If I could only have access to a single award program, Avianca LifeMiles would probably be it. While far from perfect, Avianca LifeMiles presents ample opportunities for excellent value on the largest airline alliance in the world, Star Alliance. Importantly, carrier-imposed surcharges are not passed on. Equally exciting is the fact that frequent transfer bonuses (like one that is alive at the time of writing) make reasonable awards significantly cheaper and awesome mixed-cabin pricing can save you a ton of points. More importantly yet, Avianca LifeMiles offers unwritten award chart sweet spots that create the opportunity for something of a treasure hunt in finding the best-value awards. Want to fly round trip to Europe in business class for 74,000 points? This could be the program for you.
An unwritten sweet spot expands
As noted at the top, one of the things I love about Avianca LifeMiles is that there exist unwritten award chart sweet spots. A now popularly-known example exists from New York JFK to Lisbon, Portugal.
Business class awards to most of Europe cost 63,000 miles each way via Avianca LifeMiles (Northern Europe awards cost 60K each way). For example, a business class award from Newark to Lisbon costs 63,000 miles one way. 
However, for some reason nobody really understands, a business class award from New York JFK to Lisbon costs 35,000 miles one-way (just 5,000 miles more than an economy class ticket on the same route!).
Interestingly, that pricing holds even when you connect through Brussels on Brussels Airlines — the price is still just 35,000 miles one-way in business class.
That is obviously great if you ultimately wanted to go to Lisbon. If you check bags, those will get checked through to Lisbon, so you’d probably also want to end up in Lisbon in that case. However, if you’re #TeamCarryOnOnly, the only likely consequence of missing your flight to Lisbon is that you’ll have scored a one-way business class flight to Brussels….for 35,000 miles. If you make a habit of skipping legs like that, Avianca certainly could shut down your account and confiscate your miles. I wouldn’t do that regularly. But everybody misses a flight now and then, so a shutdown is probably an unlikely consequence if you’re not missing flights frequently.
If you ultimately wanted to take a trip to Brussels and you booked a return leg from Brussels back to New York via LifeMiles, that would cost you 63,000 miles. Between 36,610 miles from New York to Brussels (to Lisbon) and 63,000 miles back from Brussels to New York, That’s a total of 99,610 miles “round trip”. With the current 25% transfer bonus from Citi, that’s under 80,000 ThankYou points round trip round trip in business class.
But things have recently gotten a bit better yet.
I’ve been searching the JFK to Lisbon route incessantly lately because we have an upcoming family trip where my family of four is flying business class from JFK to Lisbon but an additional family member is joining us on the trip, so I need another seat. I have been seeing awards via AirCanada.com on SWISS either entirely in business class or mixed-cabin from JFK to Geneva or Zurich in business class and onward to Lisbon in economy class, but those awards had not been showing up in my LifeMiles.com searches. I long wondered whether these awards might also price at 35K miles one-way in business class, but whether I searched with the default “Smart Search” option or “Star Alliance” or just “Swiss Airlines”, (See: Finding hidden LifeMiles award availability) I just wouldn’t get results on SWISS in business class with Lisbon as my destination.
However, a reader in our Frequent Miler Insiders group recently reported that the situation changed: LifeMiles is now showing mixed-cabin awards when the nonstop is from New York to Switzerland and the connection onward to Lisbon is on TAP Air Portugal. Maddeningly, I can’t seem to find any business class availability when the entire award should be in business class, nor am I always finding long-hauls on SWISS available when they should be. However, you can at least sometimes score a mixed-cabin award on in business class on SWISS from New York JFK to Geneva (or I believe Zurich) and onward to Lisbon in TAP Air Portugal economy class costs 36,610 miles one-way.
While not quite the same as 35K for business class all the way to Lisbon, that’s certainly not bad. It’s great to see another way to fly across the pond in business class for less than 37K miles. And, like before, if Switzerland were ultimately where you’d want to end up, that might be an interesting option.
And if you want to get back home from Zurich in business class, there’s good news on that front, too. One thing I’ve noticed about LifeMiles pricing anomalies it is that there is often a common denominator in the sense that an airport with weird pricing frequently has weird pricing on multiple (though certainly not all!) routes. As it so happens, Zurich to New York JFK costs 56,000 miles in business class. That’s true on the nonstop.
And as we’ve seen with the Lisbon route, the magic anomaly-pricing city pair (in this case Zurich to New York) maintains the nice pricing on a connecting itinerary like this one connecting via Geneva.
If you flew to Europe for 36,610 miles (flying SWISS business on the long-haul) and flew home for 56,000 miles, that’s 92,610 miles round trip. That rivals ANA’s famous sweet spot pricing (88K miles round trip to Europe) — but without surcharges. Flying round trip to Europe in business class on SWISS booked via ANA Mileage Club would come with $2,000 in surcharges.
Instead, booking via Avianca to Lisbon on the way out and from Zurich on the way back, you would pay a total of fewer than 93,000 miles and just over $200 in taxes and Avianca’s $25 partner booking fee.
If you were able to take advantage of a transfer bonus like the current 25% transfer bonus from Citi Thank You points to LifeMiles, that’s just over 74,000 Citi ThankYou points round trip for business class to Europe on SWISS! That’s a pretty terrific deal.
However, if you’re an economy class flyer, you can also put together some pretty compelling options.
Anomaly pricing abounds to and from Europe
Despite my best efforts, I still haven’t quite cracked the LifeMiles secret code to and from Europe. I’ve tried before and have collectively spent many hours running searches at LifeMiles.com looking for answers. Other posts to see for more on this include:
- The secret LifeMiles award chart
- Trying to crack the LifeMiles secret code to Europe
- LifeMiles plays favorites
- Additionally, see: Avianca Lifemiles awesome mixed-cabin pricing. First class for less.
I started out searching various routes to and from JFK and I continued to find routes that price differently than expected. For instance, New York JFK to Vienna prices at 58,000 miles one way in business class (rather than the expected 63,000 miles).
Interestingly, that route prices the same in reverse, whether nonstop or connecting (shown here Vienna to Geneva to New York JFK).
That’s 116,000 miles round trip (less than 93K points with a 25% transfer bonus).
It isn’t just in business class that things price strangely. For years, New York JFK to Zurich rang in at 16,500 miles one-way in economy class (instead of the 30,000 miles it should cost according to the award chart). That specific sweet spot died during the pandemic, but now I’m seeing things like New York JFK to Zurich to Rome for 26,000 miles one-way in economy class.
This is another route that holds the same pricing in both directions at 26,000 miles.
At 52,000 miles round trip in economy class, that’s not bad, though fares between New York and Europe can often be reasonable.
Cash prices from Denver to Europe tend to be a bit higher. However, mileage tickets from Denver continue to be cheaper with LifeMiles, costing just 22,500 miles one-way from Denver to Zurich (via Chicago in this case).
Interestingly, if you originate in Chicago, flying to Zurich will cost you 30,000 miles. But you’ll only pay 22,000 miles one-way if you continue on to Geneva.
That’s about 17,600 points with a 25% transfer bonus (keep in mind that you have to transfer in increments of 1,000 miles).
Trying to make sense of the pricing
I spent almost all day yesterday trying to find a rhyme or reason to Avianca’s weird pricing system.
At first, I thought that maybe weird prices to and from New York JFK could be because, although JFK is served by many foreign Star Alliance carriers, JFK isn’t served by the “home team” Star Alliance carrier — United. I wondered if there were another country with a major Star Alliance carrier that doesn’t serve one of that country’s major airports, but that search just didn’t seem logical (and we saw lots of other routes with odd pricing).
I also wondered whether it has something to do with carrier. Maybe it does, but I’m not entirely convinced. In this post, I’ve shown examples of the following carriers with anomaly pricing on at least some routes:
- TAP Air Portugal
- SWISS
- Brussels Airlines (to/from Lisbon)
- United
- Austrian
Interestingly, I haven’t found more than one or two situations where Lufthansa is pricing at the odd pricing numbers.
But lest you think this is limited to flights between North America and Europe, think again. Zurich (in Europe 2) to Thailand (South Asia) should cost 55,000 miles one-way in economy class. Indeed it does cost 55K if you fly Zurich to Bangkok to Phuket (HKT).
But, for some reason, Zurich to Bangkok only costs 36,500 miles in economy class on Thai Airways (or other airlines).
Oddly, that route costs 1,000 fewer miles in the opposite direction.
And as with other routes, the 35,500 mile pricing holds true even when connecting. For instance, here is a connecting itinerary from Bangkok to Vienna on EVA and then Vienna to Zurich on Austrian for 35,500 miles one way in economy class.
However, if you just wanted the leg on EVA from Bangkok to Vienna without the connection to Zurich, it would cost you almost twenty thousand additional miles at 55,000 miles one way.
Those examples show anomaly pricing on carriers like EVA and Thai Airways.
I should note that not every pricing anomaly is a good one. For some reason I can’t quite figure out, Barcelona (BCN) to New York JFK in business class prices at 66,500 miles one way instead of the 63,000 miles that it should cost (and economy class is more than 31,000 miles one way).
But lest you think that you have to route through Switzerland to save miles, I present New York (JFK) to Cairo, Egypt on either Turkish or Lufthansa for 70,000 miles one-way (instead of the 78,000 miles that it is supposed to cost and does cost in the opposite direction).
What does it all mean?
I wish I knew.
Believe it or not, yesterday I felt a bit like Russel Crowe in the movie A Beautiful Mind. I have a lot of crazy scribblings, bugged out eyes from too many hours at the computer, and a neck ache from whatever angle at which I’ve been staring at the screen….and unfortunately, I still don’t know what it all means.
If there is a rhyme or reason as to Avianca LifeMiles’s weird non-standard pricing, I can’t tell you what it is.
While many of the pricing anomalies shared above are new to me in recent times, I’m sure that some of them have been around for a long time — I’d just missed them by not searching the right routes.
And if there is one thing I took away from hours and hours of searching, it is this: when using Avianca LifeMiles, it pays to search around. While saving 5,000 miles here or 10,000 miles there might not sound all that significant for one passenger, the savings really add up over multiple passengers and then compounds over multiple trips.
In many cases, you can save an even more significant number of miles with a little time and effort. Take that itinerary from Bangkok to Vienna (55K miles in economy class) vs Bangkok to Vienna to Zurich (35,500 miles in economy class) as an example: sometimes searching for a short connecting flight could save you almost 20,000 miles per passenger one way.
Unfortunately, this can also make Avianca LifeMiles time consuming if you are the type of person who wants to hunt out the best mileage deals. Of course, you don’t have to hunt out the best deals. On routes like North America to/from Europe, you’re not getting a bad deal at 63,000 miles one way — and if you’re taking advantage of a 25% transfer bonus, you’re getting an excellent deal. On the other hand, if you stack that same transfer bonus with the right unwritten sweet spot, you could be flying to Europe in business class for 30K points in at least one direction. And while I haven’t found a route that prices nearly that well in the opposite direction, the thrill of the hunt keeps me in the game.
And maybe that’s why I really love LifeMiles: these hidden sweet spots appeal to the deal-hunter in me.
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Did find LIS-JFK in business for 35K, on an Airbus 321 however. Other less expensive business-class flights are on an Airbus 330-300 and a 340. The 321 – just like the 737; business class isn’t much different from economy. The others are all 2-2-2 but none of those are 35K
So, if you find a 1-2-1 for 35K USA to Europe that’s great.
Great investigative work Nick, and thanks for breaking this down. Surprise and delight with those rates!
I love Avianca because of the reasonable redemptions from the west coast as well. I just booked OPO-LIS-SFO in TAP business for 63,000 miles. You’d be hard pressed to find other carriers who allow connecting flights in Europe to the west coast for the same published rates to the east coast. Wish it was the 35k rate, but the transcontinental part nearly doubles the transatlantic flight time, so I’m happy with what I found. 🙂
Hi Nick – Thanks for this fascinating deep dive. One question I don’t think I saw covered in your post: Does Avianca ever have award availability that you can phone in to book because it doesn’t show online?
I was comparing available redemptions from New York to Poland and was surprised how much award availability Singapore showed via LOT, Swiss, Lufthansa and United and Avianca showed almost no availability. I was in a rush so didn’t bother to call in but would love to know the answer to this for future reference. And yes, I tried toggling between search modes. Didn’t really help much.
Thanks for your great work
I honestly don’t know if you can book anything over the phone. Avianca has long had a reputation for terrible customer service, so I historically would have said that they aren’t known for that type of thing. However, the last several times I’ve needed to call Avianca (whether to cancel and redeposit an award or when the website errored out and I had a booking reference but needed to still pay), I was pleasantly surprised by the competence of phone agents — so I partially wonder if things have improved significantly but we’ve all been so trained not to bother calling Avianca that we just don’t know it.
That said, if I were placing a bet, I wouldn’t bet on a phone agent seeing more availability than you do online. Have you tried using the various filters — Smart Search, Star Alliance, and Airline-Specific? I’m talking about the drop down menu in step one when you enter airport codes. I linked to a post about how to find hidden Lifemiles availability. It isn’t instinctive that you’d have to change that drop down, but I recommend starting there.
In the past, I’ve also had luck getting customer service to create a manual booking via email, but that requires being able to get screen shots of individual legs available (like JFK to WAW and WAW to FRA or whatever it is you’re trying to put together) and then getting them to manually piece it together. If you’re not even seeing those nonstop long-hauls, then that definitely won’t work….and even if you are seeing those, I think recent comments have indicated that manual bookings may no longer be working.
Thanks Nick. Appreciate the detailed response.
So for one of my Asia routings that just wouldn’t show up, I figured out that I can find all the pieces by using a combination of star alliance and Singapore options in the search. It doesn’t piece together the whole routing by itself with Star-alliance option.
So how feasible is it to book awards piece by piece that don’t all show up online in one seaerch? I don’t want to go through a nightmare of wasted hours on the phone.
To the best of my knowledge, Avianca Lifemiles agents can’t see additional availability that you can see on your screen. They did have a major meltdown this past August that went on for weeks that prevented their US clients from booking through the website — and the agents did help — but during this crisis they were woefully understaffed and wait times were long.
I think it’s more likely inept IT rather than a secret code written by the avianca illuminati but it’s still a great deal and thanks for sharing your insights.
I use avianca more than any other mileage program but I think their interface sucks. That being said I’ve found some amazing values on mixed cabin awards and it’s cool that they have some sweet spots like JFK LIS. Keep up the good work and best of luck with cracking the code
Be grateful that you didn’t have to use their old interface! This is significantly better!
Greg, what about a separate post concerning how to access and use the Avianca Lifemiles web site. Obviously, at your leisure when to post, no urgent need right now to do so.
Greg?
Oops!
I meant Nick!
Thanks!
Nick,
What is the pricing for biz or economy from LIS-JFK, is it also showing as an anomaly like the outbound?
I want to go to Portugal!
Also, what about to Portugal’s other airport in Porto = OPO, does that also trigger anomalous results?
Thanks!
Elsewhere in their blog, it is explained that the pricing anomaly between USA and Portugal is only one-way (going East). Standard pricing going West.
Thanks much! Merry Christmas!
IAD-MUC for 23k and JFK-MUC for 26k in Y are two other anomalies.
My recent frustration with the program is that availability for the new LH FRA-RDU flight launching next June just doesn’t show up on lifemiles (or TK) while it’s readily available at least in Y and often in C on most days through UA, AC, NH and SQ (and of course even more availability on Miles and More). Strangely, the calendar even has a blue bar with the five dates each week that the flight is operating, but while that blue bar typically indicates availability on non-stop routes, it never does in this case. Toggling between SmartSearch, Star Alliance, and LH makes no difference.
Don’t see any business class availability from JFK to LIS and I searched from April to Aug
Generally speaking, availability is much better both close in and in the fall / winter. Summer school vacation is a notoriously difficult time to find award availability, so an inability to find availability (on any route really) in June, July, or August isn’t very surprising (not to say that you can’t find any awards at all, but it’s generally a lot more challenging). I’d be surprised about the lack of availability in April and May if not for the fact that this route often leads to award alerts when availability gets released, and availability for April and May was released quite a while back.
Loved reading about your experience with AV award pricing. I recently booked a r/trip SFO to IST via MEX. The shorter segment in economy dropped the price from 63k to 57.5k each way. Taxes per passenger were under $200. Amex & Citi transfer bonuses made this deal even sweeter.
Lifemiles is more a miss than hit for me.
Very limited award availability. Or flights with multiple layovers.
US-west coast is more challenging anyway.
The cancellation fee are outrageous. Customer service is horrible. Then they show checked luggage is included when it isn’t.
[…] Avianca LifeMiles presents ample opportunities for excellent value on the largest airline alliance in the world, Star Alliance. Importantly, carrier-imposed surcharges are not passed on. Equally exciting is the fact that frequent transfer bonuses make reasonable awards significantly cheaper and awesome mixed-cabin pricing can save you a ton of points. More importantly yet, Avianca LifeMiles offers unwritten award chart sweet spots that create the opportunity for something of a treasure hunt in finding the best-value awards. ➡️ Read more […]
If I could even find award space that UA/AC show that would be a good start. Maybe I’m just not flying routes that everyone else flies, but getting anything to/from Asia is a nightmare…barely ever see availabillity.
Have you tried toggling between smart search, Star Alliance search, and airline specific search?
Is there such a cheatsheet matrix out there for just this — Search mode vs. Airline/destiation?
I have attempted those toggles. I think mostly it’s because I’m looking at routes that have very low availability lately. Even UA/AC has crap selection going to SE Asia, and I look often 2-3 months ahead..
I’ll play around with it some more, but the way the website has been, it didn’t inspire much confidence in transferring points over.
booked for 4 JFK to LIS via BRU for July next year in business return from POR to DFW via MAD in business. Great use of Life Miles and Avios. I wish there were some interesting anomalies to Asia or Brazil/SA.
I wish I could make the website work LOL. I wonder what the secret is. Just looked again at routes that show up on UA/AC and Lifemiles shows nothing, with all search options.
An old SAW, I barely knew yee
Those were the days!
Now, if you could actually complete the booking for anything using LifeMiles, this would be great!
I think I have redeemed more than a million life miles this year alone! Their website was not working well for a couple of months, but it’s been fine for me now for quite a while.
Would be interested to know the final tally of award change / cancellation fees you’ll incur in 2023 with LifeMiles.
The only one I’ve canceled is the one where we booked our way home from a trip to Europe and then later got the free Holland America cruise to Alaska from Vancouver, so we needed to get from Europe to Vancouver instead of New York. We originally booked a separate JetBlue award from New York to Vancouver, but we ultimately made a game time decision the week of travel that we wanted one fewer connection and a longer business class segment, so we canceled the Life Miles award from Brussels to New York. That cost us $800 in cancellation fees and it’s the first and only time I’ve ever canceled an Avianca award.