Avianca Lifemiles has a subscription service called Lifemiles+. I’ve written pretty extensively about the value in subscribing to Lifemiles+, particularly for family travelers, since those subscribing to the Basic plan or higher have enjoyed benefits like a 10% discount on award redemptions, including on Star Alliance awards, and free changes and cancellations, provided you subscribe to the Basic plan ($50/mo) or higher.
Unfortunately, as pointed out by reader Brandon in the comments here, Lifemiles Plus has ended the free cancellation benefit for new subscribers as of Friday, June 26, 2026. If you already had a subscription prior to June 26, you’ll get free cancellations and changes for 12 months. If you had not yet subscribed to the Basic tier or higher, you will no longer have access to free changes or cancellations.
It is particularly awful that Life Miles made this change unannounced, with no prior warning and no notification after the fact, leaving it to members to figure it out by paying close attention to the fine print on the subscription website. I might not have noticed the difference between the benefits listed above (the “new” version) and the original version when the Lifemiles+ subscriptions launched a few years ago:
I had to look to the frequently asked questions, which had to be expanded to be read, to find the details about changes and cancellations moving forward:
That’s a pretty sneaky place to notify members of the change. Thanks to Brandon for noticing and pointing it out.
The lack of prior notice really stinks for anyone who was being strategic about how they subscribed. It was previously possible to subscribe to the “lite” plan for $20 per month in order to take advantage of the 10% discount on award redemptions and simply upgrade to the Basic plan at $50 per month if and when a member wanted to make a change or cancellation. The rules previously indicated that you needed to be a “Basic” subscriber or higher at the time you make the change or cancellation, so I’m sure there probably are some folks who had not yet subscribed because they were waiting until they actually needed to make a change or cancellation to an existing booking. Unfortunately, if you’re in that camp, you’ll no longer have access to an avenue for free changes or cancellations. I can see that being massively frustrating and disappointing for anyone who speculatively booked an award expecting to subscribe later.
In my own case, I subscribed to this benefit a couple of months ago when I needed to make a change to an award booking for travel this summer. We’ve since had to change again, and I need to cancel that itinerary. I’ve maintained my subscription, but haven’t actually canceled the flight yet.
Now I’m faced with a dilemma: after canceling that award, do I also cancel my Lifemiles Plus, or do I keep it for the next 12 months since I’m going to have a quantity of Lifemiles (thanks to a 5-passenger cancellation) and won’t otherwise have a way to get free changes or cancellations in the future? I might end up being on the hook for a subscription for a bit longer than intended.
Whether you’re in that type of situation or you were waiting to subscribe in order to get free changes or cancellations, this is obviously very disappointing. It’s particularly frustrating that it happened without any notice or notification. That type of move only serves to erode trust in the program. Given that LifeMiles already has a bit of a shaky reputation due to a frustrating website experience, inability to book some Star Alliance awards that should be available, and sometimes poor customer service, it really doesn’t help to have them change something like this without informing members. The fact that it comes on the heels of Avianca starting to suck the life out of Lifemiles doesn’t help. There’s no doubt that the Lifemiles of today is not the Lifemiles of three or four or eight years ago.
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I am not a LifeMiles aficionado, but I had an award booking with them earlier this year where I was hoping to eventually find a better option, and I got the subscription to keep the ticket more flexible (apparently I didn’t remember that I didn’t have to subscribe until I actually needed to make a change). In the end we kept flying the trip is booked, and zu was planning to resubscribe for my next award.
This makes LifeMiles a lot less appealing. I still have some 50k miles waiting to be used. Need to prioritize that more before the next shoe drops.
I just checked and I have 8 months left on my current 12-month subscription. I’ll probably cancel after that benefit runs out because the ability to make speculative bookings was/is the main draw of LifeMiles+. Paying $600 a year for the 15% discount isn’t worth it; especially with United restricting premium award availability and also LifeMiles having less premium cabin partner space than Air Canada. Plus, LifeMiles penchant for these no notice devaluations leaves a bad impression to me.
Can’t wait for all the Facebook groups yelling they can’t change etc..