You guys should know the drill by now.
Lifemiles= cheap first and business class tickets. Lifemiles frequently go on sale.ย To take part in a sale, you need a Lifemiles account that was opened before the sale was announced. So go open one now.
The sale this time is 125%, meaning you can buy miles at 1.47 US cents each. This is an ok price, but not one I’d pull the trigger on. I bought my miles at 1.375 US cents each when they went on sale last year, and the grand laojiao of travel hacking says you can buy at 1.35 US cents at the cheapest
There is an interesting article on View from the Wingย interviewing theย CEO of Lifemiles
Vincent sees offering miles for sale inexpensively as win-win for the program and the consumer. Flexible consumers who can travel on award tickets gain access to travel less expensively than if they were buying tickets directly. And the program generates revenue thatโs greater than its redemption cost.
The CEO pretty muchย straight up comes and says that Lifemiles is gaming the Star Allianceย award pool. Lifemiles sells miles at $X.ย Lifemiles members redeem awards on partner carriers. Lifemiles compensates partner carriers $Y as per internal reimbursement rates. $X>$Y. Lifemiles wins.
It makes me worry how long this can go on for. I don’t know if Star Alliance internal rules allow airlines to charge differential reimbursement rates to members, but if they do one thing that could happen is that everyone else jacks up reimbursements for Avianca.
If the rules don’t currently allow for that then it’s difficult to see what can be done- other carriers might star blocking award space (as SQ already does for its premium non-regional cabins), or start releasing less award space overall.
Anyway, that’s a problem for Future Homer.
If you want to take part, you should use your DBS Altitude Card to get 3 miles per $1 on the online purchase. You can also use your DBS WWMC or UOB Visa Signature for 4 miles per $1, subject to their usual caps and minimums.
Now I’m split on getting this or the Alaska sale. I still have Lifemiles pooled, and none on Alaska.
Do you know why sometimes a first class booking shows up as a mixed cabin with First and Economy class. Am trying to redeem for a 1 way LA to Sin ticket in Oct and thats the only option available . Doesnt make it if its first and economy class.
well that’s more of a feature than a bug. allowing mixed class redemptions opens up more opportunities when first class all the way is not available. for example, i would gladly fly economy from SIN-BKK if it meant being able to fly first in TG from BKK-LHR. If mixed cabin redemptions weren’t possible then SIN-LHR would not appear because there is no SIN-BKK-LHR route available in F
I noticed most of the destination required transit , most of it does not have direct flights redemption?
well it really depends where you’re looking at. and also when you book. because SQ releases so little partner award space, if you’re flying from SIN you’re likely to need a transit to get there. if you’re looking to get to a destination country that is not host to a star alliance carrier and if that route IS served by SQ’s long haul cabin products you will need a connection. Example- France, UK. Germany you can still find direct with Lufthansa.
Is there a life miles equivalent for one world alliance?
that’s an interesting question. you can buy alaska mileageplan miles cheap and redeem with cathay and a few other oneworld carriers. I’m sure American Airlines sells their miles frequently too but i’m not very well versed with their program
Thanks Aaron. But looks like Alaskan Airlines Mileage-plan doesn’t work if you don’t include a US city in the itinerary (either starting point or destination), while there are no such restrictions in Lifemiles.
sorry, didn’t get what you meant by that. are you talking about CX redemptions?
I was referring to a search for BA flights between Europe and Asia. Apparently BA doesn’t offer non-US award redemptions for Mileageplan. So if one wants to travel to Asia using Mileageplan, the only option is to fly to HK with CX.
To all who wants to buy LifeMiles for redemption – you can only redeem flights with routes that are shown through LifeMiles site itself – if it’s not shown as an available routing then you can’t redeem it, even by calling.
Also, note that you should check the flights are indeed available before plonking down for this. There’s been extensive discussion on pros and cons on FlyerTalk for this.