(EXPIRED) 15% transfer bonus from Amex to Avianca LifeMiles

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 but rather you’ll get the bonus from Avianca after the transfer. 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 LifeMiles is offering a 15% transfer bonus when you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Avianca LifeMiles
• Direct link to more information

Key Terms

• This Promotion is valid only for point transfers from American Express Membership Rewards to miles of the LifeMiles program from February 26th, 2023 (12:00 AM GMT-5) to March 15th, 2023 (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.
• Upon completion of the transfer, Terms and Conditions of the LifeMiles Program apply, available at LifeMiles.com.
• This offer is available for customers that make the transaction on the American Express Rewards site in the USA.
• Terms and Conditions for the Membership Rewards® program apply. Visit membershiprewards.com/terms for more information. The value of Membership Rewards® points varies according to how you choose to use them. To learn more, go to membershiprewards.com/pointsinfo.

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 63,000 miles one-way for business class from North America to most of Europe (and just 60K miles each way from the East Coast to northern Europe) and Avianca does not pass along any carrier-imposed surcharges beyond the $25 partner booking fee that LifeMiles adds to award taxes (Note that Dan’s Deals points out that this fee is only $10 on some routes). 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.

Then there are the LifeMiles pricing anomalies like New York JFK to Lisbon for just 35K miles one way in business class (note that the return leg prices at 63K). We’ve written about numerous other city pairs that seem to march to the beat of their own drums when it comes to award pricing. See Trying to crack the LifeMiles secret code to Europe, Another crack at the LifeMiles Secret code turns up more pricing anomalies, and Does Avianca LifeMiles play favorites for some examples.

The two biggest drawbacks regarding LifeMiles are:

1. Miles expire after 12 months of inactivity. That’s painfully short and it means that I’ve had miles expire by forgetting to keep my account active. Don’t make that mistake. Making another transfer to LifeMiles should extend the validity of your miles by another year, but this short time frame before expiration makes me hesitant to transfer speculatively.
2. LifeMiles does not display all taxes and fees until the checkout page, which can sometimes make a substantial difference. Unfortunately, you need at least 40% of the miles required for the redemption to see the total taxes & fees. A shorthand way to solve for this is to take the taxes you see on the same award at United.com and expect to pay about $25 more per passenger (alternatively, you could look up the same award at Air Canada and expect the total taxes & fees to be roughly similar since Air Canada also has a partner booking fee tacked on to the taxes). I’ve written more about this problem here.

However, if you can get past those two things, LifeMiles can be a terrific program. I’ll be on the lookout for opportunities to use this transfer bonus. At the same time, I have said that I wouldn’t be shocked (and this is pure speculation on my part, I’ve received no hints about this actually happening) if Bilt featured a big transfer bonus to LifeMiles at some point. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen before I build back a Bilt balance, but nonetheless I could see it happening. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t take advantage of this Amex bonus with the hopes of maybe getting a better bonus to LifeMiles that may or may not happen, but rather I’m offering up that speculation as food for thought for anyone with large point balances in both programs.

H/T: Dan’s Deals

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