Avianca LifeMiles – Bookings and Discussion

[nthd_nthd]

I had chance/points to redeem for Emirate 1st but had to let it slide to use LM points for Turkish - was lucky to be able to book for Turkish.

 

[SYD_based]

Was randomly checking any airline availability and found a SYD-ICN flight for the next day. I only wanted to check to see if it would actually let me book, as I'm sure we are all aware of that error message we keep getting. I got to the confirm and pay taxes page, until it refreshed and automatically assigned me to an online chat pop up where I am now speaking to someone.

For future reference, does anyone know how to get to this online chat without having to go through a vortex? They have been tried to be helpful, relaying this message "When selecting the flight, as the system does not process the taxes, it generates the error and takes you out of the page, where it directs you to this channel, where we find the taxes manually." I'm not sure this actually helps at all, as it still doesn't explain when or if they'll fix it.

Anyway, apologies for the bombardment of messages tonight!

 

[hmmm]

This is exactly the problem. When searching by specific airline there will be different results than searching by Smart Search (usually better results) but the call centre can only book whatever availability Smart Search gives. They can often see results given by individual airline search and can confirm seats are indeed available hence they are not necessary phantom. While these seats are not allocated to LM they can be booked direct via the airline or via other *A parters such as UA for example.

ive noticed that "smart search" returns no availability, but TG specific does. wjhy is this the case? if there is no availability, surelky this should be consistent no matter which search you choose? and do alliance partner airlines really alter award availability between different partners? seems weird to me

Post automatically merged: Feb 17, 2025

It’s a common problem!

The underline in the ‘availability’ boxes may - or may not - bear any correlation to actual availability

Sometimes you can click on a square that’s not underlined and there will be flights available.

But honestly… why are folk persisting with LM? Points are cheaper with aeroplan, and far more reliable availability.

LM is about half the price of Aeroplan for me. am i missing somehting?

 

[hmmm]

Wow, even Aeroplan has no TG flights between MEL and BKK in March and April.
What is going on with TG ?!

Im looking for BKK-MEL oneway in J in late April and LM shows ample availability, as does UA. so I wonder what is really going on here????

 

[boomy]

ive noticed that "smart search" returns no availability, but TG specific does. wjhy is this the case? if there is no availability, surelky this should be consistent no matter which search you choose? and do alliance partner airlines really alter award availability between different partners? seems weird to me

Smart Search shows accurate partner award availability but sadly most of it is not bookable on LM. If I would have to guess the reason I’d say LM don’t pay for these seats as much as other airlines do.

LM is about half the price of Aeroplan for me. am i missing somehting?

Now you understand why availability is so poor on LM…
If you think it’s cheap compared to Aeroplan try United, good award availability if you can afford it!

 

[hmmm]

Smart Search shows accurate partner award availability but sadly most of it is not bookable on LM. If I would have to guess the reason I’d say LM don’t pay for these seats as much as other airlines do.



Now you understand why availability is so poor on LM…
If you think it’s cheap compared to Aeroplan try United, good award availability if you can afford it!

buying miles on UA exceeds the cash fare, so that's not gonna happen! lol

 

[nthd_nthd]

Im looking for BKK-MEL oneway in J in late April and LM shows ample availability, as does UA. so I wonder what is really going on here????

Available, But not bookable

 

[hmmm]

Available, But not bookable

Obviously. But WHY not is the million dollar question. If its available it should be bookable.

 

[boomy]

Obviously. But WHY not is the million dollar question. If its available it should be bookable.

It’s available and bookable, to other partners…

 

[Finale]

Is TG available on other partners than UA? I haven't seen it on Aeroplan, Lifemiles, Krisflyer etc since October last year. It seems to be available on UA only unless something has changed recently. Australia to South East Asia in J has gone from 30k to 50k/55k and now 90k on UA lol. Just burnt th elast bit of my UA miles KIX - BKK for 90k lmao.

 

[Gold Member]

Is TG available on other partners than UA? I haven't seen it on Aeroplan, Lifemiles, Krisflyer etc since October last year. It seems to be available on UA only unless something has changed recently. Australia to South East Asia in J has gone from 30k to 50k/55k and now 90k on UA lol. Just burnt th elast bit of my UA miles KIX - BKK for 90k lmao.

Another UA Mileage Plus burns victim in ICU Tell ‘em Gold Member says Hi.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

LM is about half the price of Aeroplan for me. am i missing somehting?

Need to wait for a sale on Aeroplan. They don’t happen weekly as they do on Lifemiles

On sale with 85%+ bonus it brings it to about 2c aussie per point, Which is about the same as LM, but without 99.9% of the hassle when it comes to redeeming.

 

[YoungModern]

I had chance/points to redeem for Emirate 1st but had to let it slide to use LM points for Turkish - was lucky to be able to book for Turkish.

I was wondering what route did you managed to book with Turkish using useless LifeMiles?

I am trying to find anything from Sydney to Madrid between now and mid May but booking Turkish for instance is impossible. At least on the SYD-IST route, there's never availability.

 

[zsw]

I was wondering what route did you managed to book with Turkish using useless LifeMiles?

I am trying to find anything from Sydney to Madrid between now and mid May but booking Turkish for instance is impossible. At least on the SYD-IST route, there's never availability.

SIN - MEL and v.v. has had some good availability become available over the past month

 

[nthd_nthd]

SIN - MEL and v.v. has had some good availability become available over the past month

Yes. You are right.

 

[kpc]

I made a booking last night from Xiy to Can on Zh to slowly use up my Lifemiles stash but as per usual the etickets were never sent. In the past I use to email them on [email protected] and they will respond but it aeems not anymore. 2 weeks ago I had to call them to get e tickets sent to me for another award booking. Apart from calling them again, is there any online way to get the e tickets? Ta

 

[boomy]

I made a booking last night from Xiy to Can on Zh to slowly use up my Lifemiles stash but as per usual the etickets were never sent. In the past I use to email them on [email protected] and they will respond but it aeems not anymore. 2 weeks ago I had to call them to get e tickets sent to me for another award booking. Apart from calling them again, is there any online way to get the e tickets? Ta

You will definitely not get reply from [email protected] but will have better chance with [email protected]

I do think calling is the best way to get the tickets sent on the spot. Best time to call is during Colombia working hours which is late at night / early morning in AUS.

 

[hill]

I made a booking last night from Xiy to Can on Zh to slowly use up my Lifemiles stash but as per usual the etickets were never sent. In the past I use to email them on [email protected] and they will respond but it aeems not anymore. 2 weeks ago I had to call them to get e tickets sent to me for another award booking. Apart from calling them again, is there any online way to get the e tickets? Ta

Try WhatsApp, worked for me to get them to send the e-tickets few months ago - can't do the automated way anymore AFAIK but you can connect to a live agent.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I made a booking last night from Xiy to Can on Zh to slowly use up my Lifemiles stash but as per usual the etickets were never sent. In the past I use to email them on [email protected] and they will respond but it aeems not anymore. 2 weeks ago I had to call them to get e tickets sent to me for another award booking. Apart from calling them again, is there any online way to get the e tickets? Ta

Manage booking and booking reference?

I rarely got e-tickets for automated bookings with LM. Just got a copy of the itinerary from manage booking, or got a print out at check-in.

 

[kpc]

You will definitely not get reply from [email protected] but will have better chance with [email protected]

I do think calling is the best way to get the tickets sent on the spot. Best time to call is during Colombia working hours which is late at night / early morning in AUS.

Oops...a bit dyslexic with the email address. Both don't work now anyway ...Haha!

Just rang them, after a hold time of ~10 minutes, got through to an agent who after 2 minutes, emailed the etickets to me ...Was just wanting to avoid having to call them I guess....luckily I can ring the US number for free from Australia