How To Redeem Avianca Lifemiles For Best Value: A Key Star Alliance Program

The avianca lifemiles program is one of the most useful frequent flyer programs out there for redeeming miles. The beauty of lifemiles is that it’s not just useful if you want to fly with avianca, but also if you want to travel on any Star Alliance carrier, especially in a premium cabin. In this post, I’d like to take a closer look at the lifemiles program — I’ll talk about earning and redeeming miles, and general tips for maximizing value.

Let me acknowledge upfront that some people strongly dislike the lifemiles program, and I see where they’re coming from, given the award availability discrepancies and other annoyances. However, it’s a program I get a lot of value out of, so I’d like to share why (and honestly, I have no incentive to convince anyone to like lifemiles — I’m just sharing my own experience).

Best ways to earn avianca lifemiles

Earning avianca lifemiles couldn’t be much easier, ranging from buying them outright, to transferring points from other currencies, to picking up a lifemiles credit card, to signing up for a monthly subscription. Let’s cover some of those points.

Buy lifemiles directly

The avianca lifemiles program sells miles directly, and the program frequently offers promotions on buying miles. Generally when the program offers an opportunity to buy miles, you can expect the cost to be in the range of 1.2-1.5 cents per mile. This can be a great value.

Transfer points to lifemiles

It’s super easy to accrue miles with the lifemiles program, given that the program partners with some major transferable points currencies. Specifically, you can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio from Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, and Citi ThankYou.

Note that we sometimes see bonuses on points transfers to lifemiles, which can stretch your points even further. In my opinion this could be worth a speculative transfer, given the program’s wide appeal.

Get a lifemiles credit card

Cardless and avianca lifemiles have two co-branded credit cards in the United States. Not only do these cards have significant welcome offers, but they can potentially be lucrative for spending as well.

Get a lifemiles+ subscription

The lifemiles+ subscription service lets members pay a monthly fee in exchange for a variety of perks. There are quite a few benefits (I’ll talk more about them in a bit), but they can earn you anywhere from 500 to 10,000 miles per month. I wouldn’t make this my primary way of earning lifemiles, but it’s a good way to supplement the miles you otherwise earn.

Basics of redeeming avianca lifemiles

Before specifically taking a look at redemption rates with the lifemiles program, let me talk about some aspects of the program that are important to understand.

There are no carrier imposed surcharges

The lifemiles program doesn’t have carrier imposed surcharges for travel on any partners, which is fantastic. Some other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs do have fuel surcharges, and those can really add up, especially for first and business class tickets. So you can know that you’ll pay limited fees when you go to redeem your miles.

Don’t bother with complicated itineraries

If you’re looking to book a complicated itinerary with several layovers, or are interested in stopovers, the lifemiles program isn’t for you.

I don’t think I’ve ever booked a lifemiles award ticket that included travel on more than two segments on a one-way itinerary. Complicated itineraries will simply lead to massive headaches — for me, lifemiles is a program that’s about simple, point-to-point travel.

If you want to book complicated Star Alliance itineraries (especially with stopovers), I’d highly recommend going through Air Canada Aeroplan, which is another great program.

Buy miles at ticketing at a reasonable cost

One thing that makes lifemiles unique is that the program lets you buy up to 60% of the miles needed for a ticket at the time of booking. The cost per mile doing this varies anywhere from 1.5 cents to 3.3, though if you buy around 40-60% of the miles needed at the time of booking, you can expect to pay 1.5 cents per mile.

That’s marginally higher than you’ll pay if you outright buy miles during the best promotions, but it’s still a good option to at least be aware of.

There are award availability discrepancies

There are some discrepancies between the award space that lifemiles has access to and the award space that other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs have access to. Some people report this being a huge issue, and claim that the program is useless due to lack of availability.

I absolutely don’t want to dismiss those claims, but that largely doesn’t match my experience. Perhaps it’s the type of redemptions people are trying to make, or just me having specific expectations. As mentioned above, I usually use lifemiles for nonstop, point-to-point travel, especially across the Atlantic (where the relative pricing is the best). Personally I don’t notice that many availability discrepancies.

Now, one important thing to keep in mind is that on lifemiles’ website there are different search options. There’s a drop down where you can select “Smart Search,” “Star Alliance,” or the name of any individual partner airline.

I generally find availability is best if you search the exact airline that has availability, as there are sometimes differences in what’s displayed depending on how you search. So if you know there’s partner award availability and you’re not seeing what you want, try different variations of the “Smart Search” vs. ” Star Alliance” vs. the exact airline name, as it will change the results.

So award availability discrepancies is something to be aware of and something to do your own research on, but it’s not something I personally consider to be a major downside to the program, at least based on the types of awards I book. Others obviously feel differently, and I respect that. Just about all programs have some discrepancies, though.

Change fees & mileage expiration policy

It’s always important to understand the change fee and expiration policies for frequent flyer programs, so what are the policies for lifemiles?

• Miles expire after 12 months of inactivity, though lifemiles only counts mileage earning activity (and not mileage redemption activity) for these purposes; so if you accrue miles with the program at least every 12 months, they won’t expire
• The program has change and cancelation fees, and you can expect that changes will ordinarily cost $150, while cancelations will typically cost $50-200; however, you can get this waived by getting a lifemiles+ subscription (more on that below)

Sign-up for a lifemiles+ subscription

The lifemiles+ subscription service offers four different tiers you can subscribe to, with a monthly fee. There are a few key benefits:

• All four tiers receive a 10% rebate on Star Alliance award redemptions, which can stretch your miles further
• The top three tiers (all tiers except “lite”) offer waived change and cancelation fees on lifemiles award tickets
• All tiers offer a monthly bonus miles amount, ranging from 500 to 10,000 bonus miles

If you redeem lifemiles with any frequency, I think getting a membership here is a great value, particularly for the 10% refund and the waived fees. I think the “basic” tier is the best value.

Redemption rates with avianca lifemiles

The avianca lifemiles program no longer publishes an award chart, so award pricing can range quite a bit based on the specific route. Just to give an example of average rates you can expect to pay when originating travel in the mainland of the United States (all prices are one-way):

• An award within the United States costs 6,500-12,500 miles in economy, or 15,000-25,000 miles in business
• An award to Europe costs 40,000 miles in economy, 63,000-70,000 miles in business, or 120,000-130,000 miles in first
• An award to North Asia costs 40,000-55,000 miles in economy, 75,000 miles in business, or 120,000 miles in first
• An award to the South Pacific costs 40,000 miles in economy, or 80,000 miles in business

How I approach redeeming lifemiles

How does lifemiles fit into my strategy of redeeming miles for first and business class travel? Let me share a few general thoughts on how I approach the program, and how I currently feel about it:

• I always like to have a balance of at least 150K lifemiles (give or take), so will acquire them opportunistically, like when there’s a sale on purchased miles, or when there’s a transfer bonus
• When I’m looking to book a simple Star Alliance award, I always comparison shop with Air Canada Aeroplan and avianca lifemiles; I always book complicated awards through Aeroplan, while I often book simpler awards through lifemiles
• I actually pay for a lifemiles+ subscription, specifically because the 10% rebate on redemptions and the waived change and cancelation fees add a lot of value to my redemptions, so I find it to be money well spent

Bottom line

The avianca lifemiles program is one of the most useful frequent flyer programs for Star Alliance award redemptions. If you’re looking to get a great deal on a first or business class award on a Star Alliance carrier, it’s tough to beat the value of the program.

There are definitely some things to be aware of with lifemiles, as is the case with all frequent flyer programs. The two airline programs I redeem the most points through are avianca lifemiles and Air Canada Aeroplan, and they’re great complements to one another. Given the low potential acquisition cost for lifemiles, you can’t beat the value of booking simple, long haul premium cabin awards with these miles.

Just be sure you know what you’re getting yourself into and do some “dummy bookings” before acquiring lifemiles, to be sure that availability matches up with what you’re expecting.

What has your experience been with redeeming lifemiles?