Booking premium award travel with Avianca LifeMiles can be extraordinary value, especially if you’ve purchased LifeMiles at a discount. But booking flights on the new LifeMiles website can also be real patience tester.
If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to find and book the Star Alliance award flights that you want using the LifeMiles website. To book online, simply search for the route you’re after and select either a specific airline or “Smart Search” in the drop-down box at the top of the search page.
But sometimes the flights you want don’t appear. In most cases this is due to a lack of award availability. It could also be due to married segments restrictions. But if you believe there is award availability (e.g. you’ve found Star Alliance award availability on another website) and it’s simply a problem with the LifeMiles website, you could try to use the infamous LifeMiles “screenshot method”.
When do you need to use the LifeMiles screenshot method?
It is sometimes necessary to employ the screenshot booking method if flights are showing on individual sectors, but the same flights are not appearing online as a through-booking. For example, you might be able to find award availability from A to B and B to C, with a valid connection time between flights, but a search for flights from A to C returns no results.
You could also try using this method if you believe there is award availability on a point-to-point itinerary which is not showing on the LifeMiles website. However, you should first make sure that there is actually availability and the problem is with LifeMiles’ website, rather than a lack of award inventory. You cannot use the screenshot method to book flights that do not have award availability.
How to book flights using the LifeMiles screenshot method
To book using the LifeMiles screenshot method, send an email to [email protected] and include all of the following information:
- Your LifeMiles membership number
- Details of the flight/s you wish to book
- Your phone number (including country code)
- Colour scanned copy of all passengers’ passports
- Screenshots showing no award availability on the LifeMiles website. (If you are travelling A-B-C, and availability is showing for A-B and B-C, include those screenshots as well.)
Within a few days of sending your email, you should receive a response by email advising whether or not the requested flights can be booked. If approved, you can then call LifeMiles to pay for the booking and have it ticketed.
If you need to call LifeMiles to complete a booking – or do anything else that requires a credit card payment – you may need to provide your LifeMiles “PIN” number. This is a 4-digit number that can be set be logging into your LifeMiles account online and editing your profile.
The LifeMiles screenshot has been tried and testing by countless AFF members over the past several years. It continues to work, even after Avianca updated its website.
Read more about this on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Lifemiles screenshot method
You can join the Avianca LifeMiles discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Avianca LifeMiles forum
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