Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

According to my activity statement it's posted on Dec 2. So looks like only to those who participated on Cyber Monday promo?

sorry... in my post above I meant the cyber Monday promo is still active. but dunno if it will also get the additional bonus (5k) now that it's after midnight there.

 

[Alanslegal]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I bought 27,000 points + bonus at 355pm AEST (or 1155pm Columbian time). I also received the 5K bonus

 

[sighing]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I bought 27,000 points + bonus at 355pm AEST (or 1155pm Columbian time). I also received the 5K bonus

Wow. Just got home to see this. Even more glad I bought this morning. Just logged in to our accounts to find additional 5K in both.

Bravo Avianca and merry Xmas!

 

[stoneman]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

just logged in and YES ME TOO !

 

[Princess Fiona]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Beauty
Just checked the kids account and there they are
Brilliant promo !!

 

[drron]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Wow.2 more accounts with the 5000 bonus.Amazing.

 

[Buzzard]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I need to sign up to this Life Miles gig.
How long do they last before they expire?

 

[drron]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Ours are now showing January 2017 as expiry.

 

[VAG newbie]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

As long as the account is active the miles don't expire. It's easy to keep active. Redeem, buying mile is all considered activity.

 

[Doggy]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Would love to part-take, but I'm just not seeing the value here when I compare the costs to USDM. Many of the redemptions I would use them for seem to be up to 40% higher in miles.

Unless I'm missing something?

 

[futaris]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Better for one-ways, and the sales are generally cheaper per mile.

 

[anat0l]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

For those who received the 5k bonus, did it post straight away?

I just purchased, interestingly the Cyber Monday promotion is still on as I managed to get it. Not a terribly big deal if the 5k doesn't post, as I only expected to get whatever I purchased.

 

[drron]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Would love to part-take, but I'm just not seeing the value here when I compare the costs to USDM. Many of the redemptions I would use them for seem to be up to 40% higher in miles.

Unless I'm missing something?

But just having bought via the USDM promo and now the Avianca program the miles were 40% cheaper with Avianca.
With AA and US the sAAver awards are definitely becoming less frequent so good to have another way to snare the awards you want.

 

[boomy]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Looks like the Cyber Monday promo is now officially over.

 

[VAG newbie]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Would love to part-take, but I'm just not seeing the value here when I compare the costs to USDM. Many of the redemptions I would use them for seem to be up to 40% higher in miles.

Unless I'm missing something?

Every FFP has it's strength and weakness. If the particular route you are after works out cheaper for with with USDM, then by all means get it.

On miles alone, yes, USDM charges less, but it costs more to purchase USDM. It costs about 2.2cents each now with bonus (1.88 cents is in the past). So one way to Europe is 60000 with USDM, that's $1320. For LM it's 85000 at ~1.5 cents each (with cyber Monday, we all got less than 1.5 cents, but points + cash still 1.5 cents.), which is $1275. So LM still works out cheaper.

The beauty of LM over USDM is the ability to redeem one way, so gives you more flexibility.

Also note that USDM will be integrated to AAdvantage next year, which you can't route to America through Asia. Not sure about Europe, I know you can't route through Middle East except DXB with Qantas. This really limits the option.

But USDM allows you to mix class, that's a big plus over LM.

At the end of the day, I prefer LM over USDM mainly because I'm a star alliance fan. There just isn't any OW carrier that I really want to fly with. Not even CX. It's personal preference.

 

[stoneman]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

For those who received the 5k bonus, did it post straight away?

I just purchased, interestingly the Cyber Monday promotion is still on as I managed to get it. Not a terribly big deal if the 5k doesn't post, as I only expected to get whatever I purchased.

Purchased on Monday, bonus posted Tuesday. Hopefully you still get it if website said its still on! Who would know with their website

 

[Doggy]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Every FFP has it's strength and weakness. If the particular route you are after works out cheaper for with with USDM, then by all means get it.

On miles alone, yes, USDM charges less, but it costs more to purchase USDM. It costs about 2.2cents each now with bonus (1.88 cents is in the past). So one way to Europe is 60000 with USDM, that's $1320. For LM it's 85000 at ~1.5 cents each (with cyber Monday, we all got less than 1.5 cents, but points + cash still 1.5 cents.), which is $1275. So LM still works out cheaper.

The beauty of LM over USDM is the ability to redeem one way, so gives you more flexibility.

Also note that USDM will be integrated to AAdvantage next year, which you can't route to America through Asia. Not sure about Europe, I know you can't route through Middle East except DXB with Qantas. This really limits the option.

But USDM allows you to mix class, that's a big plus over LM.

At the end of the day, I prefer LM over USDM mainly because I'm a star alliance fan. There just isn't any OW carrier that I really want to fly with. Not even CX. It's personal preference.

Our math seems to differ a bit. My math says that an EU trip is only marginally cheaper with the 125% bonus. With the standard 100% the cheapest method is USDM. Plus you get a stopover.

The difference may be in that you're calculating based on the old cost of LM - $30/1000. It's now $33.

 

[VAG newbie]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Our math seems to differ a bit. My math says that an EU trip is only marginally cheaper with the 125% bonus. With the standard 100% the cheapest method is USDM. Plus you get a stopover.

The difference may be in that you're calculating based on the old cost of LM - $30/1000. It's now $33.

Yes. I already addressed that issue. At 100% bonus, USDM is cheaper. But that is gone. Plus the max bonus you get was 50000, so realistically speaking, unless you already have some USDM, you still have to buy extra 20000 without bonus, which is about the same as what they are offering now. BTW, I made a mistake in my math, I quoted 2.2, that was the last promotion when they gave 50000 bonus with purchase of 80000 miles at the old USDM price. They have dropped the price to $29.90/1000 miles now but also lowered bonus and now it's 2.06 cents each.

For LM price, I already explained why I used 1.5 cents rather than 1.65 cents each.

At the end of the day, it really depends on what you need. USDM is suitable for complex routing and if you can do it well, you can have a RTW trip cheaply. LM on the other hand is suitable for quick, simple routing to get from A to B.

Also another advantage of LM that works for me, is their miles and cash feature. For a business trip, I only need 40% of the miles and pay the rest in cash. It will show up in the booking email how much I paid. I can then use that email to claim tax back. USDM requires purchase of miles through points.com and it can be a bit hard to prove to ATO that you used those points for business (especially when you mix leisure and business traveling on the same account).

 

[burmans]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Our math seems to differ a bit. My math says that an EU trip is only marginally cheaper with the 125% bonus. With the standard 100% the cheapest method is USDM. Plus you get a stopover.

The difference may be in that you're calculating based on the old cost of LM - $30/1000. It's now $33.

No point in claiming that LM rate has changed but ignore the fact that USDM also has been gutted!

In fact if you bought on Monday the LM rate was the best its ever been last few years!

 

[anna2103]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Quick question - I know that for Singapore airlines that only release J seats T-14, but do they also release F seats at this time as well? Thanks. PS I only got 4500 bonus points - go figure!!