Lifemiles go on sale again with 125% bonus

You guys should know the drill by now.

Lifemiles= cheap first and business class tickets. Lifemiles frequently go on sale. 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 Wing interviewing the 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 that’s greater than its redemption cost.

The CEO pretty much straight up comes and says that Lifemiles is gaming the Star Alliance award pool. Lifemiles sells miles at $X. 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.

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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Vin

Now I’m split on getting this or the Alaska sale. I still have Lifemiles pooled, and none on Alaska.

Kylie

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.

Wong

I noticed most of the destination required transit , most of it does not have direct flights redemption?

Spk307

Is there a life miles equivalent for one world alliance?

Anonymous

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.

Anonymous

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.

Flyer221

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.

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