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LifeMiles launched a new award sale a few days ago which is valid on both economy and business class flights between the US and Japan. It’s valid on flights booked through December 9, but if you’ll be transferring Amex Membership Rewards in order to do that, you’ll ideally want to transfer by December 7 to take advantage of the current transfer bonus.
The Deal
- Save up to 40% when using LifeMiles to book Star Alliance partner awards between the US and Japan.
- Direct link to offer.
Key Terms
- Redemption dates: between December 2nd, 2022, and December 9th, 2022.
- The redemption of miles for air tickets is valid only through LifeMiles.com and the Avianca Call Center.
- A service fee per ticket is charged for redemptions made on Avianca Call Centers LifeMiles.com and must be paid at the time of the redemption. Redemption fee from $25 up to $80+ taxes, depending on the route redeemed, plus a late redemption fee of $40+ taxes also apply if the ticket redemption is made 14 or less days prior to departure.
- Seats are limited and may not be available on all flights, bundles and/or dates.
- Subject to availability of Class X or Class I, according to the case.
- Only valid for flights with Star Alliance members and our Air Partner airlines.
Quick Thoughts
The landing page linked to above has a useful table showing the different redemption rates depending on which cities in the US and Japan you’re flying between and which cabin you’ll be traveling in.
For example, one-way economy rates can go as low as 28,000 LifeMiles when flying between San Francisco and Tokyo Narita and 28,200 LifeMiles between San Francisco or Los Angeles and Tokyo Haneda. If wanting to fly in economy from the east coast, you can fly between New York and Tokyo Haneda from as low as 36,000 LifeMiles.
That’s a long way in economy class though. If you’d rather fly in business class, you can still avail yourself of the up-to 40% discounts on offer. That means you can redeem as few as 59,500 LifeMiles from the west coast or 63,000 LifeMiles from the east coast.
That’s not all though. American Express is offering a 15% bonus when transferring Membership Rewards to LifeMiles through December 7. If you stack both the award sale and transfer bonus, you could fly in economy for as few as 25,000 Membership Rewards each way or 52,000 Membership Rewards in business class.
That’s a pretty good offer, but you could do better by booking flights to Japan with ANA Mileage Club or Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, so be sure to check all your options before rushing to transfer Membership Rewards to LifeMiles. Note that Membership Rewards isn’t your only transfer option; Citi ThankYou, Capital One Miles and Brex all transfer to LifeMiles too.
FYI, for Houston Tokyo the promo only applies to flights to/from Narita which means United flights (at least, in October-November 2023). Flights on ANA are still the full price — 90K for one-way Business class.
The elephant in the room is lifemiles availability (or lack of it).
Definetly not a program for widows and orphans
Be sure to check the entry requirements for Japan. In my opinion, now is not the time to go to Japan as COVID mania is still in the air and restrictions are many. It’s COVID-land, and COVID this and COVID that 24/7, just like the Asian country I live in. Anyone nostalgic for in-your-face COVID, I recommend Japan.
Is anyone else noticing the life miles website does not seem to be working?
ANA is/was great option for US to Japan RT but I believe their carrier surcharges are significant (vs. LM).
Please note LifeMiles are no longer instant for many transfers. (Citibank, Cap 1) Seriously! Test it!
“Another problem with LifeMiles was that following the purchase the miles didn’t show as available for hours. The transaction was visible in the account transactions but the available balance still showed zero.”
https://loyaltylobby.com/2022/12/03/award-success-lifemiles-redemption-for-expensive-ana-economy-class-flight-bangkok-to-tokyo/#comments
Originally Posted by greendx
Ready to book. Purchased miles 2 hours ago. Received confirmation email for the purchase. Can see mile purchase with the correct amount in my Account Statement section of the website yet my balance is still 0 and I am unable to book anything while I wait. Are miles no longer posting instantly now or is this just more of the fun we all love with this program?
Same thing happened to me. Took about 12 hours for miles to be deposited
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34512617-post304.html