(EXPIRED) Stack it: 15% LifeMiles transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards; combine with 10% rebate from LifeMiles+ for great deals

I tried my best to convince Greg to love Avianca LifeMiles. Just in time to teach him how powerful LifeMiles can be for his last-minute booking needs, Avianca LifeMiles has launched a 15% transfer bonus when transferring from Amex Membership Rewards points to Avianca LifeMiles. That’s a decent deal on its own. Those who subscribe to LifeMiles+ (or who got the Elite credit card for its free subscription) will enjoy a 10% rebate when redeeming — so the two can combine to make for a really good deal.

The Deal

• Avianca LifeMiles is offering a 15% bonus when you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to LifeMiles between June 3, 2024 and June 30, 2024
• Direct link to this deal

Key Terms

• This Promotion is valid only for point transfers from American Express Membership Rewards to miles of the LifeMiles program from June 3rd,2024 (12:00 AM GMT-5) to June 30th, 2024 (11:59 PM GMT-4).
• A minimum transfer of 1000 points is required.
• Membership Rewards customers must be previously registered as a LifeMiles member in order to participate in this promotion, you can sign up as a member at LifeMiles.com.
• During the offer, the member will receive a 15% 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 accrued in separate transactions.
• LifeMiles earned by transferring and the bonus Miles earned with this promotion apply to obtain or maintain the LifeMiles Elite Status according to the rules of the Elite Program available at LifeMiles.com.
• 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.
• LifeMiles is not responsible for miles not accrued, accrued mistakenly or accrued late due to report errors or delays from the LifeMiles Partners.
• Once points or miles are transferred to LifeMiles, the transaction cannot be reversed.
  Upon completion of the transfer, Terms and Conditions of the LifeMiles Program apply, available at LifeMiles.com.
• This offer is available for customers that make the transaction on the American Express Rewards site in the USA.
• Terms and Conditions for the Membership Rewards® program apply. Visit membershiprewards.com/terms for more information. The value of Membership Rewards® points varies according to how you choose to use them. To learn more, go to membershiprewards.com/pointsinfo.
• LifeMiles is a trademark of LifeMiles LTD.

Quick Thoughts

Avianca is offering the 15% bonus here rather than Amex, so you won’t see it reflected in your Amex account before making the transfer. The 15% bonus will post as a separate transaction “within 24 hours”. That makes me a little nervous about using this for our Flying By the Seat of our Points last-minute travel challenge (which kicks off live on Youtube tonight, 6/3/24, at 9pm Eastern time).

That said, in my past experience, when Avianca has offered this type of bonus, I’ve seen it post right away. I’d probably gamble on that (and maybe I will!).

We always recommend against transferring speculatively. The reason transferable currencies are so valuable is because they offer the ability to transfer to whichever program has the availability that fits your needs in the moment. When you transfer to a specific airline, you give up that flexibility.

That said, I think this could still be of interest to heavy LifeMiles users. Just last week, I said that if I end up wanting to use a LifeMiles sweet spot to book travel for our challenge, I’ll probably subscribe to Lifemiles+ for the 10% rebate on awards.

The combination of the rebate and this transfer bonus could yield some deals. For instance, a business class award between Europe and the US ordinarily costs 63K miles each way to/from most of Europe. With the transfer bonus, you would only need to transfer 55,000 Membership Rewards points in order to have enough Lifemiles to book That award. Then, if you have even the Lifemiles+ Lite subscription (which costs $20 per month or is included with the Lifemiles Elite credit card), you would get 10% of the miles back (6,300 miles rebated). That means you’ll have used 54,000 Membership Rewards points for a one-way business class award and 6,300 leftover Lifemiles. That’s a really good deal.

I still probably wouldn’t speculatively transfer, but it’ll be interesting to see if one of us can put this to use for a last-minute booking this week! For more ideas on how to use Lifemiles, see our guide to best uses of Lifemiles.

H/T: One Mile at a Time

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