Lifemiles are back on sale until November 28 with one of the better offers in recent memory.
With this promotion, you get a 140% bonus on miles purchased with a minimum purchase amount of 5,000 miles. What makes this promotion different from previous ones is the low threshold needed to enjoy the 140% bonus.
In previous promotions, you would normally need to buy 100,000+ miles at one go to enjoy the maximum bonus. This meant splashing out thousands of dollars. With the current promotion, you can enjoy the maximum bonus so long as you buy at least 5,000 miles.
The regular purchase price of Lifemiles is 3.3 US cents each, so at a 140% bonus you’re paying 1.375 US cents per mile. That, to me, is a very good price to buy Lifemiles at.
In case you’re interested, previous promotions have sold miles at (albeit with much higher purchase requirements to enjoy the bonuses stated below)
- Sept 2016- 130% and 140% (2 sales in 1 month)
- May 2016- 135%
- Dec 2015- 150%
- October 2015- 150%
- September 2015- 145%
- May 2015- 120%
Will I buy?
I love Lifemiles and some of my best trip experiences have been bought for cheap through the program.
My usual policy is not to buy miles speculatively, but since I have an odd balance in my account now (59,200) I will take advantage of this promotion to top up my balance so the equivalent of one First Class award ticket to the US handy (99,000 miles).
As a reminder, here are some of the amounts you will need to redeem first/business class tickets from Singapore. See the full award chart here.
All prices one-way
- Singapore to North America (78,000/99,000)
- Singapore to Europe (78,000/102,000)
- Singapore to Australia (40,000/60,000)
Remember that Lifemiles does not allow you to book SQ premium cabin space (except on routes with their regional business class product), you can cancel your tickets any time for a US$50 fee (but you need to call up the call centre) and you can only book your routes based on what you see on the online search engine.
On the plus side, there are no fuel surcharges. Also, mixed cabin bookings are now available which opens up the possibility of flying products like Thai’s First Class after connecting to BKK in business.
Lifemiles purchases will earn 4 miles per $1 when you buy with your
- DBS Woman’s World Card
- HSBC Advance Card
I do not have any info on whether Citibank Rewards or UOB PP Visa will get the 4 miles per $1. My suspicion is no, because the transaction will code as an airline transaction and the T&C of both cards explicitly exclude that from the bonus.
They will earn 3 miles per $1 when bought with
- DBS Altitude (AMEX or Visa), for the first $5,000 a month
The sale ends 28 November so act fast. Have a read of the Lifemiles primer if you need a quick reminder of how it works.
If I do not have an account with life miles now. am I still entitle this offer?
in the past, no, but i’ve not checked recently. you want to try and let me know if the bonus shows up in your account when you’re about to buy?
Is it worth it to preemptively buy and max out the 100,000miles per calendar year limit now so as to get sufficient miles for a long trip next year?
wellllllll……….. like so many things it depends. when are you taking the trip? if it’s early in the year, maybe. Lifemiles has gotten much better about giving notice before devaluation but as with all frequent flyer programs nothing is guaranteed. The airline might go bankrupt. The program might devalue. Partners might raise their award rates overnight. i believe the maximum is 150,000 miles by the way, not 100,000.
Hi Aaron – how do we check how many miles is needed for a flight? I find it difficult to navigate through the lifemiles site but maybe it’s just me…
https://www.lifemiles.com/eng/inc/starredawards.aspx
Thanks NT! How do we check what airlines we are flying with?
They seem to be having problems on the website with the promo (or maybe it is just me being stupid) and the full bonus is not being applied.
When I attempt to buy 40K miles, it becomes just 56K with the bonus…
Thats correct.
LifeMiles to purchase: 40000
Special promotion bonus: LM 56,000
Miles in your account after the purchase:LM 96,000
Thank you, now it makes more sense!
I availed their September promotion, and thought that since the calendar year is almost over and still have an allotted amount I might as well add more. I’m just glad LM has a 2-year extending validity period.
If I chose to purchase 83,000 miles and the bonus given is 116,200 miles to add up to a total of 199,200 LM, does this work or would this have exceeded the purchase limit of 150,000 LM per calendar year?
150k LM limit is BEFORE bonus.
Thanks for the clarification!
This promo really made me sit up and take notice. Just a question on flight redemption:
Do you guys redeem 2 one way or redeem return?
better to do 2 one way. it is very ma fan to change ticket dates with lifemiles, especially after you’ve flown one leg alr. since one way is 50% of round trip you have nothing to lose.
I’ve a trip to SFO mid next year but i’ve yet to confirm the dates, very tempted to take this up. Found a couple of SQ n EVA combinations. So I at least can experience SQ on the SIN-TPE leg. Or should I wait for upcoming sales to minimise risk as well as hope for better promo?
i’d actually much more prefer to fly EVA than sq. if you take eva you will have a flat bed sin-tpe-sfo. if you fly SQ + EVA sq will operate its a330 to tpe with the regional J product.
A stupid question – how do check what kind of plane we are flying in? I flew business class to Barcelona on SQ378 on what I think is an old plane… the signs of age were showing with the rips in leather edges, no touch screen, etc. On the way back from Amsterdam I flew Cathay CX378 and it was a world of difference at least to me! Clearly a newer plane, better configuration and generally more comfortable. Generally, the entire experience on Cathay was much better from the plane to the business lounge down to the amenities kit. I… Read more »
Hi Aaron (and other readers),
If you use Lifemiles to redeem a flight with, say, ANA, are you provided with an ANA PNR ? (for seat assignments etc)
On a sidenote, it is interesting to read about what Singaporeans think of SQ J products. Many Australians (I live in Australia) love the SQ J hard product (especially the long haul flights ) and cabin service. Gotta say, the Thai business product looks great ! (Especially the A380 and A350 ones) and i have read excellent reviews of EVA and CX premium cabins.
yes, it’s just like any other booking. you can go on the ana website and select seats/special meals etc.
i have a mancrush on EVA. TG i’m a bit more indifferent (but their spa in bkk is a nice touch)
Hi Aaron,
Thank you for the very informative website. I am planning a family trip to europe in the last week of march. Flying to Barcelona and flying back from Geneva. When I checked the lifemiles, I did not get a single trip without flying with an economy class in one of the legs. Obviously I wanted the business class for the whole trip. With new mixed cabin, they seem to mix up the cabins eventhough we only want business class.
yeah, that’s unfortunate but another way of viewing it is this- before LM allowed mixed cabin redemptions you wouldn’t be seeing ANY options for business, full stop. now with mixed cabin yes you have some economy class legs but at least the options are there. for what it’s worth, if the long haul is in business and the short haul is in economy i’d still go for it. intra europe business class is a joke anyway, it’s economy with a blocked middle seat.
You are absolutely right but the options I am getting is economy for long haul and short haul business which defeats the purpose. I dont seem to find alternate routes/options on life miles redemption page. Is there another way of booking? If not, Life miles does not seem to be attractive at all for Europe.
Just bought 150k + bonus for whatever its worth with DBS altitude visa card. I do not see 3 miles/dollar on their website anywhere.
it counts as airline purchase because the merchant is avianca. altitude gives 3 miles for first $5k spend per month
Noob question- With my Lifemiles account, I can use my Lifemiles to redeem flights for both my spouse and myself right? Thanks for all you’ve done with this sharing. Am new to miles. 🙂
you could redeem miles for the queen of england if you wanted. final confirmation page lets you enter anyone’s name.
Hahaha!! Thanks so much. Off to purchase 60k miles now
Just a heads up, Lifemiles is having two for one sale now.. thats 200% bonus 😉
No, thats not correct. The current sale is 130 percent max tiered bonus. The base bonus is 100 percent which is your two for one. Depending on how much you buy you can get up to130
Oops Aaron, my bad. Looks like I misread the current promotion. Sorry!
no worries. the bonus system can be confusing sometimes. keep sending any tips you see!
So, just to confirm, the previous 140% promotion was better than the current promotion?
yes. the previous promo was buy a min of 5,000 and get 140% bonus. this one is get 130% bonus if you buy 101,000 miles or more.
argh…i missed the 140% promo 🙁
dont worry i’m sure it’ll come around again before long…
lifemiles sale on now
thanks- maxes out at 135% this time though…