Buying miles & points strategically can represent a great value, especially for first and business class travel. The avianca lifemiles program has just launched its newest promotion on purchased miles, described as a “cyber miles” deal. This is among the best promotions we’ve seen from the program, so if you’ve been considering acquiring lifemiles, now would be a great time to do so.
Note that nowadays lifemiles promotions are generally targeted, so different members may see different offers, and on top of that, some members may not see any offers at all.
I find this 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. Keep in mind that you can get even more value with a lifemiles+ subscription, and lifemiles’ credit cards offer a discount on that.
However, lifemiles did recently devalue some redemptions, so that’s worth keeping in mind, and I recommend pricing out awards for yourself to see if you can get outsized value.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased lifemiles
Through Tuesday, December 3, 2024, the avianca lifemiles program is offering a bonus on purchased miles. Different members may be targeted for different offers, though it appears the standard offer is for a bonus of up to 185%, and that’s structured as follows:
- Buy 1,000 miles, get a 125% bonus
- Buy 2,000-25,000 miles, get a 145% bonus
- Buy 26,000-35,000 miles, get a 165% bonus
- Buy 46,000-200,000 miles, get a 185% bonus
You’ll of course want to check your account to see what offer you’re targeted for.
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 (pre-bonus) with a 185% bonus, you’d receive a total of 570,000 lifemiles for $6,600, which is a cost of 1.16 cents per mile.
How many lifemiles can you buy?
The lifemiles program 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?
With lifemiles now using points.com, this means that buying miles no longer counts as an airfare purchase for the purposes of credit card spending.
Therefore I’d recommend using a card on which you’re trying to reach a minimum spending requirement, or otherwise, a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending, like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review), Citi Double Cash® Card (review), or Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees).
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. Check out my guide on how to redeem lifemiles for ideas on how to redeem these miles.
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?
Miles with the lifemiles program 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
The avianca lifemiles program is offering a promotion on purchased miles. Different members may be eligible for different offers, though it appears that the standard offer is for up to a 185% bonus, which is an opportunity to acquire miles for 1.16 cents each. This has the potential to represent a solid value.
Do you plan on buying lifemiles with a bonus?
Those saying lifemiles is dead etc are being a bit mellow dramatic, perhaps for insanely good deals in First or Business with United or Air Canada sure, but for us Americans living in latin america, Lifemiles are as useful as ever, incredible deals with Copa airlines. I signed up for cardless avianca card ($250/yr AF) which includes lifemiles+ you get 10% fare back, avianca fares are competitive too. Despite not being in the alliance there...
Those saying lifemiles is dead etc are being a bit mellow dramatic, perhaps for insanely good deals in First or Business with United or Air Canada sure, but for us Americans living in latin america, Lifemiles are as useful as ever, incredible deals with Copa airlines. I signed up for cardless avianca card ($250/yr AF) which includes lifemiles+ you get 10% fare back, avianca fares are competitive too. Despite not being in the alliance there is also tons of really good fares for domestic flights in Brazil on GOL, with the fares costing 1/2 of what they do if you book with AA.
Even for fares outside of Latam there's still deals to be had. I just booked KIX BKK with Thai (TG) in J, 6 hour flight was only 33k after the rebate, for $1,500 flight, also book BKK MNL as well.
Its true a lot of fares are blocked out that are available to partners but sometimes other fares are available that don't show up on other star alliance parnters. Plus because lifemiles is not on seats.aero and other tools, there are hidden gems to be found, you just have to be patient.
I'm happy to buy some points at 1.1c each to avoid having to eat to hard into my amex and other transferrable point stash when deals come up. I don't recommend anyone here speculatively buy unless they already know what they want, or they fly Copa or Avianca so much they'll almost certainly use the points before another deval.
Lifemiles is not for beginners however.
I have a LifeMiles subscription.
When I select a mixed cabin of business class and economy class
it shows that regular members who don't have a subscription are cheaper.
If anyone knows what to do, please let me know.
Now that Lifemiles isn't on Seats.Aero, is there any other tool available to help find Lifemiles awards?
The lack of availability is compounded by not having some tool to easily do broad availability searches.
LifeMiles is even blocking economy class availability on Air Canada. This program is almost impossible, in practice, to use. I have a massive LifeMiles balance that I have been effectively unable to burn for anything.
It takes a lot of effort to redeem but if you’re willing to commit the seats can be found. I recently booked Swiss Business using lifemiles from LAX to ZRH.
Ben, Lifemiles are now worthless. You used to be able to book some flights on Star Alliance, but today you might get some economy seats if you are lucky. To book a business class is impossible.
I’m very disappointed that I bought a lot of miles that are now worthless.
A couple weeks ago I booked SWISS business class from Madrid to JFK. They are out there...but maybe not on the routes you are looking at or with the numbers of seats that used to be available.
Caution: LifeMiles is blocking most (all?) United Airlines Business Class awards, at least for a few common routes I checked (SFO-MEL, SFO-SYD, EWR-LHR). If you are planning on using LifeMiles to book United Business beware!
Only targeted for 165%
Me too.
@Ben, have you ever been able to book a LH F award ticket from North America to Asia (or vice versa), either connecting in FRA or MUC? Is that even possible?
Need manual booking by emailing. Extremely rare as you need to find 2 F segments. Did a HKG-BKK-FRA-ORD a few years ago with TG and LH F. 90K miles with lifemiles
Wow! Thanks for the data point, @Eric. Was the TG segment also in F?
As far as I know, they don’t do manual bookings anymore.