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If you have no accrual activity on your account in 12 months, your LifeMiles balance will expire. 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.”
Exceptions To The Expiration Policy
While the normal expiration deadline is 12 months, there are two distinct exceptions to that rule:
- Avianca elite members have their mileage validity extended by 24 months every time they earn miles on their account.
- Spending on the Avianca Vida Visa® Card or Avianca Vuela Visa® Card resets your miles' validity by 24 months.
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, Star Alliance partners, Aeromexico, or Iberia.
- Stay with hotel partners, including Marriot Bonvoy, IHG, and Best Western Rewards.
- Earn miles for your next car rental with partners including Hertz, Avis, National, and Budget.
- Spend on the Avianca Vuela Visa or Avianca Vida Visa.
- Shop or dine at a host of partners in Latin and South America.
One thing worth noting is that, according to the rules, transferring credit card points to LifeMiles does not count towards extending the validity of your miles. You can transfer Capital One Miles, Citi ThankYou Points, Brex Rewards, and American Express Membership Rewards to Avianca LifeMiles at 1:1 ratios. You can also transfer Marriot Bonvoy points to LifeMiles at a ratio of 3:1.
We have found this rule not to be enforced. Transferring points to LifeMiles might extend your mileage validity, but it's not a guarantee. However, it is worth keeping this as an option if you can't easily generate other activity.
Reinstating LifeMiles After They Expire
With only 12 months to stop your miles from expiring, the risk of it happening is greater than with other programs. If that happens, you can buy back your LifeMiles after they expire — for a price. Avianca LifeMiles can be reinstated for $10 per 1,000 miles. Miles are reinstated in blocks of 1,000, and there are no limits on how many can be reinstated.
Our Take
Avianca LifeMiles is one of the strongest Star Alliance programs and does offer some excellent sweet spots on redemptions. They also have some excellent miles purchase sales.
However, a notable downside is the short mileage expiration policy. It's much shorter than most of its competitors. That being said, if you are regularly traveling and accruing miles and are confident that you will not be caught out with the 12-month expiration deadline, then LifeMiles are a great option to include as part of your travel rewards strategy.
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.
I just transferred 1k miles from ThankYou points over to Avianca. It didn’t extend this time (hopefully it will as JT Genter says). It did extend last time I transferred some miles over.
Hi, I just bought 1K LifeMiles for $33 to extend my 126K miles that expire 30 August 22. It did not change the expiration date for another yr. Should it have updated immediately or does it take a few days? Also, do I have to fly by 30 August 22 or just book something for the future ? thank you
I had a similar issue when transferring points into my wife’s LifeMiles account. The expiration date didn’t update for a week or two, but it eventually did. But, if your miles were still set to expire on August 30, you’d only need to redeem by that date – not travel by then.
Does transferring Marriott points to Avianca extend your expiration?
Alexander – we don’t have any data on it, but considering it worked with other points I would be willing to risk it if I had points expiring and wanted to save them. That’s just me.