Avianca’s LifeMiles frequent flyer program has some outstanding specials on buying miles. These deals can unlock some extraordinary value on Star Alliance Business Class flights when you buy LifeMiles.
Unfortunately, dealing with the LifeMiles program can be unnecessarily complicated and redeeming LifeMiles can be a challenge. Award availability out of Australia using LifeMiles is limited at the moment, with no Business Class and no First Class seats currently available on Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways out of Australia (for example). There are some options on other Star Alliance airlines to/from Australia but to get maximum usefulness from LifeMiles, you might need to start your trip outside of Australia.
It’s also worth pointing out that Avianca, the airline affiliated with the LifeMiles program, is currently in the process of exiting bankruptcy protection. LifeMiles itself is not in administration and should be unaffected. Also beware that LifeMiles expire if you don’t earn at least one new mile every 12 months.
Nonetheless, great value can be found if you understand the intricacies of this wonderful yet frustrating frequent flyer program, are flexible and are prepared to take on some risk.
Avianca typically offers very generous discounts every 1-2 months when you buy LifeMiles. It’s not uncommon to see up to 150% bonus LifeMiles during promotions – and occasionally even higher bonuses!
This guide explains how to buy and redeem Avianca LifeMiles for discounted premium travel across the Star Alliance network.
How to Buy LifeMiles
You can buy LifeMiles directly on the LifeMiles website. (If the website appears in Spanish, you can select the English language option in the top-right corner beside the log-in button.)
Avianca LifeMiles cost USD33 per thousand at full price, although the regular promotions can bring the price down to around USD13.20 per thousand (or occasionally even less).
As you’ll be buying miles from a Colombian airline, we recommend calling your bank before the credit card payment is processed (so that your card doesn’t get blocked, should your bank suspect fraudulent activity). To save on credit card surcharges, we recommend using a credit card with no international transaction fees.
There is an annual purchase limit of 200,000 LifeMiles, excluding bonus miles. However, you only need to buy 40% of the miles needed to redeem for an award flight in advance. You can later purchase the other 60% at a good price when booking your flights. So the annual purchase limit is not all that limiting.
To be eligible for the promotions on buying miles, you’ll need to already be an Avianca LifeMiles member before the current offer was announced. Some offers are targeted. Join now for free to avoid missing out on future offers!
Special Deals on Buying LifeMiles
With Avianca’s current Black Friday promotion, you’ll receive up to 160% bonus LifeMiles on purchases, depending on how many miles you buy:
- Buy 1,000 to 20,000 LifeMiles to receive a 140% bonus
- Buy 21,000 to 50,000 LifeMiles to receive a 150% bonus
- Buy 51,000-200,000 LifeMiles to receive a 160% bonus
Plus, you can get an additional 10% bonus by using the One Mile at a Time link. That’s a bonus of up to 170%!
The current sale is running from 21 November until 11.59pm (El Salvador time) on 2 December 2022.
At the moment, LifeMiles seems to be running promotions around once every 1-2 months. The last promotion was a flash sale in early November 2022 and offered up to 150% bonus miles.
If you were to purchase the maximum 200,000 LifeMiles during this promotion, you would receive 520,000 miles (including 320,000 bonus miles) at a cost of USD6,600 (~AU$9,968).
You can find discussion about LifeMiles offers on Australian Frequent Flyer’s Avianca LifeMiles forum.
Redeeming Avianca LifeMiles
In theory, you can book award travel on any Star Alliance airline (plus Iberia, Aeromexico & GOL) using the LifeMiles website. In practice, it’s often not quite this simple.
There are no stopovers allowed on LifeMiles award bookings, and transits cannot be longer than 8 hours. But mixed-class award bookings are possible.
There are no fuel surcharges on LifeMiles awards – just a USD25 ticketing fee per booking. But, for some reason, award flights originating in Australia are more expensive than LifeMiles awards to Australia.
Award flights used to be priced according to the region-based LifeMiles award chart for Star Alliance air ticket redemptions. Some of the Avianca LifeMiles award chart sweet spots include:
- Business and First class from Australia to North Asia (China, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong)
- Business and First class from Australia to Europe
- Economy flights within Brazil
Unfortunately, LifeMiles no longer publishes an award chart. You can see the old LifeMiles Star Alliance award chart below, which shows the logic of its award zones and pricing. But please note that some of the amounts shown may be out of date:
On awards within Canada or between Canada and the United States, distance-based award pricing is used.
If you need to complete a booking or make any changes over the phone, you may need to provide your LifeMiles account PIN number. This is a 4-digit number that can be set by logging into the LifeMiles website and editing your account profile.
Some members have reported difficulty in booking LifeMiles award flights on partner airlines including Singapore Airlines & Turkish Airlines.
For some inspiration, there is a detailed thread on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum where members post their successful LifeMiles award bookings: Avianca Life Miles – post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here
LifeMiles + Money
As we mentioned before, you only need to have 40% of the miles for any given redemption in your account. You can then purchase up to 60% of the miles needed at the checkout using “LifeMiles + Money”. Just use the slider after selecting your flight/s when booking on the LifeMiles website:
LifeMiles Screenshot Method
If you’re unable to book an itinerary involving connections online, you may need to employ the infamous LifeMiles screenshot method. See this AFF article for more information about this: The LifeMiles Screenshot Booking Method
Want to learn more about buying miles?
Australian Frequent Flyer’s comprehensive training program includes an entire course on buying points for discounted premium travel! This course covers programs including Avianca LifeMiles. View course →
