Avianca LifeMiles is the loyalty program of Avianca Airlines. Still, even if you have never been to or plan to go to Latin America, it’s a loyalty program worth knowing about with its easy earning potential and low award rates. Avianca is a member of Star Alliance, and as one of Latin America’s largest airlines, it operates an extensive route network primarily from its main hubs in Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport (BOG) and San Salvador’s El Salvador International Airport Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (SAL).
Avianca flies to various cities in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Latin America. When business saver award space is available, you can find business-class award flights between North America and Europe from 70,000 miles on airlines like United, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Austrian, and Swiss.
And Avianca LifeMiles partners with major credit card reward programs. You can transfer from American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, Citi ThankYou Points, and Bilt Rewards LifeMiles to Avianca LifeMiles at a 1:1 ratio. Combined with its competitive redemption rates and lack of fuel surcharges on award tickets, LifeMiles is often regarded as a top choice for booking Star Alliance flights.
However, it’s important to note that Avianca LifeMiles can be notoriously challenging to use. The program is plagued by IT issues, unreliable customer service, and cumbersome processes for making changes or securing refunds. The website and mobile app frequently fail to display consistent award availability or complete basic transactions like purchasing miles. Additionally, there have been cases where miles were deducted without issuing tickets, leaving travelers stranded. Customer service is equally frustrating, with frequent transfers between departments, inconsistent fee policie,s and limited self-service tools. Refunds can take months, further adding to the program’s reputation for inefficiency.
If you’re willing to take the risk, LifeMiles can deliver excellent value. However, for a more reliable option to book Star Alliance award flights, consider alternatives like Air Canada Aeroplan or United MileagePlus — but be prepared to spend more miles potentially.
Avianca LifeMiles, launched in 2011, is one of Latin America’s most established loyalty programs. Free to join, it allows members to earn miles when flying with Avianca and its Star Alliance partners. However, the fastest way to earn LifeMiles is by transferring points from credit card programs, transferring miles between LifeMiles accounts or purchasing miles directly.
The program is most valuable for award travel, but LifeMiles operates a tiered elite status system — Red Plus, Silver, Gold, and Diamond — based on Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM). Members with elite status enjoy perks like priority boarding, lounge acces,s and additional baggage allowances.
LifeMiles uses an award chart for partner flights, which sets fixed pricing for available awards. However, navigating this chart can be tricky. Avianca divides the country into three regions for domestic U.S. flights operated by United Airlines. Economy fares range from 6,500 to 13,500 miles. The lowest redemption rates are typically within the same region, especially in Region 1, covering the East Coast. For international flights, LifeMiles offers excellent value with options like 6,500 miles for short-haul economy flights to Canada, 20,000 miles to Northern Europe (60,000 miles in business class) from the East Coast, and 40,000 miles to Australia (80,000 miles in business class).
Having redeemed close to a million LifeMiles over the years, I’ve learned how to maximize the program’s potential — benefiting from its lack of fuel surcharges and leveraging bonus mile promotions to enhance value. Let’s explore some of the program’s sweet spots.
Avianca has been part of Star Alliance since 2012. Here’s a list of Avianca’s current 24 Star Alliance partners:
Juneyao Air is a Star Alliance connecting partner.
In addition to the Star Alliance carriers, Avianca has three non-alliance partners.
Note that you can only earn and redeem LifeMiles on select non-alliance partner destinations.
Avianca LifeMiles uses Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) as the metric for earning elite status. The program offers four main elite status tiers:
Here are a few key features of the Avianca LifeMiles elite status program:
Here’s a closer look at what you can expect at each tier (we’ll highlight the main benefits):
You’ll earn Diamond status for life after maintaining Diamond status for 10 consecutive years.
LifeMiles offers numerous ways to earn miles both through flying and non-flying activities. Here are the primary methods to earn:
You can earn LifeMiles by flying with Avianca or its partner airlines.
On Avianca flights, you’ll generally earn LifeMiles based on the price of your ticket (excluding taxes and fees) and your elite status level:
For elite members, additional bonuses apply based on their status:
On Star Alliance and other partner airline flights, you’ll generally earn LifeMiles based on the distance you fly, fare class, and your elite status tier. The earning rates can vary, so it’s best to consult the Avianca LifeMiles website for specific details on each partner.
Avianca offers two personal credit cards in the U.S.
Avianca LifeMiles® American Express® Card
Avianca LifeMiles® American Express® Elite Card
LifeMiles+ is a fairly new subscription program. Members gain access to several perks that can accelerate the accumulation and use of LifeMiles. Among the most notable benefits is the 10% miles back on Star Alliance flight redemptions.
LifeMiles+ offers four subscription plans with different monthly miles and prices:
Avianca LifeMiles® American Express® Elite Card cardholders receive the discounted pricing.
Once you subscribe, you’re required to stay with LifeMiles+ for six months. You can read more about LifeMiles+ here.
Avianca LifeMiles partners with major transferable credit card points programs, including:
This means that you can transfer rewards from cards like The Platinum Card® from American Express, Capital One Venture X and Citi Strata Premier℠ Card to Avianca LifeMiles at a 1:1 ratio. Here’s a look at some of our favorite transferable reward credit cards with their sign-up bonuses that you can transfer to Avianca LifeMiles:
Additionally, Avianca LifeMiles frequently offers transfer bonuses, allowing you to receive more than 1 LifeMile per credit card occasionally point you transfer.
Buying Avianca LifeMiles can be a strategic way to get great deals on flights, especially when LifeMiles are on sale. Ordinarily, you can buy Avianca LifeMiles for 3.3 cents each before any discounts or bonuses. You can buy up to 200,000 LifeMiles per year (before any bonuses).
We’ve seen LifeMiles offer sales up to 185% bonus. That means that if you purchased 200,000 LifeMiles (pre-bonus) with a 185% bonus, you’d receive a total of 520,000 LifeMiles for $6,600, which is a cost of 1.27 cents per mile.
Considering that you can book flights to Europe in business class from 60,000 LifeMiles one-way, for example, buying LifeMiles can be a great way to save money on Star Alliance flights.
Just remember that you still have to pay the taxes and fees for your ticket — which tend to be around $100 on a business-class flight from the U.S. to Europe per person.
Purchasing LifeMiles without a specific plan is usually not advisable, but these sales can be a smart choice if you have a particular redemption in mind.
You can transfer up to 150,000 LifeMiles between accounts annually, with a limit of 125,000 miles per transaction. Transfers are priced at 1.5 cents per mile, and this option only applies to existing LifeMiles balances — credit card points cannot be transferred to other accounts through this method, and you cannot transfer miles you don’t already have.
LifeMiles frequently offers account transfer bonuses. For instance, in November 2024, LifeMiles offered a 125% bonus on transferred miles. Under this promotion, transferring 125,000 miles would result in the recipient receiving 281,500 miles for a cost of $1,875. That effectively reduces the cost of generating miles to 1.2 cents each. This can be a cost-efficient way to consolidate balances or prepare for a significant redemption.
You can also earn LifeMiles through car rental and hotel partnerships. For example, Avis offers 500 miles per rental, while Marriott provides up to 2 LifeMiles per dollar. If you need to top off your balance, you can convert hotel loyalty points to LifeMiles, though this isn’t the most efficient option. Additionally, booking portals like Booking.com and Kaligo.com allow you to earn up to 20 miles per dollar, while LifeMiles Experiences offers 2–3 LifeMiles per dollar on unique activities.
For those in Latin America, LifeMiles has retail and dining partners where you can earn up to 5 miles per dollar at select shops and up to 6 miles per dollar at restaurants.
Avianca LifeMiles offers lots of redemption options, but award flights typically provide the best value. Here are the main ways to use your LifeMiles.
As a whole, the LifeMiles redemption rates for travel on Avianca metal aren’t too exciting.
For example, you can book a one-way flight from Washington’s Dulles International Airport (IAD) to San Salvador for 18,500 LifeMiles and 31,700 LifeMiles in economy and business class, respectively.On a flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Medellín International Airport (MDE), expect to pay 22,400 and 39,200 LifeMiles in economy and business class.Avianca offers a basic, classic and flex fare on some economy award connecting itineraries. For example, on this flight from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Buenos Aires Ezeiza International Airport (EZE), economy class award rates range between 22,330 and 29,960 LifeMiles.
The real value of LifeMiles comes from partner award flights. With Star Alliance’s massive footprint, some creative ways exist to maximize LifeMiles. Here are some of our favorites:You can fly from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Frankfurt Airport (FRA) for 120,000 LifeMiles in first class on Lufthansa.This ticket would ordinarily cost over $13,000 using cash, representing over 11 cents per LifeMile in value.
There are also deals to be had in economy and business class awards from the U.S. to Europe. You can book this Swiss flight from Washington-Dulles to Zurich Airport (ZRH) for 35,000 LifeMiles in economy class and 69,000 LifeMiles in business class.On cash, economy class would cost $938, representing a redemption rate of roughly 2.5 cents per LifeMile.
Meanwhile, business class would cost $5,100, representing a redemption rate of around 7.2 cents per LifeMile.There’s also surprisingly good value to be had on short awards like this United flight from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) for 6,500 LifeMiles.Paying cash would cost $149, so you’d get around 2 cents per LifeMile.While award space is extremely hard to find, Australia awards like this one from San Francisco to Melbourne Airport (MEL), are another LifeMiles sweet spot at 40,000 and 80,000 LifeMiles in economy and business class, respectively.
Other ways to redeem LifeMiles
There are other ways to use LifeMiles like cabin upgrades on Avianca and access to the Avianca lounge, but as a whole, the best way to redeem LifeMiles remains on partner award flights.
Avianca LifeMiles expire after 12 months of inactivity. To keep your miles active, you must complete at least one qualifying activity, such as flying with Avianca or its partners, earning miles through hotel stays, or using an Avianca cobranded credit card. Elite members have an extended expiration period of 24 months, which resets with every qualifying activity.
Although transferring points from programs like American Express Membership Rewards does not officially extend the expiration of LifeMiles, anecdotal evidence suggests this action may still reset the clock. However, this isn’t guaranteed, so it’s best not to rely solely on transfers to extend your LifeMiles.
If your miles do expire, you can reinstate them for $10 per 1,000 miles. Reinstatements must be done in increments of 1,000 miles, and there’s no limit on the total number of miles you can recover.
Avianca LifeMiles remains arguably the least expensive option for buying Star Alliance award tickets with competitive redemption rates, a wide range of airline partners, no fuel surcharges on award flights, and frequent transfer bonuses and sales for buying LifeMiles.
However, its notorious IT issues, unreliable customer service, and cumbersome processes may make it a frustrating choice for some. If you’re willing to navigate these challenges, LifeMiles can be a powerful tool for affordable award travel. For a more seamless experience, consider alternatives like Air Canada Aeroplan or United MileagePlus, but be prepared for higher mileage costs.
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