Star Alliance frequent flyer program Avianca LifeMiles is offering up to a 125% bonus on purchased miles through May 30.
In order to get this largest bonus you need to purchase at least 101,000 miles. Lower miles purchases receive a lower bonus.
A purchase of 101,000 miles or up to 200,000 (the annual maximum) lets you buy miles at just 1.47 cents apiece.
This is one of the better regular-ish offers they run, though not the best we’ve seen. I maxed out a year and a half ago using a 135% bonus. Since I still have some miles left in that account, since they run bonuses like this and it’s probably not my only shot, and there was even a 150% offered on a non-targeted basis (after I had already purchased all I could for the year) I’m not going to jump. But it is tempting.
That’s because Star Alliance member Avianca has really useful miles (that have gotten more useful over the past few months!) through the LifeMiles program:
- No fuel surcharges
- Reasonable award chart
- They sell miles cheap
Recently their miles have gotten more valuable because they’ve gotten more flexible, allowing mixed cabin redemptions and Lufthansa first class redemptions though Lufthansa first won’t always come up on searches.
Not all connections are bookable, you’re pretty much limited to the options you see on their redemption website (which is quite good) and telephone customer service is challenging (e-mail is better).
One interesting thing about LifeMiles is that the cost to transfer and buy miles varies based on the country your account is registered in though of course this is largely a taxation issue and the US doesn’t tax the sale of miles by non-US based programs. (Because US tax rules on the sale of miles make some basic mistaken assumptions, which you can challenge.)
I don’t recommend hoarding miles. LifeMiles has made changes to their award chart in the past without notice. However, the CEO of LifeMiles tells me that they found certain awards (and certain routings) that weren’t profitable for them at the low price point at which they sell miles. He says they’ve eliminated those and they’re confident of the math.
Purchases are processed by LifeMiles, rather than by an outside company like Points.com — so you do earn bonus miles using a credit card that offers double or triple points for airline purchases.
LH F no longer bookable.
I find many flights that show up on other star alliance websites (United / Air Canada) for example, do not show up or are not bookable with Lifemiles. Other times I find that Air Canada or United will show 2 seats available, but the most I can book with Lifemiles is 1.
Quick question, can you book the LAX-DUB Ethiopian flight with Lifemiles. If you select “smart search” nothing shows up, but if you select Ethiopian it will only allow you to put in LAX-ADD, you just cannot put in “DUB” for your search destination.
Lifemiles are generally very painful to use. When you can book something they are a good deal though.
For example, booking on Swiss or Austrian is nearly impossible even though the site shows availability. You get the dreaded Error message. The LifeMiles support email people are essentially useless too. Buyer Beware!!!!!
Good Luck is actually using your miles. No stopover’s allowed, awards pricing as First Class yet availability in Business, simple routes from A-B don’t show up, customer support is awful.
Thank you fellow readers. I will not jump on this.
If I buy the maximum miles wich airlines can I fly ? Using that miles ?
1) The check-out seems to error out since 2-3 months ago every time. No charge attempt is made (just read FT)
2) LH F is still easily bookable (email or phone)
3) The phone booking fee is a ridiculous $125!!! Yes that is NOT a typo
4) Still easily the best mileage purchase deal out there if you are willing to “work” on it a little
I just started with the program and have run into two major problems:
1) Seats that are obviously available on MileagePlus and Aeroplan show up as “Sold Out” on LifeMiles again and again. I asked, and they said they don’t have the same ticket availability as the others, even though they’re all Star Alliance. But if they constantly don’t have the seats I want, what’s the use?
2) I repeatedly get error messages when I try to book a seat that they actually do appear to have. I asked, and they offered me a five-point manual booking process: “please send the following requirements:
1. LifeMiles number that will be used to deduct the mileage.
2. Flight information (route, flight numbers and date).
3. Phone number to reach you for payment details (include area code), specify your country of residence.
4. Scanned image of the passengers’ passports.
5. Screenshot of the selected flights and quoted mileage (if a flexible payment is desired, it must detail the preferred combination).
Then after I would send all that they would call me (phone tag purgatory) to see if I want to go ahead with it after they tell me what the taxes and fees will be, which I won’ t know until that point.
Does anyone have a suggestion as to which routes are actually bookable online? Any success stories? I’d just like to burn my 60k miles, go somewhere interesting, and write the program off as a bad idea.
I’ve had very good success using Lifemiles especially to South America, Latin America and Asia.
Lifemiles as well as other airlines seem to have engaged in a major bait and switch operation over the last couple of years. Falsely advertising flight availability, or making no flights available on their own metal, while openly selling miles at a “discount.” What bothers me even more about this is there have been reports lately that the miles are actually a major profit center for these airlines. It seems they may be engaging in a system to game consumers.
The support@lifemiles.com email does not work correctly. They deny emails have ever been sent, and then offer no explanation or solution. I would steer very clear of this operation.
Can Lifemiles be transferred to another airline – United for example? Thanks.
@Lin they can be used on other airlines like United, not transfers to a United account