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LifeMiles vs Asiana Club
tl;dr – I’m trying to figure out if I should credit miles toward Avianca’s (LifeMiles) program, or Asiana’s (Asiana Club).
Hi all,
I’m trying to figure out which program is best for my situation. I live in Ecuador, and Avianca (LifeMiles) seems like a natural choice as it’s the only airline that’s part of an alliance that also flies out of my local airport. Star Alliance seems to offer decent choices for my routes. I estimate I will fly 40-50k miles per year.
So, do I credit to LifeMiles or Asiana?
Lifemiles seems like a decent program, is not revenue based, and I actually fly them a lot. I have yet to attempt to redeem miles, so I don’t know how easy or difficult that is. (thoughts appreciated). Avianca also seems to have a pretty low qualifying threshold for those who actually fly Avianca also, only 16K miles on Avianca required to qualify for Gold, or 45K on any Star Alliance member.
Asiana’s program seems preferable for earning / keeping status, and the “Lifetime Gold” thing sounds great in theory – but I’ve heard their program is super difficult when it’s time to actually redeem miles for a reward flight. (Thoughts / experience on this also appreciated.)
Other considerations:
– I fly a mix of business class and economy. Do both programs credit bonuses for business class equally in terms of qualifying for status? (Please reply if you know the answer to this question- I cannot find it online.) Avianca (LifeMiles) gave me 2 segments and double miles for a very short flight I took in Business class recently.
– I’m not in a position to get any new CC’s at this time, although I may be in a year or so.
– I don’t currently have status with either program.
Thanks for taking the time to read/weigh in!
Both are in a bad shape financially, Asiana FFP is probably better managed though.
LifeMiles is a good choice. They have an award search online which is somewhat decent. Asiana’s program has some sweet spots but getting their miles outside of flying isnt easy. LifeMiles also frequently has sales for buying miles if you ever needed to top off your account.
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