Even if you’re a frequent traveler, it’s conceivable that you’ve never even heard of Avianca. After all, it’s a Colombia-based airline that connects just a handful of U.S. hubs to Central and South America.
But here’s the thing: Avianca’s loyalty program, LifeMiles, can be one of the most powerful weapons in your award travel arsenal. In fact, it was a point.me pick as one of the world’s best airline rewards programs.
We’ll show you how easy it is to collect LifeMiles — and share some little-known tips to help you slay your bucket list with Avianca LifeMiles.
Table of contents
Overview of Avianca LifeMiles
Though Avianca does most of its business in South America, its network reaches numerous cities in the U.S. and even a handful in Europe from its hubs in Bogota (BOG) and Medellin (MDE).
That’s great and all, but the magic of Avianca LifeMiles is in its partnerships. Avianca has more than 25 airline partners, including United Airlines, Air Canada, Lufthansa, and many more. Even if you never fly Avianca, you can use its miles to book travel on airlines that better serve your travel goals.
Credit card transfer partners of Avianca LifeMiles
Avianca partners with an unusual number of flexible reward currencies. Because of this, over a dozen credit cards are eligible to earn LifeMiles:
- American Express Membership Rewards
- Bilt Rewards
- Capital One miles
- Citi ThankYou points
- Wells Fargo Rewards
You can even transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Avianca at a 3:1 ratio.
Airline partners of Avianca LifeMiles
Avianca is a member of the Star Alliance, a partnership between dozens of airlines worldwide. This is a big deal because it means you can use your LifeMiles to fly almost anywhere on the planet.
For example, Avianca doesn’t fly to Edinburgh (EDI), but its partner, Air Canada, operates flights to Edinburgh from Toronto (YYZ). Because of this, you can use LifeMiles to book flights to the Scottish capital on Air Canada. I recently booked a business-class seat on this route and received a value of more than 3.5 cents per mile.
Avianca also has a few non-Star Alliance partners, including GOL Airlines and Iberia. Here’s a quick look at all the airlines you can book with Avianca LifeMiles:
| Aegean Airlines | Copa Airlines | Singapore Airlines |
| Air Canada | Croatia Airlines | South African Airways |
| Air China | Egyptair | SWISS |
| Air India | EVA Airways | TAP Portugal |
| Air New Zealand | GOL Airlines | Thai Airways |
| All Nippon Airways (ANA) | Iberia | Turkish Airlines |
| Asiana Airlines | LOT Polish | United Airlines |
| Austrian Airlines | Lufthansa | |
| Brussels Airlines | Shenzhen Airlines |
What we love about Avianca LifeMiles
Avianca is one of the more valuable rewards currencies, simply because of its all-around flexibility. Here are a few examples.
Easy to earn miles
LifeMiles is a transfer partner of several prominent flexible rewards programs, making Avianca’s rewards some of the absolute easiest miles to collect. You can also typically buy them at a steep discount.
Easy to redeem miles
Because you can redeem LifeMiles on a whopping 25 airline partners, LifeMiles are useful no matter where on Earth you’re trying to fly. Plus, the site is one of the best at showing comprehensive award availability across Star Alliance partners.
Great deals on select routes
Avianca offers more palatable award prices on many routes than competing programs. In some cases, you may pay 10,000+ fewer miles for a partner flight than if you book directly with that airline.
For example, a business-class ticket from Washington Dulles (IAD) to Zurich (ZRH) on partner SWISS costs 88,000 United Airlines miles one-way.
The exact same award flight costs just 69,000 miles when booked through LifeMiles. That’s a savings of 19,000 miles — simply by using Avianca’s rewards instead of United miles.
Unique subscription service to help you save miles
Avianca offers a paid membership called LifeMiles+. If you’re in the habit of redeeming with Avianca even a few times each year, this membership could be wildly valuable.
There are four membership levels, each with varying benefits and price points — including discounts for American Express Avianca cardholders.
Depending on the tier you pay for, you’ll receive perks like:
- Zero award change/cancellation fees (for basic membership and above)
- A 10% miles rebate when you redeem for Star Alliance award flights
- Up to 25% discount for award flights on Avianca
- Miles expiration is extended to 24 months (instead of the standard 12 months)
The basic level is especially enticing, thanks to the waived change and cancellation fees for award flights — which can be super expensive (we’ll cover that in a minute). Just note that there’s a six-month minimum when you enroll.
What we don’t love about Avianca LifeMiles
It’s not all daffodils and fairy dust with Avianca LifeMiles. The program has its share of annoyances as well. Here are a few to be aware of:
Glitchy website
The current LifeMiles website is far more serviceable than previous iterations. Hard to believe, considering it’s one of the buggiest booking platforms in existence. It’s not uncommon for an award search to randomly display zero availability (which can sometimes be solved by logging out and back in) or for the site to redirect you to an error page.
Even if you’ve found the seats you want, there are occasional hiccups during the booking process that will send you back to the beginning. More than once, I’ve wheezed a sigh of relief after successfully reserving an award after an exhausting rodeo with the LifeMiles website.
Poor customer service
Having a subpar website is beyond annoying, but it’s nearly forgivable if you’ve got a solid team of customer service agents to help you sort out your plans via online chat or telephone. Unfortunately, Avianca isn’t famous for its customer service either. Whether it’s changing plans, adding a lap infant, or even simply booking a flight, frequent flyers generally have little good to say about Avianca’s squad of agents.
Often pricey change/cancellation fees
It’s not uncommon for airlines to enforce change and cancellation fees. But Avianca’s fees can climb pretty high, depending on your route and class of seat.
When booking with LifeMiles, you’ll pay between $30 and $200 to change your flight. You’ll pay between $50 and $200 to cancel your flight and redeposit your miles. The site will display your unique fee when you’re booking.
For example, When booking a domestic economy flight between Portland (PDX) and Indianapolis (IND), my cancellation fee was $50 per ticket.
But when booking an intra-European economy flight between Geneva (GVA) and London (LHR), my cancellation fee was $100 per ticket.
Also, when I booked an intercontinental business-class seat between Edinburgh (EDI) and Columbus (CMH), the cancellation fee was $200 per ticket.
So, changing your plans once you’ve booked a LifeMiles award can really cost you. But again, you can get these fees waived by paying as little as $30 per month for LifeMiles+ — while also receiving perks like thousands of bonus miles deposited into your account each month and a 10% miles rebate for awards booked on Star Alliance partners.
Avianca elite status tiers and how to earn them
Earning Avianca elite status is pretty straightforward: You must achieve a specific number of qualifying miles in a calendar year. A portion of those miles must be earned by flying with Avianca. Here are the highlights of each status tier:
Red Plus
To earn Red Plus status, you must earn 6,000 qualifying miles (1,000 of which must be earned on Avianca flights or additional services). The benefits are:
- 1 Avianca lounge entry
- Emergency row/Plus seat selection at check-in
- 10% earned bonus miles
- 24-month validity for miles
- Star Alliance Silver elite status
Silver
For Silver status, you must earn 12,000 qualifying miles (3,000 of which must be earned on Avianca flights or additional services). You can also achieve it automatically each year by holding either the Avianca LifeMiles American Express® Card or the Avianca LifeMiles American Express® Elite Card. Silver benefits include:
- 2 Avianca lounge entries (with two companion entries)
- 6 upgrades in business class on eligible fares (within the Americas)
- 10% discount on premium seat purchase
- Emergency row/Plus seat selection at the time of booking
- Anytime boarding
- 1 extra checked bag (up to 23 kg)
- 20% earned bonus miles
- Group B priority boarding
- Priority airport check-in and baggage handling
- 24-month validity for miles
- Star Alliance Silver elite status
Gold
For Gold status, you must earn 24,000 qualifying miles (12,000 of which must be earned on Avianca flights or additional services). The benefits are:
- 20 Avianca lounge entries (with eight companion entries)
- Unlimited Star Alliance airport lounge access
- 8 upgrades in business class on eligible fares (within the Americas)
- 15% discount on premium seat purchase
- Emergency row/Plus seat selection at the time of booking
- Anytime boarding
- 2 extra checked bags in economy (up to 23 kg)
- 1 extra checked bag in business class (up to 23 kg)
- 60% earned bonus miles
- Group A priority boarding
- Priority airport check-in and baggage handling (including on Star Alliance partners)
- 24-month validity for miles
- Star Alliance Gold elite status
Diamond
For Diamond status, you must earn 45,000 qualifying miles (22,500 of which must be earned on Avianca flights or additional services). The benefits are:
- Unlimited Avianca lounge entries (with 12 companion entries)
- Unlimited Star Alliance airport lounge access
- 12 upgrades in business class on eligible fares (within the Americas)
- 20% discount on premium seat purchase
- Emergency row/Plus seat selection at the time of booking
- Anytime boarding
- 2 extra checked bags in economy class (up to 23 kg)
- 1 extra checked bag in business class (up to 23 kg)
- 80% earned bonus miles
- Group A priority boarding
- Priority airport check-in and baggage handling (including on Star Alliance partners)
- 24-month validity for miles
- Star Alliance Gold elite status
How to earn Avianca LifeMiles
Flying
Perhaps the most obvious way to earn LifeMiles is by purchasing Avianca flights.
But you’ll earn miles by paying for more than just travel with Avianca; flights with partner airlines such as United Airlines, Turkish Airlines, etc. will earn you miles too. You can simply “credit” the miles you earn on these partners to Avianca LifeMiles.
Credit cards
As previously mentioned, credit card spending can earn you a lot of LifeMiles. The LifeMiles program is a transfer partner of multiple flexible rewards programs, including American Express Membership Rewards points, Citi ThankYou points, and Capital One miles.
Avianca also cobrands two credit cards: the Avianca LifeMiles American Express® Elite Card and the Avianca LifeMiles American Express® Card.
Travel partners
It’s also possible to earn LifeMiles from travel purchases other than flights. For example, you can receive thousands of miles per day when renting a car through LifeMiles Cars or when reserving a hotel stay through LifeMiles Hotels. You can also earn miles when booking a hotel through a booking platform called Rocketmiles.
Buy miles
You can buy up to 500,000 LifeMiles per year through Points.com. However, Avianca routinely publishes promotions that give you a massive bonus — often 160% or more. If you pounce on one of these bonuses, it’s possible to buy over 1 million miles per year.
Depending on the size of the bonus, you could pay as little as 1.1 cents per mile. That’s a great deal.
LifeMiles+
You can effectively purchase b500-10,000 miles each month through Avianca’s LifeMiles+ subscription. You’ll pay between 1.8 cents and 4 cents per mile, depending on which membership level you purchase.
Redeeming miles with Avianca LifeMiles
Redeeming LifeMiles is relatively straightforward. Sign into your account and select the “Travel” tab at the top of the page. This will take you to a landing page where you can search for award flights.
When you search for award flights, Avianca will display both Avianca and Star Alliance options. For example, Avianca doesn’t fly to Turkey — but Turkish Airlines does. Searching for a flight from New York (JFK) to Istanbul (IST) should automatically show flights with Turkish Airlines.
You can also use your LifeMiles for other travel-related redemptions:
- Seat upgrades. Upgrade classic and flex fares (not award flights) to business class on Avianca and Star Alliance partners.
- Lounge access. You can gain entry to Avianca’s VIP Lounges for as little as 1,200 miles.
- Other travel. You can reserve hotel stays, rental cars, and cruises (not usually a good value for your miles).
Also potentially handy is a “Deals” tab that shows you low award prices to popular destinations. You can filter the deals by origin, destination, and price.
How much are LifeMiles worth?
As with nearly every reward currency, LifeMiles doesn’t have a fixed value. The return you’ll get from them depends entirely on how you use them. We’ll look at a few examples of what you can get with LifeMiles.
25,000 miles or less
A one-way economy class ticket from Dayton (DAY) to Lima, Peru (LIM) costs up to 20,000 miles and $58 in taxes and fees. You’ll fly both United Airlines and Avianca.
This exact same itinerary costs $461 in cash. After subtracting the mandatory $58 in fees, you’ll save $403 by redeeming 20,000 miles — giving you a value of 2.02 cents per mile.
50,000 miles or less
A one-way United Airlines economy-class ticket from Miami (MIA) to Chicago (ORD) costs up to 10,000 miles and $5.60 in taxes and fees.
For 50,000 miles and $56 in fees, you could book five one-way flights. These tickets otherwise cost $99 each, giving you a value of $495. That amounts to a value of just 0.87 cents per mile.
100,000 miles or less
A one-way United economy ticket from Houston (IAH) to Tokyo (HND) costs up to 47,000 LifeMiles and $58 in taxes and fees.
This same itinerary costs $933 in cash. After accounting for the award flight’s $58 in taxes and fees, you’ll save $875 by redeeming 47,000 miles. That amounts to a value of 1.86 cents per mile.
While potential value is all over the place, a solid goal for your LifeMiles redemption is 1.5 cents. That said, do what makes you the happiest. Don’t get too caught up in value.
The best LifeMiles redemptions
As you experiment with LifeMiles, you’ll realize that this program’s prices are sometimes confusingly competitive. Here are some of the best ways to wring value from your rewards.
Short-haul domestic flights
A great way to stretch your miles is to focus on quick domestic hops. It’s not difficult to find short-haul flights (under 1.5 hours) for less than 7,000 miles.
For example, an economy flight from Sacramento (SMF) to San Francisco (SFO) on United Airlines costs over $200. But you can reserve it for just 6,500 miles — giving you a value of more than three cents per mile.
Turkish Airlines business class
Flying international business class is almost always a good deal with LifeMiles. You’ll pay 69,000 miles for a fancy seat between the U.S. and Europe. Turkish Airlines offers one of the best in the biz.
A round-trip business class ticket between Miami (MIA) and Istanbul (IST) often costs over $6,000. You can book it for 138,000 miles, giving you a value of more than 4.3 cents per mile.
This is doubly special because you’ll get to experience the famous Turkish Airlines business class lounge, which is an item on many award travelers’ bucket lists. It’s only available to those flying business class with a Star Alliance airline, so redeeming LifeMiles on Turkish Airlines is one of your best shots at entry.
Lufthansa first class
If you’ve never flown first class before, it’s otherworldly. Business class prioritizes extra space and comfort — but first class is all about the experience. From borderline obsequious flight attendants to top-shelf alcohol to extra comfy bedding for your lie-flat seat, it’s something you’ll be talking about for a long time.
Lufthansa has an exceptional first class, especially aboard the elegant Boeing 747. You can reserve this seat between San Francisco (SFO) and Frankfurt (FRA) for 120,000 LifeMiles each way (though you’ll only find them within a few days of travel).
This seat routinely sells for more than $9,000 one-way, giving you a value of more than 7.5 cents per point.
Although other award programs (such as Air Canada Aeroplan) offer this same seat for less, Avianca’s prices are still among the best. For example, the same seat costs 165,000 miles each way when booked through United MileagePlus.
Tips for using LifeMiles
Search incognito
Occasionally, the LifeMiles website will indicate that there aren’t any award seats for the route you’re trying to book. If you see this, don’t immediately sulk. The site may be malfunctioning.
Try searching in an incognito browser where no cookies are stored. A ton of availability often magically appears when you do this.
Manually search by airline
If you already know which airline you want to fly — and you know for a fact that there’s availability from searching other Star Alliance sites — you may have success by telling Avianca which airline you want to search for.
At the top of the page is a drop-down menu with the words “Smart Search.” Smart Search is meant to automatically identify all airlines that serve your route and feed you those results. But it doesn’t always work. Search the menu for the airline you’d like to travel and enter your route again, forcing Avianca to double-check.
Book premium seats
To get the most value from your rewards, book international business and first-class tickets. These tickets can easily cost over $3,000 and sometimes exceed $12,000.
Just note that “value” is different from “savings.” You’d probably never drop $10,000 on a fancy seat, so don’t think of your LifeMiles as having saved you $10,000 when you book a glitzy first-class seat.
Frequently asked questions about using Avianca LifeMiles
What are Avianca’s airline partners?
Avianca’s airline partners include Star Alliance partners like Air Canada, Air New Zealand, and United Airlines — as well as non-alliance partners like Iberia and GOL Airlines.
What are Avianca’s transfer partners?
Avianca partners with American Express Membership Rewards points, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou points, Wells Fargo Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy.
What are Avianca’s tier status levels?
Avianca offers four elite status tiers: Red Plus, Silver, Gold, and Diamond.
How many LifeMiles do I need for a free flight?
Depending on where you’re going, it’s possible to book flights for less than 7,000 miles each way. For example, you can find flights for
Do LifeMiles expire?
LifeMiles expire after 12 months (or after 24 months for those with a LifeMiles+ membership).
Can I transfer or gift my LifeMiles to someone else?
You can transfer LifeMiles from your account to another, but it costs $15 per 1,000 miles. That’s not a good deal. A better idea is to simply buy miles and gift them to a friend or family member.
Can I book a flight for someone else with my LifeMiles?
You can book a flight for anyone using LifeMiles. You don’t have to be on the itinerary.
Can I book an Avianca flight using a combination of miles and cash?
Avianca gives you the option to purchase miles during the booking process if you don’t have enough to reserve your desired seat. In this way, you can effectively use a combination of miles and cash to book your flight.
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