Buying miles & points strategically can represent a great value, especially for first & business class travel. A bit over a week ago the Avianca LifeMiles program launched its latest promotion on purchased miles, and there’s an exclusive additional bonus for OMAAT readers. While this promotion was supposed to expire yesterday, it has now been extended by one more day, for those who didn’t have a chance to take advantage of it. This is the best deal we’ve seen from the program in several months.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased LifeMiles
Through today (Tuesday, November 30, 2021), the Avianca LifeMiles program is offering up to a 165% bonus on purchased miles. However, OMAAT readers who first register can receive an extra 5% bonus, meaning they can receive up to a 170% bonus, which is the best deal we’ve seen from the program in a while. The bonus for OMAAT readers who register is tiered, as follows:
- Buy 1,000-20,000 miles, get a 150% bonus
- Buy 21,000-50,000 miles, get a 160% bonus
- Buy 51,000-200,000 miles, get a 170% bonus
Others are of course free to share and promote this offer as well (and for the record, I don’t get any sort of a kickback if you buy miles with the OMAAT 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 540,000 LifeMiles at a cost of $6,600, which is a rate of 1.22 cents per mile.
Make sure you’re seeing the price you’re expecting when you finalize your purchase of miles. You should be eligible for the better OMAAT bonus as soon as you register.
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
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 1.22 cents to 1.12 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 transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, and Citi ThankYou, so there are lots of ways to pick up these miles. Through December 17, 2021, you can even receive a 25% bonus when you transfer Capital One or Citi points to LifeMiles.
Isn’t Avianca in Chapter 11?
In May 2020, Avianca filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, so what does that mean for LifeMiles? It’s worth noting that the LifeMiles frequent flyer program is a separate company (even though the program is majority owned by the airline), and LifeMiles isn’t part of the bankruptcy proceedings.
I’ve written in the past about what happens to airline miles if an airline goes bankrupt, so as it applies here:
- For now it should be business as usual for earning and redeeming LifeMiles
- In the event that Avianca didn’t emerge from bankruptcy, it’s possible that the LifeMiles program would still live on in Latin America, given how popular it is, and given that it’s spun off
- However, if that were to happen, don’t expect that LifeMiles would still have access to Star Alliance award space, since the program would no longer be associated with a Star Alliance airline
More specific to Avianca’s situation, the airline has received a loan worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and is in the process of exiting bankruptcy protection. So personally I don’t see there being much risk here, especially when you consider that global travel is recovering rapidly, and I hope the darkest days are behind us. Of course things can always change, but that’s where things stand as of now.
Obviously there’s some risk here with buying miles, as there always is, especially with no immediate use in mind.
Bottom line
LifeMiles is currently offering an excellent promotion on purchased miles. While the standard offer is for up to a 165% bonus, OMAAT readers who register and then buy miles can receive up to a 170% bonus. This is an opportunity to buy miles for as little as 1.22 cents each, and that’s potentially an amazing deal, especially when you factor in the credit card rewards, which could lower the real cost even further.
This is the best promotion we’ve seen from the program in quite a while, so I think there could potentially be value in picking up miles speculatively here. However, I’d only recommend buying miles if you have redemption plans in the coming months. Travel is making a comeback, and opportunities like these are worth considering. Everyone will have to decide for themselves. There’s risk, miles can always devalue, etc., but this is an excellent deal.
Do you plan on buying LifeMiles with a 170% bonus?
So I have maxed the purchase under these promos for both 2020 & 2021 (including via this blogs unique promo link) and successfully booked a good number of flights. For the past few months the website does not register the credit card expiration date thus not allowing checkout and requiring a phone call to book - no big deal.
On my most recent booking for a flight in mid November from HND-JFK I encountered...
So I have maxed the purchase under these promos for both 2020 & 2021 (including via this blogs unique promo link) and successfully booked a good number of flights. For the past few months the website does not register the credit card expiration date thus not allowing checkout and requiring a phone call to book - no big deal.
On my most recent booking for a flight in mid November from HND-JFK I encountered the same issue and called to have the reservation ticketed.. . However this time I was unable to pay over the phone and was informed "it needed to go to the billing department" - this seemed very odd but ok. I waited 24 hours and did not hear back so called again and they said to continue to wait and they sent me a "travel document" with itinerary to show that it was held. When I looked at the travel document i noticed my last name was printed twice (both middle and last). After 3 days of calling everyday I was finally put in touch with the person who could ticket my reservation, by which time the award inventory had vanished - so starting a new reservation was not possible. I informed the person of the error in my name and they advised to ticket the reservation and send an email to support after to correct the name, so I obliged and immediately sent the email.
This was ticketed at night so I called back in the morning to follow up on the name correction and was advised to wait for an email response - ok... still after 24 hours no response so I called again and was told the same thing. The flight was 2-3 days out at this point and I called every single day with zero response from Lifemiles.
Now 8 HOURS before my flight I finally receive an email response stating it is not possible to correct the name and will $200 to cancel! Clearly I NEVER would have ticketed the reservation having that information and even worse I could have easily canceled for FREE if they responded in 24- Hours...
So here I am 2 weeks later and 10 more 40 min phone calls later trying to get refunded for THEIR mistake with no resolution in sight. They are telling me it has been escalated andI have received a phone call a few days ago asking if I would accept a refund for the cash portion of ticket ($700) in Miles but could NOT tell me how many miles or WHY they would refund me miles in leu of the cash portion of the ticket (29k Lifemiles + $750).
For some perspective I book about 30-40 trans pacific segments each year on various carriers so I generally know what to expect from airlines customer service dept. This is by far the most insane experience I have ever had and is starting to look like theft. It seems like Lifemiles is on a skeleton crew and could possibly go under soon. I am considering paying the fee, burning all my miles then disputing the $200 fee.
I think you may be spot on about them going under. I'm dealing with them on an award canceled in November. It's an endless email exchange. Prior to November, the support email worked ok. I think Omicron may be the death knell for this program. I'm happy I didn't purchase during the latest 170% offer and have burned nearly all of my Lifemiles. Many awards have vanished at last check.
Pitty that you promote lifemiles. Their website showed 2 tickets availability in Jan 2022 for YYC-DEL. I purchased the the 130000 miles for $1650. Now they say tickets are in waitlist. Waiting to see if air canada will release them, then why on earth you show them on website if they are not available. Now I am stuck with $1650 worth of useless miles. Please mention their mispractices in your blogs.
Thank You.
Just purchased with the additional 5% offer with OMAAT. Thanks Ben for pointing to that. This is my first ever points purchase, and hopefully it can be put to good use. For the routes that I am looking into (in Feb/March, to India) I did see lufthansa business class availability. One question though (if anyone has a good pointer). How late before the travel date can I wait till I can book the award tickets (in business class).
Thanks!
I wanted to buy more of these miles but I'm really struggling to find much in the way of transatlantic business class inventory on United over the past week.
I used to like this deal, but for a couple of months now, LifeMiles seem worthless, high value tickets like the ANA and Lufthansa first are impossible to find, at the moment there are none for any destination at any date, Lufthansa did offer last week seats if departing in next two days but not the usual 7 days. ANA took away all the inventory.
Worst, you cannot find any business class for Asia...
I used to like this deal, but for a couple of months now, LifeMiles seem worthless, high value tickets like the ANA and Lufthansa first are impossible to find, at the moment there are none for any destination at any date, Lufthansa did offer last week seats if departing in next two days but not the usual 7 days. ANA took away all the inventory.
Worst, you cannot find any business class for Asia from Europe, none, at any date. I have been stuck with miles for months and cannot do anything with it.
As far as I am concerned, it used to be a good travel hack, now it is worthless
I have the same experience. I've bought Lifemiles many many times, in large quantities. My favourite redemptions were EVA YYZ-Asia and AC YYZ-California. Occasionally the points came in handy to book friends domestically on AC within Canada. None of those are possible, at all, on any dates. AC availability has vanished completely on their popular routes and Asia called this morning, they're not coming to the party this year.
I bought quite a bit earlier in the year. I've done LAX-BOG in business for 66k r/t and recently was able to find LAX-HND in first on ANA (90k], then business to SYD in July 2022. I also saw First class on LH LAX-FRA but that was within a week from departure and couldn't get the time off.
I just got an upgrade to Business with Avianca from Bogota to Madrid for 45k miles. Was that a good deal?
Bought 200k and received the 540. My wife and I tend to find good value from this. We bought some back in 2018 when there was a 155% bonus and got good value from it. We have a couple of trips that we're likely to need to cross the Atlantic for and have had no problems finding flights.
Would using the new Capital One Venture X Card also earned 2 miles per dollar when purchase miles? Thanks.
@ Ethan -- Yep, it sure would!
Hello Guys,
Even though I have successfully subscribed, my OMAT 5% Bonus points from last October campaign were not credited to my Lifemiles account?
Do you lnow what is the best channel to get this sorted? Thanks a lot!
this is what i was waiting for!