In 2024, we saw the launch of the avianca lifemiles credit cards in the United States, issued in partnership with Cardless. To go along with that, a paid lifemiles+ subscription was also introduced, and it’s potentially a great deal. In this post, I want to cover the details of how it works, for anyone who may be crunching the numbers, and considering signing up.
In this post:
Details of the lifemiles+ subscription service
The avianca lifemiles program offers a lifemiles+ subscription service. This can be useful even if you’re not a frequent avianca flyer. The lifemiles program is valuable for Star Alliance redemptions, so this offers useful perks even if you just want to use lifemiles to redeem on partners.
The lifemiles+ subscription has four pricing tiers, offering a bundle of benefits. Before we look at the benefits of each tier, let me mention a few points:
- When you sign-up for a subscription, you pay monthly, it’s valid for 12 months, and it auto-renews; however, you can cancel at any time, after the initial six months
- Those with the avianca lifemiles American Express Elite Card receive a complimentary lifemiles+ lite subscription for as long as they’re a cardmember, or alternatively, can receive a $20 monthly discount on any of the other bundles
Below is a chart showing the four tiers of subscriptions, and then I’ll cover the most significant perks of each tier, as I view it.
lifemiles+ lite subscription
A lifemiles+ lite subscription costs $20 per month (or is free if you have the premium lifemiles credit card), and offers the following perks:
- 500 bonus lifemiles each month
- 10% of miles back on Star Alliance redemptions; the 10% refund will post within 15 days of a redemption
- Up to a 25% discount on avianca redemptions; this discount will immediately show when making an award booking
- Double miles on purchases on a lifemiles credit card, up to 1,000 bonus miles per month
lifemiles+ basic subscription
A lifemiles+ basic subscription costs $50 per month (or $30 per month if you have the premium lifemiles credit card), and offers the following perks:
- 2,000 bonus lifemiles each month
- 10% of miles back on Star Alliance redemptions; the 10% refund will post within 15 days of a redemption
- Up to a 25% discount on avianca redemptions; this discount will immediately show when making an award booking
- Double miles on purchases on a lifemiles credit card, up to 2,000 bonus miles per month
- No change or cancelation fees on lifemiles award tickets
lifemiles+ pro subscription
A lifemiles+ pro subscription costs $100 per month (or $80 per month if you have the premium lifemiles credit card), and offers the following perks:
- 4,500 bonus lifemiles each month
- 10% of miles back on Star Alliance redemptions; the 10% refund will post within 15 days of a redemption
- Up to a 25% discount on avianca redemptions; this discount will immediately show when making an award booking
- Double miles on purchases on a lifemiles credit card, up to 4,500 bonus miles per month
- No change or cancelation fees on lifemiles award tickets
lifemiles+ max subscription
A lifemiles+ max subscription costs $200 per month (or $180 per month if you have the premium lifemiles credit card), and offers the following perks:
- 10,000 bonus lifemiles each month
- 10% of miles back on Star Alliance redemptions; the 10% refund will post within 15 days of a redemption
- Up to a 25% discount on avianca redemptions; this discount will immediately show when making an award booking
- Double miles on purchases on a lifemiles credit card, up to 10,000 bonus miles per month
- No change or cancelation fees on lifemiles award tickets
I’m impressed by the value of lifemiles+ subscriptions
The lifemiles+ subscription is well thought out, and if you like to redeem miles for premium cabin redemptions on Star Alliance carriers, you should seriously consider this. The way I view it, there are three key perks, which I’ll focus on:
- A certain number of monthly bonus miles (500-10,000)
- An unlimited 10% discount on Star Alliance awards
- Waived change and cancelation fees on lifemiles awards (except the lite tier), when that would normally cost $150-200 per ticket
Let’s do some number crunching. Let me note that I value lifemiles at around 1.4 cents each, and the program frequently has offers letting you buy miles around that cost, if not a bit cheaper.
The lifemiles+ basic subscription is the lowest tier that offers waived change and cancelation fees, which I consider to be really valuable, so let’s do the math on that. You’d pay $30-50 per month, and would receive 2,000 monthly bonus miles, a 10% rebate on Star Alliance awards, and waived fees. In other words:
- I value the 2,000 monthly miles at ~$28, so you’re paying ~$2-22 per month (by my valuation) for a 10% rebate on awards, and waived change and cancelation fees
- Let’s say you redeem 200,000 miles per year through the program for travel on partner airlines; you’d get 20,000 miles refunded, which I value at $280, meaning you come out way ahead
- That math doesn’t even factor in the waived fees, which can get you even more value
So, is it worth springing for one of the premium memberships? Looking at the lifemiles+ max tier, you’d pay an extra $150 per month, and the main perk you’d get is an incremental 8,000 bonus miles. That’s like buying lifemiles for just under two cents each — the program often sells miles for considerably less than that, so personally I think the sweet spot is the basic tier.
The one exception is if you plan on spending money on a lifemiles credit card, in which case the higher cap on earning double miles would add up.
For example, I’ve signed up for a lifemiles+ basic subscription. That’s because I redeem through the program often, so I consider this to be a good investment to take advantage of the 10% rebate and the waived fees, which add up.
Bottom line
The avianca lifemiles program offers a lifemiles+ subscription, and it represents a solid value. For a monthly fee, you can receive a certain number of bonus miles, a 10% rebate on Star Alliance redemptions, and waived award change and redeposit fees. This is a valuable service for those of us who frequently make Star Alliance redemptions through lifemiles.
What do you make of the lifemiles+ subscription?
Do I have to purchase lifemiles + subscription before redeeming the award? I purchased a star alliance award ticket a few months ago, If I get the Basic subscription now and later decide to cancel my award ticket, is there a $200 cancellation fee charged?
Anyone else having problems with searching?
I get the message saying I need to update my payment or search without discount. Search without discount brings me to homepage without actually searching, while clicking update payment page (I assume for the subscription even though it's the free version for having the AMEX card) - just gets to the page but I cannot add any payment options. Very frustrating...
Cancellation fees only matter if you can even book anything in the first place. When it comes to LifeMiles, good luck with that.
I upgraded from Lite to Basic, got charged 30 bucks. Didn't get the extra 1500 miles, didnt get the extra bonus miles and a month after I paid the 30 bucks they downgraded me to Lite again without asking me. The Lifemiles program is horrible at the moment in all aspects - ticket availability, customer service, etc.
lifemiles is a disaster now, not working and i have tons of miles. nothing available.
If I cancel a reward flight having LifeMiles+ Basic, do I also get the $25 avianca booking fee back?
Nope, they won't refund it. Source: me, I received a refund in December (but I'm still waiting and fighting for another one that has not been processed in months; as others have mentioned elsewhere, their customer service is not great - although it is slowly improving to my surprise).
Here's what I want to know. Can you book a Lifemiles ticket (or two) when you're not subscribed, and then , if you realize you have to change or cancel it, subscribe and then cancel the ticket and get the benefit of free cancellation? And then cancel the subscription after six months?
Or does the waiver of fees to cancel/change bookings only apply to award tickets purchased while you are subscribed?
Lifemiles can no longer be used to redeem on Thai Airways so no longer useful for me (Bangkok based) and I canceled the subscription after six months.
@Ben, LM finally updated this week their Spa/Eng websites to remove the "refund" language in regards to *A redemptions. It's now an upfront 10% discount at the time of booking.
Thank goodness. That was very confusing.
Indeed it was. I even submitted a complaint because they introduced this change months ago without updating any public-facing info.
let's acknowledge that even with stellar credit, their Amex card is notorious for denying applicants
see thread here:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/avianca-lifemiles-amigo/2159638-new-lifemiles-credit-cards.html
Be organized. When I cancelled the credit card they had on file, they sent me an email reminding me to update it, and 11 minutes later they emailed me again, saying they had cancelled my subscription! Lifemiles+ is nearly as smooth-running as the LifeMiles app and Call Center, but not quite...
Yep, I echo these sentiments. In my case, downgrading from basic to lite was certainly more awkward/confusing than it needed to be.