Do Avianca LifeMiles Expire? Do Avianca LifeMiles Expire?

Do Avianca LifeMiles Expire?

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Avianca is the flag carrier of Colombia and one of the largest airlines in South America. The airline loyalty program LifeMiles is one of the most rewarding, especially when it comes to using LifeMiles to book Star Alliance partner awards.

Unfortunately, while Avianca LifeMiles can provide great value, the airline does not have the most generous mileage expiration policy. However, with some proper planning, it is relatively simple to keep your mileage balance active.

Do LifeMiles Expire?

Your Avianca LifeMiles will expire if you have no accrual activity on your account for a period of 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.”

Track your points and miles expiration for 630+ loyalty programs and get email alerts before your miles expire by signing up for a free AwardWallet account.

Exceptions to The Expiration Policy

While the normal expiration deadline is 12 months, there are two distinct exceptions to that rule:

an Avianca plane takes off
Credit: Juan Hernández/Pexels

Ways To Keep Your Miles Valid

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

One thing worth noting is that, according to the rules, transferring credit card points to LifeMiles does not count for extending the validity of your miles. You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Brex RewardsCapital One miles, and Citi ThankYou® Points to Avianca LifeMiles at 1:1 ratios. You also can 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, of course. 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.

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. The best and easiest way to do so is to use AwardWallet to keep track of your Avianca LifeMiles balance. This way, you will receive a timely reminder if you have any miles in danger of expiring.

To enable AwardWallet to track your LifeMiles balance, log into your account and link your Avianca account.

Related: How To Track Your Rewards Using AwardWallet

Our Take

Avianca LifeMiles is one of the strongest Star Alliance programs and does offer some excellent sweet spots on redemptions. The program also has some excellent offers to buy LifeMiles and may offer a better price on your next United booking.

However, a notable downside is the short mileage expiration policy. It's much shorter than most of the other expiration policies we track. 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 can be a solid part of your travel rewards strategy.

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Comments

  • Can confirm that as of 2025-05-07, transferring 1,000 Amex MR points into Avianca worked to (thankfully) reset the expiration date!

  • 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.

    • Alton – did your expiration update? I noticed it says it will take at least 24 hours to update expiration after any activity.

  • Phil Boustani says:

    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

    • JT Genter says:

      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.

  • Alexander Schmidt says:

    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.