LifeMiles on sale with 145% bonus, plus discounted Star Alliance awards

Buy LifeMiles at 1.35 US cents each and redeem discounted First and Business Class Star Alliance awards.

LifeMiles is the frequent flyer program of Avianca, a member of Star Alliance. It runs frequent mileage sales and is a good way of getting discounted First and Business Class tickets, if you can find award space.

From now till 1 August 2019, 2pm SGT, LifeMiles is offering up to a 145% bonus on miles purchases to members who register via this link. This promotion is targeted at readers of OMAAT, but really, anyone can register.

Buy LifeMiles at up to a 145% bonus here

Here’s how the bonus tiers, and your effective price per mile

  • 1,000-10,000 LifeMiles: 105% bonus, or 1.61 US cents/mile
  • 11,000-50,000 LifeMiles: 110% bonus, or 1.57 US cents/mile
  • 51,000-100,000 LifeMiles: 135% bonus, or 1.40 US cents/mile
  • 101,000-200,000 LifeMiles: 145% bonus, or 1.35 US cents/mile

LifeMiles purchases are processed directly by Avianca in USD, meaning that they code as foreign currency airfare spend. You’ll want to use one of the following cards to maximize the miles you earn:

  • UOB Visa Signature: 4 mpd, with min $1K max $2K foreign currency spend in a statement period
  • DBS Woman’s World Card: 4 mpd, max $2K spend per month
  • SCB Visa Infinite: 3 mpd, with min $2K total spend in a statement period
  • BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard: 3 mpd, no cap or minimum spend
  • DBS Altitude Visa/DBS Altitude AMEX: 3 mpd, capped at $5K spend per month

The usual caveats about buying LifeMiles apply:

  • Don’t buy them speculatively. Only buy them if you have a confirmed trip in mind and have found award space on LifeMiles (you don’t need to have any miles in your account to search for award space)
  • You can’t redeem Singapore Airlines First or Business Class cabins on selected routes with LifeMiles
  • LifeMiles may not see the same award space as other Star Alliance partners. Just because you see something on Aeroplan or United doesn’t necessarily mean it will appear on LifeMiles
  • All changes and cancellations must be done through the Avianca call centre; they cannot be done online. It costs between US$100-200 to cancel an award ticket, depending on your origin and destination

LifeMiles expire after 12 months of account inactivity, but you shouldn’t be holding on to them for that long anyway, especially if you’re concerned about Avianca’s US$68M Q1 2019 loss and its bond downgrade.

That said, it’s important to remember that (1) LifeMiles is a separate legal entity from Avianca, and has a stable credit outlook from Moody’s and (2) the program’s financial future is only of concern to you if you’re holding on to LifeMiles, which you shouldn’t be in the first place.

You can buy a maximum of 200,000 LifeMiles each year (pre-bonus), and LifeMiles tickets can be redeemed for anyone you choose. There are no fuel surcharges on LifeMiles redemptions.

LifeMiles award space issues

I use LifeMiles every now and then, and one of the things I’ve noticed is that award availability seems to have shrunk. I can’t say for sure whether it’s just poor engine design or deliberate award blocking, because it is possible to force LifeMiles to show results that don’t show up the first time round.

For example, in the example below I’ve searched for SIN-LAX, but only see Economy Class options.

However, I know from searching Aeroplan that there are Business Class options available that day on Air China. So I toggle the search mode from “Smart Search” to “Air China”…

…and lo and behold, award space shows up

Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn’t. What it does suggest is that you should always start searching on a “better” site like Aeroplan or ANA, then come to LifeMiles to try and book the flight.

Get 10-31% off selected Star Alliance redemptions

In addition to the sale, LifeMiles is offering 10-31% off selected Star Alliance redemptions made by 15 August 2pm SGT. Your travel can be after this date, but you will need to ticket your award before then.

Here’s the full list of city pairings available. There are two destinations available out of/into Singapore:

BusinessEconomy
SIN-HKG (and vv.)36 32.4KN/A
SIN-NRT (and vv.)36 31K19 15.5K

These discounts will be automatically applied when you search for award space.

Although there aren’t any long haul destinations available ex-SIN, it may be worth looking at whether positioning yourself to Hong Kong can make sense, because LAX and SFO are available at 64K miles respectively for one-way Business Class, instead of the usual 75K.

Conclusion

I certainly wouldn’t buy LifeMiles speculatively, but if you can find the award space you need, it can definitely work for you.

If you’re new to the miles and points game, it may be good to spend some time learning the ropes about intra-Alliance redemptions and buying miles before taking the plunge- i.e. if you’re the sort who asks “can I transfer LifeMiles to KrisFlyer” then this definitely isn’t a promotion for you.

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

Similar Articles

Comments

10 COMMENTS

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

10 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Kshitij Gopal

Aaron, how many mileage programs are you invested in? I’d call myself between amateur and moderate milehunter, but thus far I’ve restricted myself to Krisflyer simply for mental ease. Keen to understand your overall strategy.

Boris

I have the same as Aaron but instead of “alaksa”, I have no laksa, instead I have A3.

freedom

Miles+Bonus has some sweetspots on StarAlliance Carrier. Hope it sells 100% bonus miles this year. Credit your StarAlliance flights to A3 if it earns more or the same miles. A3 also has better expiry policy, not mentioning that it is easier to achieve StarAlliance gold.

21K miles for SQ biz from AKL-SIN. Even better than the cheapest Krisflyer Spontaneous Escapes.

Misono

Can’t find any redemptions for SG to Japan though. 🙁

Cappy Hamper

There’s actually a lot of award space- but in economy, making it not value-for-money. Lifemiles used to be a good programme for business class redemptions until they decided to neuter it.

thor

try Alaska Airlines for redemption to Japan 😉

thor

I have made a lifemiles award redemption for SIN-JFK business (via SQ/Asiana). Pretty good value (just USD 1053) with the latest 145% bonus sale. Now that i’ve made my redemption, i would like to select seat and BTC for my upcoming flights. Does anyone know how i can go about doing that? Lifemiles doesn’t provide the booking reference codes for partner airlines, and without the reference codes, i can’t locate the bookings on SQ and Asiana websites.

Daniel

You should receive a booking itinerary with some Eticket number

CREDIT CARD SIGN UP BONUSES

Advertisment

Featured Deals

Advertisment

Follow us

7,110FansLike
10,408FollowersFollow

TAGS