Avianca LifeMiles Expiration: What To Know About Avianca's Strict Expiration Policy

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Avianca is the flag carrier of Colombia and one of the largest airlines in South America. If you're traveling throughout Central or South America, odds are you'll take an Avianca flight, which means you will earn LifeMiles.

Avianca LifeMiles can be an incredibly valuable loyalty program, offering great sweet spots — especially when booking Star Alliance partner awards. Unfortunately, while Avianca LifeMiles can provide great value, its expiration policy isn't the most generous. However, with some proper planning around account activity, it is relatively simple to keep your mileage balance active.

Here's what to know about Avianca LifeMiles' expiration policy.

Do LifeMiles Expire?

Your Avianca LifeMiles will expire if you have no accrual activity for 12 months. Per the LifeMiles Help Center page:

“Just make one accrual transaction every 12 months, and the validity of all the LifeMiles in your account will extend for a minimum of 12 months.”

However, Avianca elites and co-branded credit card holders have slightly different point expiration rules. Avianca elite members can extend their mileage validity by 24 months every time they earn miles on their account. Similarly, earning on Avianca co-branded cards — including the avianca lifemiles American Express^® Card and avianca lifemiles American Express^® Elite Card — resets your miles' validity by 24 months.

Considering that the avianca American Express Elite Card comes with a complimentary LifeMiles+ membership, which provides 500 bonus miles every single month, your miles essentially never expire.

avianca lifemiles American Express^® Elite Card

Welcome Bonus Get up to 100,000 Welcome bonus miles* — 60,000 miles after spending $4,500 in the first 90 days plus an additional 40,000 miles after spending $25,000 in the first 365 days.

How to Apply

Annual Fee

$249

• Earn 3x miles on avianca or lifemiles purchases
• Earn 2x miles on restaurant and other travel purchases
• Earn 1x on all other eligible purchases

avianca lifemiles American Express^® Card

Welcome Bonus Get 40,000 Welcome bonus miles* after spending $3,000 in the first 90 days.

How to Apply

Annual Fee

$99

• 2x miles on avianca or lifemiles purchases
• 2x miles on groceries and restaurant purchases
• 1x on all other eligible purchases

Reinstating LifeMiles after they expire

With such a strict expiration policy, the risk of expiration is greater than with other programs. If that happens, you can buy back your LifeMiles after they expire — for a price, of course. You can reinstate your expired Avianca LifeMiles for $10 per 1,000 miles. Miles are reinstated in blocks of 1,000, with no limit on how many you can reinstate.

While this is cheaper than buying LifeMiles, we strongly recommend doing everything you can to prevent your miles from expiring in the first place.

Ways To Keep Your Miles Valid

Earning LifeMiles in any of the following ways will extend the validity of your mileage balance:

• Fly with Avianca or on its Star Alliance and non-alliance partners, then credit a flight to LifeMiles.
• Stay with hotel partners, including Marriott Bonvoy, IHG, and Best Western Rewards.
• Earn LifeMiles for your next car rental with partners including Hertz, Avis, National, and Budget.
• Spend on an Avianca co-branded credit card.
• Shop or dine at a host of partners in Latin and South America.

One thing to note: under the rules, transferring credit card points or points from hotel transfer partners to LifeMiles does not extend the validity of your miles. For context, you can transfer the following points to LifeMiles:

That said, we've noticed this rule isn't always enforced, and transferring points often counts as a qualifying activity that resets your Avianca LifeMiles expiration date. It's not guaranteed, but it is worth keeping as an option if you can't easily generate other activity.

As a worst-case scenario, if your miles are expiring soon but you don't have enough miles to book an award redemption, you can transfer some points to your LifeMiles account. Check whether your expiration date has reset. If not, book a flight using your entire mileage balance.

Use AwardWallet To Track Avianca LifeMiles Expiration

With such a short points expiration window, it pays to keep a close eye on your Avianca LifeMiles expiration. While we might be biased, AwardWallet is the best expiration tracking tool. To enable AwardWallet to track your LifeMiles balance, link your Avianca account. This way, you'll get a timely reminder if any miles are close to expiring.

Track your points and miles expiration for 600+ loyalty programs and get email alerts before your miles expire by signing up for a free AwardWallet account.

Related: How To Track Your Rewards Using AwardWallet

Our Take

Avianca LifeMiles is one of the strongest Star Alliance programs and offers some excellent sweet spots. You might even be able to save miles by booking United flights through LifeMiles.

However, a notable downside is the short mileage expiration policy. It's much shorter than most of the other expiration policies we track. That said, if you are confident you'll earn LifeMiles at least once every 12 months, it can be a solid part of your travel rewards strategy.