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, which has the potential to be a great deal. LifeMiles is 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.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased LifeMiles
Through Tuesday, March 12, 2024, the Avianca LifeMiles program is offering a bonus on purchased miles. It would appear that the standard offer is for a tiered bonus of up to 165%, as follows:
- Buy 2,000-15,000 miles, get a 130% bonus
- Buy 16,000-30,000 miles, get a 150% bonus
- Buy 31,000-200,000 miles, get a 165% bonus
However, it’s possible that other members will be eligible for different promotions, so you’ll want to check your account.
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 this offer, you’d receive a total of 530,000 LifeMiles for $6,600, which is a cost of 1.25 cents per mile.
How many LifeMiles can you buy?
LifeMiles 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?
LifeMiles 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
LifeMiles is offering a promotion on purchased miles. The standard offer seems to be for a 165% bonus, which kicks in when you purchase at least 31,000 miles in one transaction. This is an opportunity to acquire miles for 1.25 cents each, which could represent a great deal. LifeMiles is a program that continues to offer considerable value.
Do you plan on buying LifeMiles with a bonus?
Hi everyone, one question, can you advise a reliable website/tool to verify award availability for Star Alliance? Thank you!
Hello,
I have issues by buying Lifemiles. Always get the error-Message after entering my credit card details
„There was a problem with your authentication information, please try again.“
Payment was aproved by Amex, but get this error-message.
Same with Mastercard. Happens with Firefox and Safari.
Anyone with the same problems or with a tip what I could do?
I see it's now through Points.com. Before, bought directly from Lifemiles
Any extra bonus as OMAAT read this time? previously had a landing page to register to receive extra bonus.
165% until March 26.
I’ll probably buy since I have a couple of transatlantic flights coming up early April.
it will be a good idea to have some bonus miles but LM don't show complex route and availability for nonstop flight is hard to get
When I search for NYC to Tokyo in the LM tool, I have to separately run searches for EWR and JFK, and NRT & HND.
Am I missing something or these is indeed no way of searching for multiple airports in a metro area using Life Miles?
@Kermeet, you can try "TKO" for Tokyo (NRT+HND). Some airline search engines allow this coding but unsure if LM will work. Same if you put "NYC" for EWR+JFK+LGA.
Like Singapore AirlineS LM don't allow short form of entire city, basically Airlines Search Engines are based on reading Airport Code like NRT-Tokyo Narita, HND- Tokyo Haneda and modern websites can read while some website like LM didn't update themselves.
It's too bad the 3rd party search tool is no longer available. Searches on LM have become frustratingly slow with the majority of the results being only Y in long haul.
I was offerred 165% bonus until March 12; my wife was offerred 170% up until March 26.
I tend to carry a larger balance of LifeMiles; waiting for those ideal business class redemption. My wife's account has a lower balance which we use more frequently for domestic United fares. I don't know if that's a consideration for their micro-targeting different bonuses.
Mine is up to 175% bonus and valid until March 26.
My LM account says 170% bonus, not 165%... FYSA