Deals

Flash Sale – Buy Avianca Lifemiles with up to 185% bonus ( as low as 1.16 cents per mile )

a plane with seats and people in the back

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LifeMiles are the ‘secret’ weapon to getting a great deal on many premium cabins

Avianca LifeMiles continues to be one of my favorite programs even after they silently devalued ( it mainly adversely affected First Class, but business became marginally more expensive ). I’ve made great use of the program via transfer, but also via the periodic point sales that they conduct. I would note, Avianca LifeMiles can be a little tricky to book, and their IT is notoriously clunky. With that said…it’s worth the hassle to secure some really great deals.

You can fly business class to London from the East coast for as little as 45k miles. That means you’re buying business class for about $500 each way. That’s nuts, but don’t buy points unless you see the flights you want to book. As Avianca proved recently, they can and will devalue without warning.

But…if you can get a great deal, it’s worth pulling the trigger.

Currently, Avianca is promoting up to a 185% bonus sale through 12/03.

The best deal was in September of 2020 when Avianca offered miles with a whopping 200% bonus and this matches it!

a couple of women walking with shopping bags

Max is 200k with a 170k bonus.

a screenshot of a computer

 

 

LifeMiles is a transfer partner of the following programs

  • Amex
  • Bilt
  • Cap1
  • Citi

Avianca LifeMiles recently devalued but great redemptions remain

Within USA

  • Economy 8750
  • Business transcon 25k

USA to Europe

Even at 70k you’re able to buy business class for $770 plus any fees they would add on.

  • Econ: 30k now 35k
  • Business Class NYC to London: 45k
  • Business Class: =70k
  • First Class: 30k to 143k

a screenshot of a phone

USA to Africa

  • Business Class 78k

USA to Asia

  • Business Class 78k
  • First Class
    • was 90k, now 120k

a screenshot of a computer

USA to South Pacific

  • Business Class 80k

Hawaii to North Asia

  • Business Class: 48k
  • First Class: 66k

It will now cost you a whopping 130k Avianca LifeMiles to book Lufthansa First Class. You’re better off using Aeroplan now.

inside an airplane with seats and windows
Lufthansa First Class in the nose of the 747-8i

 

Should you buy Miles?

This is totally up to you. I don’t know your travel plans, what will happen with restrictions, etc. These are things you should heavily consider, but what I can say is this is a very good price for LifeMiles.

You can go here to Buy.

 

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Welcome Offer

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

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    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
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We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

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Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

16 Comments

  • John February 10, 2023

    I just flew Avianca metal business class last night from JFK to Bogota to Buenos Aires. Probably my worst business class flight ever. I guess because of their bankruptcy, they’re charging for everything. Before the plane took off, no champagne, wine or juice was offered. No big deal. I politely asked for water as I was really thirsty. The response was “you’ll have to wait until we’re in the air so we can charge you”. Say what?? They also change business class passengers for meals , other drinks and even a blanket. Talk about nickel and dimeing.

  • Billy Bob February 9, 2023

    47K now to Asia: no warning. These can become much less valuable as you sip your morning coffee.

  • Diony Fuentes August 21, 2022

    I have 100k avianca miles, can use them to book hotels in Thailand?

  • Stephen Brint June 1, 2022

    I find booking is easy. Be flexible in booking LH FC look at various sites, ORD IAD most available

  • Aleks April 13, 2021

    The promo link is broken, please fix. Also would be helpful to know the other price levels other than maximum.

  • Christian September 26, 2020

    Do fuel surcharges apply?

    • Miles September 27, 2020

      Avianca has very low surcharges

  • sinosoul July 18, 2019

    UGH, I only got ANA biz at 85K vs. your ANA F at 90K. Never seem to be able to catch a break on these redemptions.

  • Rob G May 21, 2019

    Are you able to book other travelers (for instance my mother) on an award ticket from your own Lifemiles account?

    • Miles May 21, 2019

      Yep, no problem at all. Lifemiles also recently redid their booking engine and made things much easier

  • Stephan September 6, 2017

    Monkey this piece is pretty poor and actually quite disingenuous because you know as well as others that Lifemiles often blocks LH F among others like Swiss J and CA, so that availability seen on UA or AE websites is often non existent. Some balanced reporting would be nice.

    • Miles September 6, 2017

      Stephan – As I mentioned to Albert the space is there now and it’s bookable. While they could pull space, and have in the past, it’s there for the taking.

  • albert September 6, 2017

    Lufthansa has been blocking F seats to liefmiles for a while. Really a mis leading post.

    • Miles September 6, 2017

      Albert – Wrote this piece yesterday and searched multiple dates. Lifemiles showed same avail as United for Lufthansa F and it was bookable.

    • Tom September 26, 2020

      Award charts are meaningless when availability doesn’t exist. And with Avianca, often availability means nothing when the ability to book doesn’t exist.

      • Miles September 27, 2020

        Avianca certainly has some challenges, but I’ve booked a lot of tickets with them, although sometimes it does require an email submission for booking. What are the issues you’ve faced?

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