Buying miles & points strategically can represent a great value, especially for first & business class travel. The Avianca LifeMiles program has just launched its first promotion on purchased miles for 2022, and there’s an exclusive value proposition for OMAAT readers who register.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased LifeMiles
Through Thursday, January 27, 2022, the Avianca LifeMiles program is offering a bonus on purchased miles. While the publicly available promotion offers up to a 140% bonus, OMAAT readers who register can take advantage of a bonus of up to 145%, tiered as follows:
- Buy 1,000-20,000 miles, get a 125% bonus
- Buy 21,000-50,000 miles, get a 135% bonus
- Buy 51,000-200,000 miles, get a 145% bonus
Again, to take advantage of this exclusive offer you’ll need to first register, and then you should immediately see the improved bonus attached to your account (make sure it’s reflected at the time that you make a purchase).
For what it’s worth, I don’t get any sort of kickback from LifeMiles if you buy miles, I’m just happy to be able to give readers (and anyone else who chooses to share the link) access to a better offer.
How much does it cost to buy LifeMiles?
Ordinarily you can buy Avianca LifeMiles for 3.3 cents each, before any discounts or bonuses. That means that if you purchased 200,000 LifeMiles with this offer pre-bonus, you’d receive a total of 490,000 LifeMiles at a cost of $6,600, which is a rate of 1.35 cents per mile.
How many LifeMiles can you buy?
LifeMiles lets members purchase up to 200,000 miles per account per calendar year, before factoring in any bonuses.
Which credit card should you buy LifeMiles with?
LifeMiles processes mileage purchases directly, meaning that buying miles with the program qualifies as airfare spending. Therefore you’ll want to consider using one of the following cards for your purchase, since they offer the following bonus points for airline spending:
The Platinum Card® from American Express
American Express® Gold Card
American Express® Green Card
If you pay with The Platinum Card® from American Express (review) then you earn 5x points. I value those points at 1.7 cents each, so to me that’s the equivalent of a further 8.5% return. That means that the real cost of each mile goes down from 1.35 cents to 1.24 cents, which is an even better value (this isn’t cash in your pocket, but rather points in your “pocket” based on my valuation).
Is buying LifeMiles worth it?
For context, Avianca is in the Star Alliance, which means you can redeem LifeMiles on all Star Alliance airlines without any fuel surcharges. Really this is the core value proposition of buying LifeMiles, since this is a great way to book Star Alliance premium cabin seats at a huge discount. To give some examples of one-way award redemption rates with LifeMiles:
- US to Europe in business class costs 63,000 miles
- US to Europe in first class costs 87,000 miles
- US to Southeast Asia in business class costs 78,000 miles
- US to North Asia in first class costs 90,000 miles
Sometimes LifeMiles has promotions where redemption rates are even better than that. Check out my guide on how to redeem LifeMiles for more ideas.
With a specific use in mind, this LifeMiles promotion can be a great value, whether you’re looking at traveling first class on All Nippon Airways or Lufthansa, or are looking at traveling in business class on a countless number of airlines.
Everyone has to crunch the numbers for themselves and decide whether this makes sense or not.
Do note that in some cases LifeMiles doesn’t have access to the same award availability as Star Alliance partners, for better or worse. Sometimes LifeMiles doesn’t have access to partner awards that other programs do have access to, and other times the inverse is true.
That’s why I always recommend doing some “dummy” award searches before buying miles, so you can get a sense of how award availability lines up with your needs.
How much are LifeMiles worth?
Everyone will value mileage currencies differently, but personally I value LifeMiles at ~1.4 cents each. That’s based on the redemption values on Star Alliance partners, as there’s tons of value to be had. I tend to value miles very conservatively, so if you’re maximizing miles you should be able to get way more value than that.
Do LifeMiles expire?
LifeMiles don’t expire as long as you accrue some miles at least once every 12 months. Any mileage earning activity, including buying miles, will extend the expiration of your miles. However, redeeming miles as such doesn’t extend the expiration of your miles.
How else can you earn LifeMiles?
If you’re looking to earn LifeMiles, the good news is that there are lots of options beyond outright buying them. Specifically, Avianca LifeMiles is partners with several bank currencies, including Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, and Citi ThankYou, so there are lots of ways to pick up these miles.
Bottom line
LifeMiles has just launched its latest promotion on purchased miles. While the publicly available offer is for up to a 140% bonus, OMAAT readers who register can receive up to a 145% bonus. With a 145% bonus, you can acquire miles for as little as 1.35 cents each. That’s potentially a great deal, especially when you factor in the credit card rewards, which could lower the real cost even further.
We have seen better promotions from LifeMiles in the past, so if you don’t have a short-term use in mind, I might recommend waiting for another offer.
Do you plan on buying LifeMiles with a 145% bonus?
For the last couple of months, I have been unable to find ANY business award availability from Thailand using LifeMiles. I am sitting on 600k + miles which seem to have absolutely no practical use.
This is on the seldom occasions when I have actually been able to access the website: For almost 4 months there was some issue which would which meant that my computer was not able to access LM using any web...
For the last couple of months, I have been unable to find ANY business award availability from Thailand using LifeMiles. I am sitting on 600k + miles which seem to have absolutely no practical use.
This is on the seldom occasions when I have actually been able to access the website: For almost 4 months there was some issue which would which meant that my computer was not able to access LM using any web browser. I would get a persistent error message to contact the call centre. However, I could use the app and the web version for mobile
In the past I have been able to find Trans-Pacific Business Class availability with EVA via Taipei, and ANA C class availability to the United States. Occasional Lufthansa group event business class availability to Europe.
But now it seems there is just no availability whatsoever in business class ex Thailand.
I am assuming that this is because of limited partner availability to LifeMiles, but if anybody could shine a light on the reason it would be very useful to know.
We're all experiencing this, if expressing it differently. I'm sitting on an uncomfortably large stash and can't use it for anything of value to me. California from YYZ? Used to, not any more. SE Asia from YYZ? COVID COVID COVID. Domestic First on United? Absolutely not. There's no "coverage" of these developments in any of the blogs, which reminds me of the adage "If you don't understand the business model, you're the product".
Just a suggestion…..Instead of smart search or Star alliance search, search by the airline you want to fly.
Perhaps consider a short or cheap positioning flight outside of Thailand? I recent was able to book ANA around Christmas.
Lifemiles search engine was already pretty bad but the more fares option made it entirely useless. I sometimes wonder in what world Lifemiles executives live.
Lifemiles has become for the most part, worthless. This program used to have some great value, but their More fare options is some serious garbage.
I keep managing to get great value out of it. They even lowered the domestic US routes cost in the past year.
Flew from SAN to GCC with a stop in DEN few days ago. Cash tickets went for $445 on United. Got the award ticket for 7,500 plus $31 in tax/fees. You do the math.
I agree with @Whitney and @Nic about the illconceived 'More Fare Options'. What a scam! It really violates the spirit of an awards program. Glad they didn't call it an 'enhancement', or did they?
I just go to another program where I have miles and usually get what I want there.
Am surprised Avianca allowed it's LM arm to do this, as they have been bleeding members since the bankruptcy thing made the...
I agree with @Whitney and @Nic about the illconceived 'More Fare Options'. What a scam! It really violates the spirit of an awards program. Glad they didn't call it an 'enhancement', or did they?
I just go to another program where I have miles and usually get what I want there.
Am surprised Avianca allowed it's LM arm to do this, as they have been bleeding members since the bankruptcy thing made the whole house of cards precarious.
Still, not having to deal with their infamous call centre is a bonus I guess.