Asia for 40k, Middle East and Asia for 80k and USA for 75-85k (all from Australia). Great value but they’re not readily available at that quantity (except for the simply miles sale).
"lifemiles (and other programs) always send out emails about sales on miles. Obviously that email **WON'T** mention that the program has been devalued." [emphasis is mine]
And this is why @Ben's posts are always useful. Yes, for seasoned readers, it changes nothing but for new people (who would otherwise be attracted to a FFP based on ads) it is important to learn about any recent developments that impact the overall value of a program.
Agree, when there’s still value like in your example then you should take it.
Now keeping a credit card or still giving paid flight revenue to a program when you have other options is where you can “boycott”
I generally agree with you. All programs should be viewed objectively. Look at Skymiles. Would I recommend stockpiling them? No. But if you can get 70,000 miles for a $99 signup, there's still solid value there even if you'll never fly to Europe in J for that.
I guess the counterargument is that Skymiles have a low ceiling but a high floor, whereas the majority of Lifemiles searches just return nothing. But still, you gave...
I generally agree with you. All programs should be viewed objectively. Look at Skymiles. Would I recommend stockpiling them? No. But if you can get 70,000 miles for a $99 signup, there's still solid value there even if you'll never fly to Europe in J for that.
I guess the counterargument is that Skymiles have a low ceiling but a high floor, whereas the majority of Lifemiles searches just return nothing. But still, you gave a significant caveat, so that's good enough for me.
Boycott is the wrong idea. It's a matter of not using it because it no longer make sense for a person's situation. It could be customer service, availability of award inventory, economic value, etc. And, given recent events, many have come to that conclusion about Avianca.
Most people lack critical thinking skills.
LifeMiles was typically a great points deal, that came with big potential hassles, but the great deal made those hassles worth risking.
With the deals being less great, the hassles are less likely to be worth the risk.