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Now through November 10, 2024, LifeMiles is offering a 125% bonus when you transfer your LifeMiles to another account. Transferring LifeMiles between accounts isn't free. But, for travelers in “two-player mode,” this 125% bonus promotion offers a cheap alternative to boost your collective LifeMiles balance or consolidate balances between two accounts.
However, you'll already need LifeMiles in a friend or family member's account — or transfer miles in from a transfer partner.
Key Terms to this LifeMiles Transfer Promotion
- The promotion is valid for transfers through November 10, 2024, at 11:59 pm MST.
- Receive a 125% bonus when you transfer LifeMiles from one account to another.
- Transferring miles incurs a charge of $15 per 1,000 miles transferred.
- Transfer a minimum of 1,000 LifeMiles to receive a 125% bonus.
- You can transfer a maximum of 150,000 LifeMiles per year.
- Miles can be transferred to any other LifeMiles account.
- Miles transferred and earned with this promotion do not apply to elite status.
Say you take advantage of this promotion to transfer 50k miles. Your recipient will end up with 112,500 miles (50,000 miles transferred + 62,500 LifeMiles bonus). Transfers cost $15 per 1,000 miles transferred, so the total cost of the transfers would be $750.
This means you're effectively purchasing 62,500 LifeMiles for $750. Crunching the numbers, this works out to 1.2¢ each. That's superb value, considering AwardWallet users have recently redeemed LifeMiles for 2.85¢ each.
Unless you're feeling incredibly generous, the idea here is to transfer miles to an account belonging to a close friend or family member. Since Avianca lets you redeem awards for anyone, moving miles from one account to another shouldn't limit your options for who can travel on an award ticket.
How Good is This Deal?
If you have a LifeMiles balance to transfer, this promotion can produce outstanding value. The LifeMiles sweet spots are especially sweet for partner awards. At a price of (roughly) 1.2¢ per mile, sweet spots with this promotion include:
- Business-class flights from the eastern U.S. to Europe Zone 1 (e.g., Newark to London) for 45,000 LifeMiles: $540
- First-class flights from the U.S. to Europe or Japan for 120,000 LifeMiles: $1,440
This is excellent value, especially if you can use your miles to book a Lufthansa first-class award from the U.S. to Europe. Effectively paying $1,440 (before modest taxes and fees) for a first-class ticket on Lufthansa is simply unbeatable. The ticket normally sets you back at least 5 or 6 times the price.
What If I Don't Have Any LifeMiles?
If you don't already have a significant Avianca LifeMiles balance, you'll need to acquire miles before sharing them. Avianca frequently sells miles at a big discount — such as the 160% bonus that was available through October 31, 2024. Unfortunately, there isn't a buy LifeMiles promotion currently.
But there are plenty of alternatives to buying miles at full price. You can transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards (1:1), Citi ThankYou Points (1:1), Capital One (1:1), or even Bilt Rewards (1:1) to LifeMiles. Marriott Bonvoy points also transfer to Avianca at a 3:1 transfer ratio, but those transfers may take a day or more to post to your LifeMiles account.
This option is certainly worth considering if you have a substantial balance with one of these rewards programs, but you should only do so with a specific award in mind. Since transfers are non-reversible, you'll give up lots of alternative options when you convert them into LifeMiles.
Our Take
If you have a LifeMiles balance and you are looking for a specific redemption, then this promotion can be a no-brainer; it's hard to beat buying LifeMiles at 1.2¢ each. However, think carefully before transferring or buying miles speculatively, no matter how good the deal is.
Since this strategy requires transferring miles to another account, we should reiterate that (unless you're sharing miles as a gift) you want to transfer the miles to a trusted friend, family member, or another LifeMiles account you control.
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