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Now through March 28, 2026, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Avianca LifeMiles with a 15% transfer bonus. Considering LifeMiles already offers some of the best redemption rates for Star Alliance award bookings, this is a solid opportunity to stretch your Membership Rewards points even further.
But unlike most transfer bonuses, this one is a bit unique. You won’t find it in your Amex account. Instead, it’s being offered directly by Avianca.
Here’s a closer look at the deal and some great ways to use your LifeMiles.
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Transfer Amex Points to Avianca, Get 15% Bonus LifeMiles
As mentioned above, this transfer bonus is being offered directly by Avianca LifeMiles, not American Express. That means you won’t see any mention of the bonus when you log in to your Amex account. Instead, Avianca will deposit the 15% bonus LifeMiles into your account within 24 hours of initiating a transfer from American Express.
Beyond that, here are the key terms and conditions to note:
- Transfer Amex Membership Rewards to Avianca LifeMiles and receive a 15% bonus miles. Here's how to transfer Amex points.
- This offer does not require registration.
- This bonus is available for point conversions initiated by March 28, 2026 (11:59 PM GMT-6).
- Points conversions are non-reversible and non-refundable.
- The transfer bonus is offered by Avianca directly, so you’ll receive the bonus miles from Avianca within 24 hours (though the terms say to allow up to 72 hours).
- The minimum transfer from Amex to Avianca is 1,000 points.
- Amex caps transfers at 750,000 points per transaction, and Avianca does not mention a cap on the number of bonus miles you can earn through this promotion.
To take advantage of this LifeMiles transfer bonus, you'll need to have an Amex card that earns Membership Rewards points, such as:
(Terms apply)
- 4X Membership Rewards® Points at restaurants worldwide, plus takeout and delivery in the U.S. (on up to $50,000 per year in purchases, then 1X)
- 4X Membership Rewards® points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per year in purchases, then 1X)
- 3X Membership Rewards® points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com
- 2X Membership Rewards® points on prepaid hotels and other eligible travel booked on amextravel.com
- 1X on other eligible purchases
(Terms apply)
- Earn 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel® (up to $500,000 in purchases per calendar year).
- Earn 5X points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel®.
- Earn 5X points on Fine Hotels + Resorts® and The Hotel Collection bookings.
(Terms apply)
- Earn 5X points on flights and prepaid hotels on AmexTravel.com.
- Earn 2X points on each eligible purchase of $5,000 or more.
- Earn 2X points on each eligible purchase with U.S. construction material and hardware suppliers.
- Earn 2X points on each eligible purchase with U.S. electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers.
- Earn 2X points on each eligible purchase with U.S. shipping providers.
- 2X earning rates are subject to a cap of $2 million in purchases per calendar year.
Avianca LifeMiles: The Good and the Bad
While transfer bonuses to Avianca LifeMiles aren’t uncommon, they’re still exciting because they open the door to some outstanding redemption value. That is, of course, if you’re willing to deal with LifeMiles in the first place.
To put it 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 LifeMiles partners, including ANA, United, and Lufthansa. Even better, LifeMiles offers some of the best redemption rates available.
On the other hand, the program can be frustrating to deal with — from award availability outages to inconsistent award search results. As a result, many award travelers are reluctant to book with LifeMiles unless they’ve found a particularly fantastic redemption.
But the bottom line is this: 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
On the topic of those redemptions that are worth the hassle, let’s take a look at a few examples.
U.S. to Europe in SWISS business class
One of the most consistently available LifeMiles sweet spots is for Star Alliance business class between the northeast U.S. and Europe. With Avianca, for example, you can fly SWISS between New York and Zurich for as few as 55,000 LifeMiles plus taxes and fees.
With a 15% bonus, Amex cardholders can book this business class award by transferring just 48k Amex points. This transfer bonus makes this much 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.
If you can find the availability, Flying ANA first class from the United States to Japan costs 160,000 LifeMiles. With a 15% bonus, it’s possible to book this once-in-a-lifetime experience using 140k Membership Rewards.
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. Despite a recent LifeMiles award devaluation, LifeMiles still offers a comparatively reasonable 128,000 miles between the U.S. and Western Europe. Even better, LifeMiles doesn’t pass on carrier surcharges.
Through this transfer bonus, it’s possible to book Lufthansa first class from the U.S. to Europe (or vice-versa) for only 112k Membership Rewards points.
Bottom Line
Through March 28, 2026, LifeMiles is offering a 15% transfer bonus on transfers from Amex Membership Rewards. If you’re looking to book a Star Alliance award ticket, this bonus is a great opportunity to save thousands of points.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: American Express® Gold Card (Rates & Fees), American Express Platinum Card® (Rates & Fees), and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees)
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