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LifeMiles just improved its latest buy miles promotion. Now through May 30, 2023, you can buy LifeMiles with a 145% bonus — or 165% bonus when registering through a special link. When maximized, you can use this offer to buy LifeMiles for as little as 1.25¢ per mile.
It's not the best LifeMiles promotion ever, but it could be worth it in some situations. Here are some times when buying LifeMiles at 1.25¢ could make sense.
Note on Buying Miles
We don't recommend buying miles without a discount or a plan to use them. For most miles and points currencies, you're much better off building your stash for free through credit-card earnings and transfer partners.
There are a couple of exceptions, though. When you can buy miles at a deep discount, it can make sense to do so if you can book a lucrative award redemption instead of paying for an expensive cash ticket. Moreover, if you only need a few more miles to complete that next, great redemption you're eyeing, purchasing miles can be the quickest, simplest way. Just make sure you do the math ahead of time to ensure you're achieving a value you're comfortable with.
It's also worth noting that Avianca recently completed a re-organizational bankruptcy. LifeMiles is a separate legal entity from Avianca. However, if Avianca were to get into financial trouble again, the value of LifeMiles could be significantly affected if Avianca were to cease to operate and lose its Star Alliance partners.
Buy LifeMiles Key Terms
- Buy LifeMiles promotion valid through May 30, 2023
- The highest tier in the publicly available promotion offers a 145% bonus — but you can get up to a 165% bonus by registering through this link for One Mile At A Time readers.
- Buy at least 1,000 LifeMiles and receive 125% bonus miles — or 145% after registering through the OMAAT link.
- Members can buy miles in increments of 1,000 LifeMiles.
- The maximum number of miles you can buy in a year is 200,000 miles. If you buy the maximum during this promotion, you will receive a total of 500,000 LifeMiles (200,000 purchases miles + 165% bonus).
The maximum number of miles you can purchase in one transaction to qualify for the 165% bonus is 200,000 miles. This will set you back $6,600 for a total of 530,000 LifeMiles = 1.25¢ per mile.
This is a tiered promotion. If you register through the OMAAT link, bonuses apply as follows:
- 1,000-20,000 miles purchased: 145% bonus.
- 21,000-50,000 miles purchased: 155% bonus.
- 51,000-200,000 miles purchased: 165% bonus.
Data points from AwardWallet users show that points purchases typically arrive within an hour.
When Does Buying Avianca LifeMiles Make Sense?
Thanks to a reasonable award chart and minimal fees and surcharges, LifeMiles is among our favorite airline currencies for premium-class redemptions across the globe. As the currency of Avianca, Colombia's flag carrier, LifeMiles can be used for award bookings on any of the airline's Star Alliance partners. That includes partners with fabulous premium products like Lufthansa, All Nippon Airways (ANA), and EVA.
Let's take a look at some of our favorite sweet spots of the program to demonstrate the kind of value possible when buying LifeMiles for 1.25¢ apiece.
Domestic Flights on United
Perhaps one of the best uses of LifeMiles for many travelers is simply getting a decent mileage price on a domestic United flight. LifeMiles charges as few as 6,500 miles one-way for an economy award on United. By maximizing this sale, you can pay just $86 to get enough miles to book one of these awards.
- Mileage Rate: from 6,500 LifeMiles each way ($5.60 taxes)
- One-way cost to purchase miles (at 1.25¢ each): from $81 each way
- Round-trip cost to purchase miles (at 1.25¢ each): from $162 round trip
Los Angeles — Tokyo in ANA First Class
- Mileage Rate: 90,000 LifeMiles each way ($5.60 taxes from LAX-HND, $49.80 taxes from HND-LAX)
- Typical Cash Price: $19,769 round-trip
- Redemption Rate: 11 cents per mile (based on a round-trip booking, after taxes)
- One-way cost to purchase necessary miles (at 1.25¢ each): $1,121 each way
- Round-trip cost to purchase miles (at 1.25¢ each): $2,242 round trip
Chicago — Zurich in Swiss Business Class
- Mileage Rate: 63,000 LifeMiles each way ($5.60 taxes from ORD-ZRH, $53.21 taxes from ZRH-ORD)
- Typical Cash Price: $3,202 round-trip
- Redemption Rate: 2.5 cents per mile (based on a round-trip booking)
- One-way cost to purchase necessary miles (at 1.25¢ each): $785 each way
- Round-trip cost to purchase miles (at 1.25¢ each): $1,569 round trip
Washington D.C. — Dubai in Turkish Business Class
- Mileage Rate: 78,000 LifeMiles each way ($12.91 taxes from IAD-DXB, $55.04 taxes from DXB-IAD)
- Typical Cash Price: $3,762 round-trip
- Redemption Rate: 2.4 cents per mile (based on a round-trip booking)
- One-Way Cost to Purchase Necessary Miles (at 1.25¢ each): $971 each way
- Round-Trip Cost to Purchase Miles (at 1.25¢ each): $1,943 round trip
Maximize Your Purchase
Most programs sell points and miles through Points.com. LifeMiles is an exception, however, and sells its miles directly. Thus, these purchases should code as “travel” or “airline” on credit cards where these are bonus categories. Use these cards to maximize your purchase:
- The Platinum Card® from American Express: Earn 5X Membership Rewards points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel — up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year, then 1X.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®: Earn 3X Ultimate Rewards points on anything that codes as travel after exhausting the $300 annual travel credit (which applies automatically to the first eligible purchases).
- Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card: Earn 3X Ultimate Rewards points on the first $150,000 of annual spending across bonus categories, one of which is travel; earn 1X after passing this spending limit.
- Citi Premier® Card: Earn 3X ThankYou points on travel and transit purchases.
Related: Which Credit Card Should You Use to Buy Points and Miles?
Other Ways to Earn Avianca LifeMiles
While cheap miles are great, an even cheaper way to grow your collection of LifeMiles is by converting flexible bank currencies. Avianca partners with multiple transferrable currencies:
- American Express Membership Rewards: 1:1 transfer rate; most transfers process immediately
- Brex Rewards: 3:2 transfer rate; most transfers process immediately
- Capital One Rewards: 1:1 transfer rate; most transfers process immediately
- Citi ThankYou Points: 1:1 transfer rate; most transfers process immediately
- Marriott Bonvoy: 3:1 transfer rate; most transfers take one day
Note that Marriott Bonvoy ended its longstanding 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 Bonvoy points transferred to LifeMiles.
Final Thoughts
The best-ever buy LifeMiles offer we've ever seen offered miles for just 1.2¢ each. So this current deal is very nearly the best we've ever seen. You can easily get more than 1.25¢ of value through LifeMiles' award chart. The question is just if you're willing to put up with the frustrations of the LifeMiles program.
Are you going to buy Avianca LifeMiles with a 165% bonus?
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Muy bueno, a probar
Genial, ya mismo veo opciones.
Como puedo no perder las millas de American?
We have a dedicated post on that topic here: https://awardwallet.com/blog/american-airlines-miles-expire/
Muy buenas propuestas a emitir entonces
This looks like a pretty good deal.
I have traveled in business class with these types of promotions. I suggest looking for availability, buying miles, and redeeming immediately. Great opportunity!
This is clearly an opportunity to seize. I love flying by avianca, the entertainment is very good and comfortable.
It was a nightmare to deal with LifeMiles support… but at least I got a great deal to fly LHs First Class…
Hi SPiKA What kind of problemdid you have in order to need to call LifeMiles support?
It looks like a great promotion if you have immediate plans and book the flight with it. Nice airline, specially to go the Caribbean.
Now with a bonus like this it might actually be worth it
Due to the Covid pandemic, all airlines should extend its expiration date until the situation is completely normalized. I would love for it to come true.
175% bonus, now we are talking! Wish the other airlines would follow suit
Great timing. I just realized that redemptions don’t extend lifemiles expiration, only additions so need to buy some before the end of the year.
This is a phenomenal price. If you have a booking it is very worth buying this.
I love my Avanca miles! Earning and burning in really easy and even better with the pandemic passing on.
170% it’s a big opportunity to take advantage. I also tried American Express 1:1 transfer ratio and it was smoothy.
1.22 cents for a mile is a super price
Might be a cheap way to try ANA first if Japan ever re-opens
My fear remains the same. Step 1: Pandemic limits travel company’s value. Step 2: Find revenue by selling miles. Step 3: Devalue miles 1 year later. Buying miles just isn’t worth it right now except for trips you are booking right now.
You’d have to wonder why airlines would offer 150% bonus then you know that they are charging too much per mile!
Great way to access cheap partner rewards, but there’s been better bonuses, I think.
I’m always intrigued when these deals come about, but never quite see the value. It’s still a $2000+ ticket, which I typically wouldn’t buy unless I was earning bonus miles/chasing status, which this wouldn’t help.
Not the best bonus, not the worst. I’m personally waiting for the next gift transfer bonus, so I can consolidate some accounts.
Thankfully, Lifemiles has extended the expiration of all accounts to end 2021.
Not the best offer of LifeMiles.
I’m waiting for the next one.
First check flight availability at Lifemiles website.
Good to redemption to the middle east in first classs.
Great opportunity to stock up on some valuable miles if you wanna fly in the Star Alliance. Lifemiles is one of the best partner programs for Star Alliance flights.
We are not talking about an airline anymore; it is no different from Rakuten, Mypoints, etc., actually.
Wait for a better bonus unless you have an immediate need, I’d say. Even then, there are probably better ways to obtain LifeMiles.
Even in a pandemic, do not the expiration dates of the miles extend a little more?
Bought miles and it posted immediately but expiration date remain the same no extension!
That does not sound correct at all. A purchase should extend the expiration date. Perhaps, you checked too quickly? If not, you should definitely call. I predict they will help and correct it for you.
My miles was set to expire end of June so I will buy some to extend the expiration for another 12 months. Lately, it become so difficult to find Buss. award seat from Southeast Asia to US, even for domestic flight from West coast to East (or reverse) result on calendar always shown blank!
This isn’t actually the best buy miles promotion LifeMiles has ever had. Back in Dec 2020 it was a little better. I bought 100K miles and received 200K miles as a bonus, for a total of 300,000 miles — at 1.1 CPP.
Itching to travel and very tempted. I’ve never used Lifemiles and this could be an opportunity to try it but am still a little wary about the airlines bankruptcy issue. Might be worthwhile to start with a smallish purchase and wait for international travel to open up a little more before investing in more Lifemiles.
I’m tempted to buy as I’ve almost finished my Avianca miles.
I’ll decide some days before the expiration of the promotion.
LM keeps offering these great promotions, but they only matter if the miles can be redeemed on *A airlines. With Avianca bankrupt, I’m not sure if other airlines would accept their miles and without that LM is useless, even if it’s technically a separate entity. Does anyone have a recent experience of flying (not just booking) *A flights using LM?
My experience with Avianca ticketing a Swiss flight:
Swiss had schedule change on short segment of ZUR to CDG and canceled itinerary sending it back to Avianca to rebook.
Avianca did not inform me for a week by which time all reasonable business class redemptions during time period I need to fly were gone.
The Avianca agent told me that refunds take at least three months and they were assessing a point redeposit fee and deducting it from my refund even though the cancelation of due to their bad customer service in failing to contact me immediately to rebook the short segment of itinerary.
I filed a dispute and expect Chase to agree with me.
Avianca says you can make ticket changes online are false. You can not make changes on Avianca partner tickets.
It is nearly impossible to reach an Avianca agent. Expect hold times over an hour and repeated disconnects.
Then the agent or bad IT system will fail to complete transaction.
I fear that this sale at this discount means Avianca may be planning bankrupting the LifeMiles program shortly and the 180K in points I have stuck there will shortly be lost.
Based solely on my own experience I accurately describe Avianca as the airline where the inept report to the unethical.
Seems most of the responses are positive. I won’t be in the market now, but might need to check out LifeMiles closer in the future.
… sometime in the distant future, if the airline still around 🙂
Very attractive offer from Lifemiles. Lifemiles are a great way to book STAR alliance flights all over the world. I once flew my son to Latvia on Lifemiles….it’s a great program!
1.2c is a nice deal. Seems like the points are at full value.
That is a good deal! Plenty of options to use the LifeMiles! Thank you
Swiss business class with paid points seems like a great opportunity. Haven’t bought life miles previously, but this is certainly a prompt!
I do love Lifemiles (and this has been a perfect way to extend my miles expiration with them), plus their interface allows proper mix and match segment by segment. But availablilty is all over the place!
Great post. Thanks You
We love AwardWallet and it is an easy way to keep AA miles from expiring. Thanks
Tempting offer but as someone based in Canada and the tight expiration period, it may be best for me to pass on it this time.
I’ve been getting great value from Lifemiles. It’s a little quirky to book and use them, though.
The purchase of miles is complicated for those of us who are outside the United States, the travel bans continue, but the offer is very tempting. The issue of airline bankruptcy should be well analyzed, I think. Greetings.
good deal, but unfortunately nothing like the hay days of double points – possible could be worth revisiting especially under Covid times
I’ve been focusing more on lifemiles since other Star Alliance partners have devaluated their programs in recent years.
Last time the bonus was 200% if I remember well.
Anyway, I could buy just 1000 miles to postpone the expiration of my miles.
lifemiles was already better. for being part of the star alliance, it is an advantage.
Yes, agreed this is a method to maintaining one’s miles from expiring! Thank you for posting
Good deal!. But maybe just buy small for extending expiry date.
My fear remains the same. Step 1: Pandemic limits travel company’s value. Step 2: Find revenue by selling miles. Step 3: Devalue miles 1 year later. Buying miles just isn’t worth it right now except for trips you are booking right now.
This is simply a great deal. At 1.1c a mile, you are not only breaking even, but charging it to your credit card means you can get extra points on your preferred rewards card. Great to do if only to keep your miles from expiring!
There are lots of risks… first and foremost the seller is a financially shaky airline
With covid 19 and a drastic decrease in flights worldwide, airlines have been heavily indebted to airplanes on the ground and many are using the strategy of encouraging customers to reactivate miles. Today I think it’s a risk because we don’t know which companies will survive, I would only do that if I was sure of returning to flights and also of the financial health of the company that I did reactivating the miles
Very attractive deal but their website is pathetic and it is very difficult to navigate for award ticket on star alliance
I will pass.
Thanks but no thanks
Its a nice deal but only if you are sure you are flying soon otherwise you never know if they will devalue those Avianca LifeMiles again
This is a great way to keep your account active too since you can buy as few as 1,000 miles and still get the 2x bonus. Usually to get the full bonus they require a much bigger purchase.
Patrick, thanks for this great post!
The examples you gave are ridiculous lower compared to the typical cash price. I am a bit skeptical about mileage programs and buying miles with cash, but I think it is an interesting option to consider looking at these examples
Even after devaluations, Lifemiles could make sense if you have high degree of certainty of flying. I’d not buy speculatively, especially since it’s unclear to me whether Avianca folds entirely before I get to use them
Thanks for this write-up, Patrick. I’m thinking about buying some LifeMiles for a post-covid flight in ANA F to HND. Avianca’s site shows limited availability next fall. Does anyone have anecdotal data points regarding the ease/difficulty of rescheduling via Avianca? I’ve never used them for an award booking before.
Thanks for including the cost to purchase miles per segment. I’ve done the math in my head and decided against purchasing in the past, but seeing it in print crystallizes my assumptions. I have paid ~$1600 for a business class flight, but that was in part due to the huge mileage and status earnings. I can’t justify that cost without those benefits, especially in these times.
Boy, they are trying to raise money and then some. However they just seem to be creating a huge debt on their books. This would be a terrific deal for someone if they can actually use these points in the next few months. Otherwise it’s just a huge risk. I certainly see devaluation coming
Loyalty programs being a money maker again. In most companies, they are separated entities so if the airline collapses, they remain alive.
This airline seems to be in the business of selling miles more than flying an airline. It seems like the airline business is a money loser but the loyalty programs are a money maker.
Lots of promotions but I am too afraid to get on a flight 🙁
LifeMiles used to be very good award option before the award charts were devalued few times. You can still can find LifeMiles useful to utilize for certain routings.
You can tell if you’re targeted by entering the number of miles you’d like to purchase and seeing if a 200% bonus is reflected on the checkout screen.
I will not buy any miles during this COVID season. Avianca is now in chapter 11 and I think they are trying to make some cash quick.
It is a very tempting offer! Even though the situation not isn’t the best for travelling one could use the point and book something next year when things are slowly getting back to normal.
This is certainly a very tempting offer, but i’m already sitting on around 300K Lifemiles and given the COVID situation and Avianca’s financial situation, i would prefer to use my current stash before collecting more LM
Excellent promo!!! Wish AA or AF do the same thing
Now if only AA would offer this kind of deal.
I would like to buy some LM miles but i am afraid it’s will be expiry as Covid-19 . Hope that bad virus gone asap. So want to go to travel now!!!
Avianca website is not showing Turkish Airlines option on LifeMiles website. Turkish cannot be booked using LM anymore? :/
I haven’t heard of any changes there. Maybe it’s just a temporary website issue. Booking by phone with Avianca isn’t much fun, but it should be a workaround for an urgent booking.
I’ve checked several dates, but TK is not showing anywhere. Not under Star, not even in Smart Search, all other airlines are there but not TK. Can you check?
Hi there. I’m sorry for the delay getting back to you. I’m seeing results for TK via lifemiles for May 11, 2021 (IST-FRA). I suppose maybe they are limiting some routes or schedules have been blocked due to COVID restrictions. Regardless, I don’t think there is a long term change happening with TK bookings using lifemiles.
I just check for some think and Turkish was available for my search
@Phillip
Which sector have you checked? My decision totally depends on this because for me Turkish is only option.
this is really tempting but I’m still sitting on a pile of Lifemiles that due to the current situation won’t be put to use so soon as I would hope……
I think that Avianca would like people to buy but NOT redeem.
I’m very tempted to buy at the 25K level (equates to 75K with the bonus) but I obviously still has qualms about it given Avianca’s current financial state (they may be separate from LifeMiles but it’s still something to consider)
Wow so they are backstabbing people who bought miles just a couple of months ago with a substantially lower bonus?
They should at least provide refunds to those who bought the miles with a higher cost so they can re-purchase them with a better bonus this time.
I will be buy some points cause it’s very cheap and very useful to redeem Star Alliance Flight and very useful to redeem business class flight ticket. Great!
Another dangling carrot.
I’d love to be a buyer but can’t see myself planning any travel for quite a while yet.
I am not planning on buying any Life Miles.
Who knows when Americans will be able to book travel to Europe again?
It was a good deal sadly I saw late the article… but be aware Avianca’s situation is not ok at all in Brazil and Peru they declared bankruptcy… despite the LifeMiles program is a separate business from the Avianca’s holding it could be drastically impacted in the future.
Avianca applied for bankruptcy.
Do keep in mind that LifeMiles is a separate entity from Avianca the airline. It’s certainly true that the loyalty program could be negatively impacted in the future. It’s probably wise to pass unless you can use the miles in the near future.
This is an amazing deal. I can see why it might be a good idea to buy miles even if I’m not traveling. I’m curious on their strategy of the large bonus. Wondering if this will devalue their miles or not.
I’ve bought the minimum amount: 1000+1550 miles for 33 USD.
This also in order to extend the validity of the miles I have with Aviance LifeMiles.
it’s confirmed Expiration date Jun 30, 2021, 12 m after this purchase.
not bad to extend miles.
I have no present need for this so I will be passing on this deal.
Gracias por la información!
I usually don’t buy miles, but I’ll see if it makes sense here!
It’s interesting to purchase miles when you don’t have enough from credit card usage and it’s cheaper to complement instead of dealing with the full price ticket. I may be do it when things get better.
This has always been a program that can definitely be used to advantage but this is just not the right time for me.
Since the best value comes from redemptions for business class flights, the difficulty of finding those seats makes it not such a great deal as it initially seems.
As a general rule of thumb: If it’s an amazing deal but you don’t need it = it’s a bad deal.
But if you have an upcoming trip planned, this seems like an amazing deal! Their last promotion was for a 40% bonus ($0.01375 per mile), so this is 6% better than their previous deal!
While a seemingly nice bonus at 155%, buying miles from an airline that has filed for bankruptcy seems like a risky move to me.
After purchase, the Expiration date is not extended but still the same .
This is very very strange .
It is too bad that you cannot redeem LH Group first class awards unless you are a top-tier M&M member nowadays.
LM have communicated in writing that they will keep the award chart. So not just a promise to OMAAT.
Why on earth are you showing the mileage rates for one-way but the cash price for round trip?
Don’t worry, we were comparing apples and apples! The mileage bookings can be booked as one-ways, so we wanted to show the one-way rates. For the cash fares, the round-trip prices are better than booking one-way. We based the redemption rate calculation off of the round-trip cash price and round-trip miles price. However, I clarified in the post to show how we got to these numbers.
i so want to take this deal -its great value! but worried that miles will become useless if avianca go bankrupt..any advice?
Well, Avianca has already filed for bankruptcy. Thankfully, LifeMiles is a separate entity, so there’s some separation. Still, I’d only be buying LifeMiles if there was an award I was ready to book with LifeMiles.