Stack LifeMiles Promotions to Save on Awards (Biz Class to Europe for 18k Points + $365)

LifeMiles has become a cult classic among intermediate and advanced-level award travelers. As the loyalty program for Avianca, it offers some lucrative LifeMiles redemption rates on Star Alliance partners. The program has also gained fame for industry-leading promotions.

If you haven't had a chance to take advantage of LifeMiles's excellent award pricing yet, now could be a perfect time. That's because there are currently two great promotions happening simultaneously. Through November 10, 2024, loyalty members get 125% bonus miles on LifeMiles transferred to friends or family. Also, through November 30, LifeMiles members can get a 15% transfer bonus on transfers from Amex Membership Rewards points.

If you are in “two-player mode” and collect Amex Membership Rewards points, you can leverage both promotions for unbelievable redemptions — including leveraging just 18,000 Membership Rewards points for business class to Europe and first class starting at 47k!

Let's break down these promotions and then show you how to maximize them.

Transfer LifeMiles to Friends or Family With a 125% Bonus

• This transfer bonus offer is available through November 10, 2024.
• Transfer in multiples of 1,000 LifeMiles at a rate of $15 per 1,000 transferred miles.
• The minimum transfer amount is 1,000 LifeMiles; the maximum transfer amount is 150,000 LifeMiles (excluding applicable bonuses) per calendar year.

By transferring LifeMiles to a friend or family member, this promotion allows members to effectively buy LifeMiles for 1.2¢ apiece.

Credit: LifeMiles

15% Amex Membership Rewards Transfer Bonus

• Amex Membership Rewards 15% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles.
• Offer valid through November 30, 2024.
• The bonus is hard-coded, so you should receive the bonus miles at the same time as the base miles.
• Point transfers are irreversible and non-refundable.

Credit: American Express

LifeMiles Transfer Partners

LifeMiles partners with five major transferrable points programs:

Fairly regularly, either LifeMiles itself or these transferrable point programs will offer a transfer bonus to LifeMiles. In fact, a LifeMiles transfer bonus is available most months. However, just because it's common doesn't mean it's not a great opportunity.

For instance, a one-way itinerary between the U.S. and Argentina typically costs 60,000 LifeMiles in business class. But, with the transfer bonus, you could book that same award by transferring 53k Amex Membership Rewards points during a 15% transfer promotion.

The real fun starts when you combine both promotions for premium cabin redemptions.

Book United Business Class to Europe for 18,000 Amex Points + $353

Let's say you want to book a business-class award from the U.S. Northeast to Western Europe (e.g., Newark to London). These awards cost just 45,000 LifeMiles plus modest taxes and fees — usually $27.80 when departing the U.S. plus a $25 booking fee.

Credit: LifeMiles

Through the LifeMiles transfer promotion, you can get it for even fewer LifeMiles. You can start by transferring 20,000 LifeMiles to your significant other, friend, or family member. Doing so will cost $300. But after the 125% bonus, that person will receive a total of 45,000 LifeMiles.

After adding taxes/fees on the award, the total price of the business class award comes to 20,000 LifeMiles plus a total of $353 out-of-pocket. That's a steal for business class to Europe!

But you can leverage even fewer points to book the same award thanks to an ongoing Amex transfer bonus to LifeMiles. You only need to transfer 18,000 Membership Rewards points to get the starting balance of 20k LifeMiles needed.

Credit: LifeMiles

Since there's no cost to transfer Amex points to LifeMiles, that means you only need 18k Membership Rewards points plus $353 total out-of-pocket to book a business class award to Europe! And you'll have an extra 700 LifeMiles to boot.

Business class to Europe for 18k points not inspirational enough for you? How about first class?

Book Lufthansa First Class for 47,000 Amex Points + $861.70

One of the most aspirational bookings an award traveler can make is for Lufthansa's famous first-class product, and LifeMiles is a great way to do it. LifeMiles doesn't pass on Lufthansa's notoriously high surcharges, which you'll find when booking through other programs.

After a recent devaluation, LifeMiles charges 120,000 LifeMiles for a first-class award between the U.S. and Europe. By combining the current promotions, you can make the same booking for far fewer points and a reasonable amount of cash.

Here's one example of how you can make it work:

1. Transfer 47,000 Amex Membership Rewards points to your LifeMiles account. Amex will add a 15% bonus, and you'll end up with 54,050 LifeMiles.
2. Transfer 54,000 LifeMiles to a friend or family member's account at the cost of $810. With the 125% bonus, they'll receive a total of 121,500 LifeMiles.
3. Book the award, paying just $51.70 in taxes and fees.

The total cost comes to 47k Amex Membership Rewards points and $861.70. That's a lot out-of-pocket. But, for a product that regularly sells for over $10,000, it's a stellar deal.

Keep in mind that you usually can't book Lufthansa first-class awards via LifeMiles (or other Star Alliance partners) more than a few days before departure. We highly recommend using Seats.aero's Lufthansa First Class finder to find availability.

Book Lufthansa Business Class for 27,000 Amex Points + $517.80

The same trick can be applied to Lufthansa business class redemptions, which cost just 69,000 LifeMiles from the West Coast to Germany. Here's the cost to book this award:

1. Transfer 27,000 Amex Membership Rewards points to your LifeMiles account. Amex will add a 15% bonus, and you'll end up with 31,050 LifeMiles.
2. Transfer 31,000 LifeMiles to a friend or family member's account at the cost of $465. With the 125% bonus, they'll receive a total of 69,750 LifeMiles.
3. Book the award, paying 69k points + just $52.80 in taxes and fees.

That's a total cost of 27,000 Amex points plus $517.80 in taxes/fees and transfer costs. Again, that's an incredible deal for a solid business-class product.

Credit: Lufthansa

Other Redemption Opportunities

LifeMiles is chock full of award sweet spots and lucrative deals, so there's no need to limit yourself to Lufthansa first class. To illustrate, here's a chart with several LifeMiles redemptions and their cost under one (or both) of these promotions:

Overall, you can save a lot of points if you're willing to shell out a little cash. That's particularly useful for aspirational premium-cabin bookings — like Lufthansa or ANA first class. However, for economy redemptions, you're probably better off using all miles and saving your money.

Bottom Line

LifeMiles is offering two incredibly lucrative promotions at the same time. First, you can receive a 125% bonus when transferring LifeMiles to another account. Second, converting Amex Membership Rewards points to LifeMiles results in a 15% bonus. If used in combination, these promotions pave the way to booking amazing trips for a fraction of the standard award price.

In the end, paying $15 for 1,250 bonus miles is essentially buying LifeMiles for 1.2¢ each. That's slightly better than the most recent buy-miles promotion, where Avianca sold miles at 1.27¢ each. Even better, the sharing bonus comes at a time when you can stack this bonus with the Amex transfer bonus.

But, in the end, it's up to everyone to decide individually if buying miles (at any price) is worth it.

How are you going to utilize this stacking opportunity?

AwardWallet Tip of The Day

Are you overwhelmed by too many accounts appearing on your AwardWallet dashboard? You can now declutter by moving the accounts you no longer need into the "Archived Accounts" tab. Once an account is archived, it won't appear in your main "Active Accounts" list. Please note that this feature is not yet available on our mobile interface.
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