When Avianca Lifemiles launched their Lifemiles+ subscriptions (henceforth called Lifemiles Plus) a couple of years ago, I said that they were a great deal for Lifemiles enthusiasts. As an avid Lifemiles user at the time, I was particularly excited about the offering. I then proceeded not to redeem another Lifemile in the 20 months since. Then, recently, while planning for a summertime trip to Europe, I fell in love with Lifemiles+ all over again.
What is Avianca Lifemiles Plus World?
Avianca Lifemiles Plus World (the latest name) is a subscription service. At its core, for a monthly fee, Lifemiles+ offers the subscriber three main benefits:
- A set monthly allotment of miles (note that this allotment of miles automatically extends the validity of your Lifemiles by 24 months)
- A 10% discount on award redemptions (including partner awards on Star Alliance, Iberia, and Gol)
- Free changes/cancellations for all except the cheapest (“Lite”) plan
Here is the full chart explaining benefits and pricing.
Note that the pricing scheme indicates the “regular” prices at the bottom, and the row immediately above it displays pricing for Avianca LifeMiles Amex Elite cardholders. That card has a $249 annual fee, and it essentially offers a $20 monthly discount on any of the LifeMiles+ plans.
It is also worth repeating that only “Basic” and higher plans include free changes and cancellations on Avianca award redemptions (including on partner airlines). The $20 monthlty “Lite” subscription does not include free changes or cancellations. I do wish that they had named the “Basic” plan differently, as the naming convention here often confuses people. You need to buy the $50/month plan or higher for free changes and cancellations.
It looks to me like Avianca figured the pricing and mileage bundles based on valuing their miles at 2 cents each. If you were willing to buy Avianca Lifemiles at that price, you would look at the “net” cost of the subscription as being $10 per month or less at any level.
- Lite = $20 monthly – $10 in miles (500 miles at $0.02 per mile) = $10 net
- Basic = $50 monthly – $40 in miles (2K miles at $0.02 per mile) = $10 net
- Pro = $100 monthly – $90 in miles (4.5K miles at $0.02 per mile) = $10 net
- Max = $200 monthly – $200 in miles (10K miles at $0.02 per mile) = $0 net
That said, the above assumes that you are a buyer of Lifemiles at $0.02 per mile. Since the program has periodically offered miles on sale starting around 1.3c per mile, and I haven’t historically purchased at that price, I wouldn’t be a buyer (and certainly not a subscriber) at 2c per mile.
More realistically, I might be a subscriber at $0.01 per mile. With that math:
- Lite = $20 monthly – $5 in miles (500 miles at $0.01 per mile) = $15 net
- Basic = $50 monthly – $20 in miles (2K miles at $0.01 per mile) = $30 net
- Pro = $100 monthly – $45 in miles (4.5K miles at $0.01 per mile) = $55 net
- Max = $200 monthly – $100 in miles (10K miles at $0.01 per mile) = $100 net
You’ll need to create your own valuation of the miles, but you can see where, with a less-than-2c-per-mile valuation, the net “cost” starts to climb significantly for Pro and Max without additional benefit at those levels. I therefore find the Lite and Basic to be the only tiers to which I would recommend subscribing. Which tier makes sense depends on what you want:
- Subscribe to Lite if you primarily care about access to the 10% discount on award redemptions and keeping your Lifemiles active (keep in mind that Lifemiles otherwise expire after 12 months of inactivity).
- Subscribe to Basic if free changes and cancellations are valuable enough to you
That second point is an important distinction. The fee to cancel a Lifemiles award without a Basic Lifemiles+ subscription (or higher) can be as high as $200 per ticket. If you were a buyer of Lifemiles at $0.01 per mile, you’re essentially paying an additional net $15 per month for free changes and cancellations over what you would have paid for the “Lite” subscription. If you are likely to cancel more than one award ticket per year, that is probably a deal. If you are pretty unlikely to cancel an award, it probably isn’t worth “buying up” to the Basic subscription until you need it.
Lifemiles still (or once again?) has some great deals
I’ve personally been subscribing to Lifemiles Lite for eight or nine months. Originally, I got that subscription for access to the 10% discount (originally announced as a rebate, but later turned into a discount). Lifemiles used to be my most used transfer partner program, so I fully expected to redeem Lifemiles with regularity.
However, as fate would have it, I haven’t needed to book via Lifemiles in quite a while.
At some point, I transferred around 80K points to Avianca Lifemiles with the intent to book an award, but I ended up booking something different with other miles (I can’t recall the details). As such, I’ve had around 80K miles in my Lifemiles account for quite some time. As mentioned already, Lifemiles has an awful mileage expiration policy: miles expire after just 12 months of inactivity. That is the shortest expiration policy of any major international award program. Transferring from a transferable currency does extend the expiration, but I was once burned by forgetting to transfer in time, and I had some miles expire. I have been willing to pay $20/mo for the miles, peace of mind, and with the expectation that the 10% discount would eventually become useful again.
Things finally converged on that front, and I recently had a reason to book via Lifemiles.
Last February, we reported that Lifemiles had devalued awards to Europe, but that the full story was complicated, with some routes pricing at 80K miles one-way in business class and others pricing at 69K miles one way. Then, in April, Tim reported that prices were rolled back to 69K on many of the previously 80K routes. Today, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, with many routes to/from Europe based on a price of 69K miles each way in business class and others at 80K each way.
Years ago, Lifemiles had a bunch of weird sweet spots where awards would consistently price differently than the award chart suggested based on specific airport combinations. Much of that went away over the last few devaluations. However, there are still some airport combinations that produce oddly excellent pricing. For instance, New York-JFK to Zurich, Switzerland, prices at 55K miles one way in business class, whether you’re flying nonstop on SWISS or connecting on Lufthansa, Austrian, LOT Polish, or Brussels Airlines.
That makes for an even better deal as a Lifemiles Plus subscriber, since the price drops to 49,500 miles one way in business class after the 10% discount.
Because Lifemiles still prices mixed-cabin awards approximately by the percentage of distance flown in each cabin, there are opportunities to book itineraries that include the long-haul in business class for even less, like this option flying LOT Polish from New York to Warsaw in business class, followed by SWISS economy class to Zurich for 45,540 miles one way in business class.
Thanks to the current point transfer bonus from Capital One miles to Avianca Lifemiles (which is a 15% transfer bonus), you would only need to transfer 39,600 Capital One miles to book the award above. That’s terrific for a business class flight across the pond. And keep in mind that Capital One does allow transfers in increments of 100 miles (after the 1,000-mile minimum), so it is indeed possible to transfer exactly 39,600 miles to get exactly the 45,540 miles you’d need for that award. I was booking for multiple passengers and already had some miles in my Lifemiles account, so I needed an odd number of miles. The ability to transfer Capital One miles in 100-mile increments helped me transfer almost exactly what I needed.
I should note that, when searching for award tickets, you’ll still need to sometimes select a “Star Alliance” search rather than leaving the search tool set to the default “smart search”. As a reminder, the search tool defaults to “Smart Search”, shown in the drop-down menu above the city pairs in the screenshot below. As you can see here, the search results for this date and number of passengers show “Not available” for the first few calendar dates.
However, as is often the case with Lifemiles, simply changing that first field from “Smart Search” to “Star Alliance” changes the picture and shows daily award availability (though only in economy class on some of those dates for my 5-passenger search). Your mileage may vary.
Whether you’re booking a deal like that or a route that prices at 69K/80K, the 10% discount can really add up over multiple passengers, particularly when stacked with the 15% transfer bonus from Capital One. That benefit alone can make it worth subscribing to Lifemiles+. An award that costs 69,000 miles one-way in business class (many awards to/from Europe price at that level) would cost 62,100 miles after the Lifemiles Plus discount, which would only require transferring 54,000 Capital One miles. That’s still an excellent deal for many city pairs, particularly when you consider that Lifemiles does not add carrier-imposed surcharges apart from its $25 per passenger partner booking fee.
Keep in mind that if you subscribe, you need to subscribe to a Lifemiles Plus plan for a minimum of 6 months. Still, it might be worth subscribing to the $20/monthly plan for 6 months just to trigger the 10% discount for multiple passengers (the discount applies to any booking I make out of my account, even if I’m not traveling).
Timing a bump from Lifemiles Plus Lite to Basic
Avianca Lifemiles is known for its punitive cancellation policy. I recently booked a one-way award to Europe for five of us. The cancellation penalty shown during the booking flow would be $200 per ticket, which means that we would be on the hook for $1,000 in fees to cancel our one-way awards.
Since our flights are about six months in the future, I considered the idea of paying for a Lifemiles Plus Basic subscription. I was already paying for the $20 monthly subscription, so I calculated the additional cost of bumping up to the Basic plan to be an additional $30 per month for the next six months. I’d pay an additional $180 more than what I was already spending in order to get free cancellations and an additional 9,000 miles (since the Basic subscription comes with 2,000 miles per month, which is an additional 1,500 miles per month over what I was getting). That didn’t feel like an unreasonably expensive insurance policy at first glance. Of course, if comparing against having no subscription at all, the true cost would be $50 per month, which would mean I’d spend $300 over the next six months (and get 12,000 Lifemiles plus the ability to change/cancel).
However, I don’t think I needed to sink so much money into that plan.
On the Lifemiles Plus subscription page, the Frequently Asked Questions address when the cancellation or change fee waiver applies.
As you can see, the answer clearly says that, to be eligible for free changes and cancellations, you must be subscribed to the Basic or high plan at the time of the cancellation. That makes it sound as though it is possible to subscribe just before you decide to cancel. Keep in mind that terms do indicate that a Lifemiles Plus subscription must be active for a minimum of six months, so I’d still be on the hook for $300 over six months, but that question/answer combo makes it sound like I could wait until I needed to cancel to subscribe.
Further down the page, the full terms and conditions seem to suggest that the cancellation fee waiver does not apply to redemptions made before subscribing to Lifemiles Plus, suggesting that perhaps you need to subscribe before redeeming. To be safe, I wanted to get on the “Basic” plan ($50 per month) before booking, if possible.
Unfortunately, as a current subscriber, I couldn’t change my plan immediately. Instead, I could only change as of my next renewal date. Current subscribers can change plans once per month, but the change does not take effect until the next billing date.
I wanted to find a data point as to whether I needed the “Basic” plan to be effective before booking an award or whether it was only necessary to be subscribed to “Basic” at the time of cancellation (as per the FAQs). Thankfully, a member of our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group was able to confirm that they had booked an award in May 2025 (before subscribing to Lifemiles Plus Basic). They then subscribed to Lifemiles Plus Basic several months later (in July 2025), and they were able to cancel that award ticket a few days after subscribing to Lifemiles Plus Basic. They were refunded all but the ~$25 Lifemiles partner booking fee for each passenger. In short, subscribing to Lifemiles Plus Basic was only necessary before cancellation, not before booking.
That’s great news since it means that you don’t need to commit in advance to the Basic plan, but rather it is possible to wait until you find that you need to cancel. You’ll still be on the hook for a minimum of six months of subscription fees, but only if you ultimately need to subscribe.
As an existing subscriber, the timing can be a bit more complex. My subscription currently renews on the 7th of the month. Imagine that the flight I booked was in the first week of August (before the 7th). If I waited until July 20th to try to change my subscription to “Basic”, I would be out of luck: the “Basic” subscription wouldn’t take effect until 8/7, which would be too late for a flight in early August. I would need to change my existing subscription ahead of my July billing date.
Alternatively, I could try to cancel my Lifemiles Lite subscription altogether and then try to immediately subscribe anew to the Basic plan. That might work since I have had my Lifemiles Plus Lite subscription for more than six months, but I haven’t tried it. Nonetheless, it is worth knowing that those starting at zero have a more straightforward path to free cancellation than current subscribers to the “Lite” plan.
In my own case, since I no longer have a large balance of Lifemiles to protect from expiration, I will probably cancel my “Lite” subscription for a few months and re-subscribe to Basic only if and when we want to cancel this award. That makes more sense for me than keeping a “Lite” subscription. If I kept my current subscription and then decided that we wanted to cancel mid-month, I could be stuck waiting a few weeks until my next renewal to be able to bump up to Basic. It would be easier to start with no subscription so that I could join “Basic” at any moment.
Bottom line
Lifemiles Plus World offers a subscription that can be quite valuable in the right circumstances. The 10% discount on award redemptions alone could be highly valuable, particularly for those who make many bookings or book for several passengers. That can stack nicely with a current point transfer bonus and some favorable award pricing to Europe (at least on some routes). I recently considered bumping my own subscription up to the “Basic” level so I could have access to free cancellation if necessary, but I ultimately realized that it probably makes more sense to cancel my “Lite” subscription and re-subscribe only if and when I want to either make or cancel a booking.
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I don’t fly very often but on our last 2 Europe flights I used Lifemiles on 3 of the 4 segments. In one case with only a couple of days noticed.
I keep things simple with them, just point to point and not connections. Not the easiest tool to use but if I can get something useful it works for me.
Good catch on using the plan to avoid cancellation fees. However mile subscription plans are a really bad idea as a rule.
I subscribed to the TAP plan at a time when TAP was always competitive with transatlantic milage awards (60k approx.). After I paid the large sum to buy silver status the airline changed policy and those same awards became totally uncompetitive (100k-200k miles one-way in business). Like the Avianca plan, the miles expire, so I forfeited 29,000 of them on the first anniversary. As a result, I am stuck with a large supply of TAP miles that I lose a lot of value on if I redeem them for transatlantic business class, and apparently other routes as well.
Once bitten, twice shy. Flying Blue is currently promoting its subscriptions, but it looks like a TAP re-run.
Nick, have you consider booking your award flights with AC instead of AV? I find myself booking with AC points more often than with AV miles. Cost of redemption is often comparable, and AC points cost nearly the same as AV miles to buy when they’re on sale. Cancellation cost only about half as much, and you have the option for a Flexible Reward as well to avoid cancellation fee entirely. I’d love to see you do a direct comparison of these two programs at some point.
Sure, I’m quite familiar with both programs :-).
In this case, AC would have been either 10,500 more miles per passenger or 20,500 more miles per passenger depending on routing. At a difference of 52,500 or 102,500 miles (for 5 passengers one way), I’m much happier to book via Avianca. Worst case, I buy LifeMiles Plus Basic for 6 months. I’d rather pay the $300 for six months + 12,000 miles than overpay for the award by 50-100K miles (and still be on the hook for a change or cancellation fee!).
And the flexible awards via AC are 74K or 85K depending on routing, so that would have been 122,500 or 177,500 more miles for a flexible award than what I paid via Lifemiles. That’s a horrible deal in my opinion – it’s like prepaying for a cancellation that I might not need versus booking via Lifemiles and just paying the $50/mo for six months *only* in the event that I need to cancel. I’d much rather pay the $300 than overpay by that much.
I love Aeroplan, but not for awards to Europe that can be booked via Lifemiles.