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Avianca LifeMiles is offering a 25% transfer bonus when you transfer Citi ThankYou points to Avianca LifeMiles. If you have Citi ThankYou points, this can make some of Avianca’s already sweet spots downright indulgent.
The Deal
- Avianca LifeMiles is offering a 25% transfer bonus from Citi ThankYou points. This bonus is on the LifeMiles side.
- Direct link to promotion
Key Terms
- This Promotion is valid only for point transfers from Citibank Thank You Points to miles of the LifeMiles program from June 5th, 2023 (12:00 AM GMT-5) to June 30th, 2023 (11:59 PM GMT-4).
- A minimum transfer of 1000 points is required.
- ThankYou Point customers must be previously registered as a LifeMiles member in order to participate in this promotion. Sign up as a new member at LifeMiles.com.
- During the offer, the member will receive a 25% 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 reflected in the account statement in separate transactions.
- LifeMiles earned by transferring and the bonus Miles earned with this promotion do not apply to obtain or maintain the LifeMiles Elite Status.
- 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.
Quick Thoughts
LifeMiles has some tremendous sweet spots, but there’s even more to the story. Avianca has a hackable award chart and adding an economy class flight at either end of a trip could drop the price significantly, requiring even fewer ThankYou points. See this post for more detail.
Avianca also has some “secret” sweet spots where certain awards don’t price according to the chart. For instance, New York (JFK) to Zurich (ZRH) prices at 16.5K miles in economy class, which would be just over 13K ThankYou points one-way. An even better one is business class from New York (JFK) to Lisbon, Portugal, which prices at 35K miles in business class (whether on TAP Air Portugal or other partners). With this transfer bonus you’d only need 28K ThankYou points to fly one-way flat-bed business class to Europe. That’s a tremendous deal. See this post for more.
We see regular transfer bonuses from to Avianca LifeMiles from all of the transferable currencies (and Avianca runs regular award sales as well), so there shouldn’t be any urgency to transfer if you don’t have a specific redemption in mind.
Note that this bonus is on the LifeMiles side, so you won’t see it reflected in your ThankYou account but rather Avianca will add the bonus after the transfer.
- Business class to Europe from 63K with no fuel surcharges. While 63,000 miles to Europe isn't Earth-shattering, what makes this particuarly 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 JFK to Lisbon for 35K miles and mixed-cabin business class itineraries that price from as low as 49K (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
- LifeMiles Purchases are processed directly by Avianca and DO qualify as airfare.
- LifeMiles expire after 12 months of inactivity. Redeeming Miles does NOT count as activity, but buying miles does.
- LifeMiles generally does not pass on the fuel surcharges we see in other Star Alliance programs, making redemptions even more valuable.
- 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.
Current Transfer Bonuses
| Transfer From | Transfer Bonus Details | End Date |
|---|---|---|
| Amex Membership Rewards | 15% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Avianca LifeMiles | 12/31/24 |
| Capital One Miles | 20% transfer bonus from Capital One Miles to British Airways Avios | 12/01/24 |
| Chase Ultimate Rewards | 40% transfer bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 11/30/24 |
| Amex Membership Rewards | 35% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy | 11/30/24 |
| Amex Membership Rewards | 15% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 11/30/24 |
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It’s worth mentioning that only Citi Premier or Prestige cards can transfer to Avianca LifeMiles. If you have another TY card such as Citi Preferred or DoubleCash card, you can only transfer to limited number of partners (Choice Privileges, TrueBlue, or Wyndham).
I notice this is no longer under the active transfer bonuses, but the expiration date hasn’t passed. Was it pulled?
I still see it when I log in to my LM account.
This is as high as it gets for LM transfer. I am considering getting out if Citi TY altogether after this. Their program is the most convoluted of all.
Hi Tim, Thank you for this article. Do you know what the bonus has been in ThankYou->Avianca transfers in past promotions? I’m trying to evaluate whether 25 percent is high or low in light of historical data points. Thanks.
Absolutely! Check out our transfer bonuses page here. Below the current transfer bonuses, you’ll see a spreadsheet that’s linked to a database of over 175 expired transfer bonuses. Search “Citi Avianca and you’ll see the last several that we’ve posted…and you’ll see that they’re all exactly 25% 🙂
Thanks, Tim. I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction and for your time taken to help 🙂