How to Use Avianca LifeMiles for Cheaper Star Alliance Flights

The Avianca LifeMiles program is the latest addition to the Citibank ThankYou Point transfer partner roster and also has just been added as an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner. With this new airline partner, these flexible currencies have unquestionably gained value and have made LifeMiles more accessible to a wider population of award travelers. While Chase Ultimate Rewards’ offers United as a route to Star Alliance award flights, you’ll be excited about some of the newly opened up possibilities with the Avianca LifeMiles partnership.

In this guide, we’ll discuss:

• the pros and cons of the LifeMiles program,
• all the ways to earn LifeMiles, and
• the details highlighting some of the more notable redemptions.

How to Use Avianca LifeMiles for Cheaper Star Alliance Flights

Avianca is Colombian-based airline and Star Alliance partner. The Star Alliance includes airlines such as United, Aeroplan, Lufthansa, Singapore Air, Thai Airways, and more. Airline alliance partnerships are extremely valuable for award travelers because miles earned on 1 airline can be redeemed on another airline, as long as they’re in the same alliance.

Avianca doesn’t have an award chart for their own flights but does have a LifeMiles Calculator to determine the number of miles needed to fly on Avianca metal. This is helpful to compare redemption pricing between Avianca and other Star Alliance carriers like United.

Avianca does have a Star Alliance partner award chart for flights operated by partners. The award chart is based on regions, for example, North America to North Asia.

Whether flying to Colombia or parts of Latin America on Avianca or elsewhere on a Star Alliance partner, LifeMile redemptions tend to be quite reasonable with a few notable redemptions for award travelers.

Before diving into a few of the award chart sweet spots, let’s cover some of the Avianca LifeMiles program basics. Some of the LifeMiles program pros include:

• Avianca LifeMiles can be used to book Star Alliance partner awards with no fuel surcharges imposed on the ticket. This is noteworthy all by itself and not just because of the money saved. Avianca, United and Copa Airlines are the only Star Alliance partners that don’t pass on fuel surcharges to travelers. If you’re someone affected by Chase’s 5/24 rule with an inability to earn Ultimate Rewards points and/or United miles, Citi ThankYou points or Amex Membership Rewards points transferred to Avianca LifeMiles gives you new access to Star Alliance partner award availability.

• Avianca offers cash and points bookings on award flights. You must have at least 40% of the necessary LifeMiles for your redemption but can pay for the remaining amount by purchasing additional LifeMiles. Keep in mind, Avianca offers LifeMiles sales every few months. Typically these LifeMiles sales have a better per point price than when buying them to complete a booking.

• There’s no close-in booking fee. If you’re booking an award flight less than 21 days before departing, using Avianca LifeMiles is a way to avoid United’s $75 close-in booking fee while still getting access to Star Alliance availability.

Some of the cons of the LifeMiles program are:

• Avianca charges a $25 fee for all bookings.
• No stopovers are allowed.
• Avianca’s website has gotten worse at showing all available flights and seats. The interface is relatively simple, but it’s frustrating to find award space online at United, for example, but not see it bookable on Avianca’s website or have the LifeMiles website give you an error message. In these cases, it may be possible to request a manual booking via email support{at}lifemiles.com.
• Reports on the LifeMiles call center experience are not great. The language barrier gets in the way and agents don’t understand the ins and outs of partner awards.

How to Earn LifeMiles

• Citi ThankYou Points now transfer to Avianca at a 1:1 ratio. Earn Citi ThankYou Points with the Citi ThankYou Premier and Citi Prestige credit cards.
• SPG points transfer to LifeMiles. But, be sure to transfer SPG points in 20k increments to get the 5k bonus. In other words, 20k SPG points = 25k LifeMiles.
• Avianca LifeMiles offers 2 co-branded airline credit cards through Banco Popular. If you use promo code AVSPWE, you can earn 20k additional LifeMiles on each card’s respective sign-up bonus. The cards both give a 15% discount on Multiply Your Miles LifeMiles sales. From there, the higher end card comes with a $149 annual fee and increased perks like gas and grocery bonus categories and the opportunity to earn an award ticket between the U.S. and Central America or Colombia on Avianca for half the regular mileage cost.
• Earn LifeMiles by shopping or from other partner offers. For example, hotel stays or car rentals could earn you extra LifeMiles.
• Consider taking advantage of a LifeMiles sale. It’s possible to find LifeMiles promotions every few months, but really do the cost-benefit math to understand if this type of purchase makes sense. Generally, I don’t purchase miles or points because even with tentative plans it still feels too speculative and there’s no guarantee of award seat availability.
• Credit paid Star Alliance flights to Avianca. Use a tool like Where to Credit to check the LifeMiles you’d earn based on the airline and fare class of your ticket.

LifeMiles Redemptions

For U.S.-based travelers flying domestically, one of the best ways to use LifeMiles is for domestic flights on United. Make the United/Avianca airline alliance partnership work for you to book domestic award tickets for cheaper than you can find on United using United miles.

Avianca has divided the U.S. into 3 zones. When departing from and arriving at an airport in the same U.S. zone, even if you’ve connected somewhere out of that zone, LifeMiles charges 7.5k miles each way in economy or 15k miles round trip.

Here’s what the award chart looks like for one-ways, based on zones and economy/business/first seating.

• Within the same zone: 7,500/15,000/35,000
• Between Zone 1 and Zone 2: 10,000/15,000/35,000
• Between Zone 1/2 and Zone 3: 12,500/25,000/35,000

Let’s take a closer look at an example. If you’re a family whose home airport is Omaha and you want to fly to Orlando, United would charge 12.5k MileagePlus miles each way per person in coach, or 25k miles round trip. If you booked using LifeMiles, you’d pay just 7.5k miles each way per person in coach, or 15k miles round trip. Avianca doesn’t fly from Omaha to Orlando but their partner United does. Your family would fly the exact same United flights but pay less by using LifeMiles.

United charges just 10k miles each way in economy for domestic flights going less than 700 miles. Consider a flight from Salt Lake City to Portland. Great Circle Mapper shows the distance flown as 630 miles, and therefore, qualifying for United’s short-haul pricing. However, the same flight booked with LifeMiles is just 7.5k miles.

Even when flying between Zone 1 and Zone 2, the LifeMiles pricing works out cheaper than United. Avianca LifeMiles charges just 10k miles for a one-way coach flight from Philadelphia to New Orleans, but 12.5k United miles.

Prefer to fly a premium class? Omaha to Orlando is just 15k LifeMiles one-way or 30k round trip for business class. United charges 25k round trip in economy for the same flight.

Another solid LifeMiles redemption is in business class between North America and Europe for just 63k LifeMiles each way. United charges 70k miles one-way in business for Star Alliance partner flights between North America and Europe, while business class seats to Europe on United metal would be just 60k United miles. It pays to do your research, as well as decide on the routing and the business class product across United and the available Star Alliance partners.

Let’s take a look at an example of a route from NYC-JFK to Zurich, Switzerland. After logging into my LifeMiles account and searching for this flight here’s what showed.

You can see the Swiss Air flights 17 and 15 with business class seats for 63k LifeMiles and $30.60. The money due contains the $25 booking fee and $5.60 in tax.

When pricing the same flights on United, here’s what showed.

These are the exact flights from above, Swiss Air 17 & 15. Note the pricing at 70k United miles and $5.60 in taxes for a business class seat from NYC-JFK to Zurich, Switzerland.

Also, a good deal for premium seating from North America to Europe is using 87K LifeMiles one-way to fly first class on Lufthansa. Yes, it’s a great experience and Avianca doesn’t impose surcharges, but the challenge is actually finding the award space.

Lastly, if you have LifeMiles or Citi ThankYou or Amex Membership Rewards points to transfer, as well as United miles, it’s worth a comparison of award flight costs between North America and Latin America on both United and flights operated by Avianca. The LifeMiles calculator will come in handy, as well as a willingness to explore different redemption possibilities.

For example, flights booked with United miles between Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Cartagena, Colombia are 40k miles round trip in coach. But, for flights operated by Avianca and booked with LifeMiles award seats cost just 30k miles round trip in coach.

Similarly, the LifeMiles Calculator shows a redemption from New York City to Quito, Ecuador for just 33k miles round trip in coach, while United would charge 40k miles round trip in coach.

What’s the Bottom Line?

Avianca LifeMiles is a valuable airline currency for the right redemptions, but the miles were moderately challenging to earn. However, now that Citi ThankYou points and American Express Membership Rewards points transfer 1:1 to the LifeMiles program, these miles are easier to earn for travelers with credit cards like the Citi ThankYou Premier, the Citi Prestige, the Amex Everyday, Gold or Platinum cards. LifeMiles add value to the Citi ThankYou points and Amex Membership Rewards points currencies and opens up the opportunity for cheaper Star Alliance redemptions, as well as saving other transferable points currencies for award redemptions on different airlines and in different airline alliances.

Would you transfer your Citi ThankYou Points to LifeMiles? How would you use your LifeMiles?

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