Avianca LifeMiles is offering a 15% transfer bonus to when you transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Avianca LifeMiles.
Note that this bonus is being ofered on the Avianca side, so you won’t see it reflected when you initiate the transfer, instead you’ll get the bonus miles from Avianca afterwards.
I’ve often said that Avianca LifeMiles is one of my favorite airline loyalty programs for premium cabin awards, so I’ll be keeping my eye out for redemptions that can leverage this transfer bonus to make good award prices even better.
The Deal
- Avianca is offering a 15% transfer bonus when you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to LifeMiles.
Key Terms
- This Promotion is valid only for point transfers from American Express Membership Rewards to miles of the LifeMiles program from February 3rd, 2025 (12:00 AM GMT-5) to February 28th, 2025 (11:59 PM GMT-4).
- A minimum transfer of 1000 points is required.
- Membership Rewards customers must be previously registered as a LifeMiles member in order to participate in this promotion, you can sign up as a member at LifeMiles.com.
- During the offer, the member will receive a 15% bonus over the miles accrued on the member´s account as a product of the transfer. The bonus miles and the transferred miles may be accrued in separate transactions.
- LifeMiles earned by transferring and the bonus Miles earned with this promotion apply to obtain or maintain the LifeMiles Elite Status according to the rules of the Elite Program available at LifeMiles.com.
- Transferred LifeMiles as well as the bonus miles will be accrued no later than 24 hours after the LifeMiles Partner reports the request of miles transfer.
- LifeMiles is not responsible for miles not accrued, accrued mistakenly or accrued late due to report errors or delays from the LifeMiles Partners.
- Once points or miles are transferred to LifeMiles, the transaction cannot be reversed.
- This offer is available for customers that make the transaction on the American Express Rewards site in the USA.
Quick Thoughts
Avianca LifeMiles is the one offering the bonus here, so you won’t see this deal advertised or reflected in your Amex account. It’s also worth noting that terms state that the bonus will post within 24 hours, so there is a chance that it will not post instantly (though I expect it will probably be instant in most cases).
Avianca frequently sells miles directly to consumers at good prices (often in the range of 1.3c per mile when on sale), so the absolute value you get even with a transfer bonus isn’t necessarily the highest possible with Amex points if you would otherwise consider buying LifeMiles in large quantities on sale.
That said, I love redeeming LifeMiles and I’ve often found occasion to use their transfer bonuses to make already-solid deals even better. For instance, LifeMiles charges just 70,000 miles one-way for business class from North America to most of Europe (and just 45K miles each way from the Northeast to Ireland and the UK) and Avianca does not pass along any carrier-imposed surcharges beyond the $25 partner booking fee that LifeMiles adds to award taxes.
Mixed-cabin pricing means that you can pay even less if you have a long economy class connecting flight on one end of the trip or the other. A 15% bonus equates to a 13% discount in the number of points you need to transfer, which can add up to a nice little savings.
Best Uses for Avianca LifeMiles
- Business class to Europe from 45-70K with no fuel surcharges. While 70,000 miles to Europe isn't Earth-shattering, what makes this particularly exciting is the lack of fuel surcharges. Surcharges for Lufthansa are often $700-1000, so this can be a huge savings. There are many examples of routes inexplicably pricing far below the official award chart like the US Northeast to England or Ireland for 45K miles and mixed-cabin business class itineraries that price from as low as 52K (Check out The secret LifeMiles award chart and Avianca LifeMiles’ awesome mixed-cabin award pricing: First class for less).
- Business class South America from 35K. Avianca LifeMiles offers competitive Star Alliance pricing to both Northern and Southern South America with no fuel surcharges. Again, you can mix cabins on partner awards to save miles, which can be useful if you need a positioning flight. Flights on Avianca metal usually price out slightly higher than partners
- North America in Business for 10K. Avianca LifeMiles offers one-ways on United within a single "zone" at excellent prices (the US is split into 3 zones). Within a single zone, pricing is officially 10K one-way in business class. Pricing between Zone 1 (most of the East Coast) and Zone 2 (most of the states apart from the far west) is officially 15K. Many routes will price well below the chart for no obvious reason.
Things to Know
- How to find awards: Search for available space at LifeMiles.com (you’ll need to create a free Avianca LifeMiles frequent flyer account).
- How to book awards: Book online at LifeMiles.com. Can also book via email. Phone bookings are known to be a hassle but also possible.
- Key warnings:
- Availability at LifeMiles.com often doesn't match what you’ll find at United.com or Aeroplan. Phone agents usually do not see better availability than what is shown at LifeMiles.com. While it can be possible to book via E-mail, it is very slow and frustrating. ALWAYS check the LifeMiles site before transferring points.
- LifeMiles expire after 12 months of inactivity. Redeeming Miles does NOT count as activity, but buying miles does.
- Transfer from: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Citi, Wells Fargo. Also can transfer from Marriott Bonvoy.
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[…] 15% Transfer Bonus from Amex to Avianca LifeMiles: Now through March 15, 2024, get a 15% bonus when transferring Amex points to Avianca LifeMiles. See this post on Frequent Miler. […]
When using PointsYeah to search for award flights I see they provide the taxes for Avianca flights. Do you know if that’s an accurate figure and would be a way around having to have all the miles in your Avianca account to see the total taxes before checking out?
LifeMiles doesn’t change YQ, only $25 ticketing fee.. so likely what you see om PY is what you get (+$25).
So what is Nick referring to when he says you can go find the same award on United and then just add $25 to whatever they show for taxes and fees and that should tell you what Avianca will charge?
That’s how it has been for me, yes. But no guarantees. I would think if there are differences they are small.