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During the month of August, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Avianca LifeMiles with a 15% bonus. Considering LifeMiles already offers some of the best redemption rates for Star Alliance award bookings, this presents an opportunity to stretch your Membership Rewards points even further.
Transfer as few as 6k Amex points to get a domestic United award, 55k Amex points to fly business class to Europe, or takeoff for Japan in ANA first class for 79k Amex points.
Here's a closer look at this deal and some great uses of your LifeMiles to consider.
15% LifeMiles Transfer Bonus Key Terms
- Transfer Amex Membership Rewards to Avianca LifeMiles and receive a 15% bonus miles.
- This bonus is available for point conversions initiated by August 31, 2023.
- Points conversions are non-reversible/non-refundable.
- Minimum transfer is 1,000 points.
- Maximum transfer of 750,000 points.
Avianca LifeMiles: The Good and the Bad
While a transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles isn’t uncommon, it's still exciting since it opens the door to some outstanding redemption value. That is, of course, if you’re willing to deal with LifeMiles in the first place.
Put bluntly, many have a love/hate relationship with LifeMiles. On the one hand, as a part of Star Alliance, it enables award bookings with a diverse set of partners, including ANA, United, and Lufthansa. Even better, LifeMiles offers some of the best redemption rates available.
On the other hand, the program is notorious for less-than-stellar customer service. Plus, its award search engine tends to show inconsistent (at best) award availability. As a result, many award travelers are reluctant to book with LifeMiles unless they’ve found a particularly fantastic redemption.
Bottom line: If you need to make a Star Alliance award booking, you should absolutely check availability with LifeMiles. With few exceptions, if there’s availability, LifeMiles will provide the best redemption rate.
Lucrative LifeMiles Redemption Opportunities
U.S. Domestic Flights
One of the places that LifeMiles shines is in simple, domestic economy redemptions. The LifeMiles award chart carves up the U.S. into several confusing regions. Rather than trying to learn this award chart, just check the LifeMiles mileage price anytime you need to fly domestically.
United award flights start at just 6,500 LifeMiles each way. During this LifeMiles transfer bonus, you'll transfer just 6,000 Amex points to book these awards. Sexy? No. Practical? Absolutely.
Pricing “Quirk” to Europe
On certain routes between the U.S. and Europe, LifeMiles doesn't follow its own award chart. For example, flights from New York to Frankfurt should cost 30,000 LifeMiles per the award chart. For whatever reason, you can book it for just 24k LifeMiles. That requires transferring just 21k Amex points during this LifeMiles transfer bonus.
And, as you'll see below, Chicago to London on United can price at just 17,500 LifeMiles each way. That's going to require a 16k Amex point transfer bonus one-way.
U.S. to Europe in United Business Class
One of our favorite LifeMiles sweet spots is for Star Alliance business class between the U.S. and Europe. With Avianca, this typically costs just 63,000 LifeMiles plus taxes and fees (which are often $5.60). With a 15% bonus, Amex customers can book the same business class ticket using only 55k points. That’s less expensive than Aeroplan’s 60k business class award rate — one of our favorite business class redemptions to Europe.
U.S. to Asia in ANA First Class
All Nippon Airways (ANA) is one of the flag carriers of Japan. It’s well known for its incredible onboard soft product (customer service, dining, etc.), particularly in premium cabins.
Flying ANA first class from the United States to Japan usually costs 90,000 LifeMiles. With a 15% bonus, it’s possible to book this once-in-a-lifetime experience using only 79k Membership Rewards.
That’s fewer miles than the 110,000 miles United requires for business class on the same flight!
Fly Lufthansa First Class
Lufthansa first class is one of the most aspirational award bookings you can make. Unfortunately, Lufthansa can impose hefty surcharges and withhold award availability until the last minute. Booking it is quite a task.
With that said, if you’re dead set on flying Lufthansa First, LifeMiles is one of the best places to book it. Not only does LifeMiles typically charge a reasonable 83,000 miles for U.S. to Western Europe itineraries, but it also doesn’t pass on carrier surcharges.
Through this promotion, it’s possible to book Lufthansa first class from the U.S. to Europe (or vice-versa) for only 73k Membership Rewards points and under $50 in taxes and fees. That’s a screamin’ deal.
Bottom Line
Through the end of August, Amex is offering a 15% transfer bonus on all transfers from Amex Membership Rewards to LifeMiles. If you need to book a Star Alliance award ticket, this transfer bonus is a fantastic opportunity to save thousands of points. Otherwise, it's not worth transferring points speculatively.
Do you plan to transfer Membership Rewards to Avianca LifeMiles during this 15% transfer 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.
Not very exciting promo, I will wait for the next ones. However I’m satisfited with Lifemiles, so far so good!
Nice Article. Lifemiles its a good program. Both Avianca and Copa have their own programs, but still linked to StarAlliance!!
The problem is that you will not be able to redeem any premium intercontinental awards soon.
Great news. Too bad I transfered some the day before this offer. Drats.
I feel for you, as I’ve had the same happen to me. Made a transfer and the very next day a nice bonus appears, as if they did it to taunt me personally. 😉
Lifemiles was not very generous in the bonus, but it is better than nothing.
I will not be taking them up on this offer. I would rather use my amex points for some other redemption partners.
Bigger question is when chase will offer similar point transfers
The unfortunate thing is that LH has drastically scaled down its first class services.
Generous promo, however in spite of this I’m not sure I would transfer Amex to Lifetime in the current climate.
Muy buena iniciativa, siempre intentando el crecimiento.
Nice to hear. Need to get some Lifemiles to extend my expiration date from a cancelled trip from the-year-of-the-covid.
Article says no limit to #of miles….but is there a minimum? don’t want to transfer too many miles.
Nice news!! Lifemiles is a cute rewards program!!!!
I love these transfer bonuses, though unfortunately I now have 160K-ish Lifemiles due to a canceled trip to NSI.
I know some see value in first class redemptions, but for me business class is the best. It provides all the space and amenities I need at a lower expenditure. I would like to see more focus on those rates, but appreciate the information nonetheless.
Any idea how long it typically takes for these transferred miles (and the 15% bonus) to post to your Avianca LifeMiles account?
I had heard that Avianca was bankrupt . I understand that this has already been solved?
I’m not sure about the bankruptcy status. Historically, airline bankruptcies have rarely affected their loyalty programs. I did book a ticket using LifeMiles on a United-operated itinerary in the past few days and didn’t have any issues. I spoke with United and was able to assign seats and confirmed the reservation was ticketed.
Probably a better deal to just buy them outright with the sale, no?
Good review of the pros and cons of using LifeMiles.
Just wait for the more attractive offers when the pandemic is finally behind us.
I saw the email come through from LIfeMiles, but I don’t see the bonus on the Amex side. Usually the bonus would show up in the process of transferring the points. Is it coming from LIfemiles after the transfer?
Yes, the bonus is added by LifeMiles.