Milepoint was launched in 2011 as a frequent flyer community where members could talk about their travels and loyalty programs in a friendly way on a new platform. I’ve enjoyed the many interactions with folks I’ve had there, and have been privileged to be a part of the community I helped to found. Although I don’t think it reached its potential, and we certainly didn’t do everything with and for it that we’d always talked about.
That’s changing.
- Milepoint relaunches with a global footprint as Inside Flyer.
- It will have sites based in countries around the world, in local languages. Bringing communities together you can interact with local market experts on airlines, hotels, and frequent travel.
- It relaunches integrating mileage and travel itinerary tracking and social features to keep up with other members of the community during your travels. And with travel deals and lounge intelligence all in one place. And the latest news is easier to get there than ever, with articles summarizing key insights right on the front page and not just discussion forums to dive into.
Only half the features are up and running today, it will take the next several weeks for you to see everything that Inside Flyer. But lots of partners and friends around the world are pitching in to help us celebrate.
The very first offer comes from our friends at Star Alliance frequent flyer program LifeMiles who are offering their richest non-targeted purchased miles bonus ever.
- Purchases of 100,000 – 150,000 miles will be available with a 150% bonus (2.5 miles for every one that you buy).
- They’ve offered targeted 200% bonuses in the past that I was unable to take advantage of.
- You’ll need to register for this offer on the Inside Flyer website.
I’m not generally a fan of buying miles speculatively, but the price in last month’s promotion was too good and I bit. I bought my maximum allowable for the year. Fortunately I have accounts of family members I can use to take advantage of this even better offer. (I used to buy US Airways miles via their share miles promo at a similar price — needs to be this low for me to justify.)
Last month I wrote about LifeMiles award discounts for Star Alliance redemptions. They ran a short-term promotion, with some awards discounted up to 50%. Usually when an airline discounts redemptions is this only for their own aircraft, and most often only for coach. LifeMiles discounted Star Alliances awards and even business and first class.
They’re bringing back the promotion to coincide with this miles purchase opportunity. For a full analysis of the award discounts, here’s my description of the details. Note that these are roundtrip prices, one way awards are half the cost:
Come over, check out Inside Flyer, there’s a lot more to come!
Is the old milepoint info (username, status, passwd, etc) migrated to the new site?
The obvious question everyone will ask. Does the purchase count as an airline purchase or as usual it is processed by points.com there it doesn’t count?
@colleen, yes it seems all the information was migrated. Site also seems to be running very slow, I hope this gets faster.
@Bruce the miles are sold directly by LifeMiles so could as airline spend (for bonus points on some cards, for the Citi Prestige airline credit)
Could you do the math on the points purchase? Maybe I’m missing something. It says 100K miles is $3894. I’m not coming up with 1.3 cents per miles based on that.
Thanks @djp_707. I’ve tried logging in with both my email address and old MP username with MP login. There’s no welcome page – I’m immediately taken to a sign-up page. Any ideas?
Hi Gary – What if you are having trouble logging onto the new site with your old Milepoint password? Is there a way to reset it?
how do we access the forums? no joy so far
Hate to be critical but website is not working well at all…can’t login with old email but can’t register again
Hi,
How long are these specials valid for? Both in terms of buying the miles and the sale on redemptions?
Dale.
Not finding the offer easily, where to look?
@Bruce. You are missing something. The quantity of bonus miles in your calculation (denominator).
Award Store tab in the upper left corner.
I’m a Life Miles member. I went to Inside Flyer and “registered” the Avianca promotion. Then Inside Flyer says “promotion registered”……. And nothing happens. I also don’t understand the 1.3 cents/mile cost. Comes out to 1.5 cents/mile by my calculation.
I was able to log in using my old credentials.
Question : following rule “Once registered, you have 24 hours to confirm your purchase of miles” – Does this mean once I registered, I have to buy within 24 hrs?
ZH
Addendum……..InsideFlyer says “you have claimed all your awards” once registered for the offer. Then nothing…….
I get $3894 /(100,000+150,000) =$.0156 per point
@Jerry ok thanks, found it and registered what is next step? Don’t see option yet to purchase miles.
Also wondering about valuation, it says 100,000 miles will cost $3894, with 150% bonus that would be total of 250,000 miles which at $3894 is 1.557 cents per mile not 1.3, what am I missing?
Thanks
I see where the discrepancy (.013 vs .0156) is now – the LifeMiles website lists the cost of miles at $33 per 1000. The price of $3894 quoted on InsideFlyer is charging a higher price or perhaps some tax?
The website is not working well …can’t login with old email or username but can’t register again either. 🙁
Just like others, the website is a challenge to login to. I cannot seem to use my milepoint login and password, it keeps asking me to register, but says my username is already in use.
Also what type of scam are they running charging $3854 to purchase 100,000 miles. Since when. Lifemiles are supposed to cost $3300. Who is pocketing that $584 or is this misleading advertising
At 1.557 cpm this is not that great of a deal, especially looking at the limited time of availability.
Do you have any insight as to the misleading price discrepancy
@RS_WI. I was being polite. As others have noted, the cost comes to more than 1.5 cents even when you account for the bonus miles in the denominator.
I’m not seeing the reference to 1.3 cents. Maybe Gary edited it? Maybe the 1.3 cents was supposed to incorporate the discount redemptions in between certain regions? Nevertheless, the hyperbole about it being the richest promotion ever and “150%” is shameful. The just ended promo of 125% for 3.3 cents per mile was much better than this promo of 150% for 3.854 cents per mile. Unless Avianca has raised the price of buying miles to 3.854 cents across the board, this appears to be a scam for the unsuspecting, pure and simple. I’d be curious whether Gary has a financial interest to drive traffic or memberships toward that website, because it would troubling if he did.
Sure, some might view 250k Lifemiles at $3854, in which case this deal is better than no deal. But the marketing toward the non-math inclined or unsuspecting, or the suggestion this is materially different (or better than) the deals Avianca routinely has offered in the past is disappointing.
More like 1.5576 cpm to be accurate … minus whatever you earn from the $3894 spend.
Agree with @Larry’s comments on this over-hyped promo.
I can’t login either nor does the “join” link work.
As far as the hype about inventing something new…it’s just a little bit prettier interface; buyout of some international sites; the Inside Flyer name on the Traxo loyalty and travel planner app that already exists (along with others); other blog type articles.
I wonder how the majority of BoardingArea bloggers feel about Randy, Gary, and Co. setting up a competing blog aggregator in the guise of the new Insideflyer? Though given the lack of success of MP, perhaps there isn’t a need to worry much.
I just signed into my LifeMiles account and as far as I can tell you can do better there purchasing the mile directly for 0.01467. $3300 for 225K miles.
I see the examples of redemption for award flights to/from US, Brazil, and Europe. Is there any examples of award seats to/from US to Asia?
Thank you!
Gary, one of the reasons you are a top blogger in my opinion is your honesty and integrity.
This post however has soured my opinion. You mention this the best promotions from LifeMiles open to the general public. However a about 1.6cpm promotion is not only typical, but is worse then the previous promotion last month where you could get an additional 10% on top of the 135% of lifemiles offered at $33 per 1000 miles. I believe last months better promotion is the one that you took advantage of.
I hope your rewrite this post or follow up with a more honest review. 1.6cpm is just another typical LifeMiles promotion.
I never claimed this was the richest ever. I specifically explained and linked to previous offers that were bigger (albeit not broadly available).
I removed the 1.3 cent reference because of an odd reference in the promo that makes it look like 1.5 cents although it appears I’m actually buying them with 1.3 cents using the promo. The LifeMiles folks aren’t in the office today 🙂
In any case I bought miles with the 135% + 10% offer and I think this is a great offer. But I think I also offer the appropriate cautions.
@Craig – to be clear I don’t benefit in any way if someone buys miles with this offer or not.
It should be a 1.32 cent per mile promotion. Lifemiles sells miles at 3.3 cents normally. A 150% bonus makes it 1.32 cents.
There was just an odd reference to a higher price (I think someone mistakenly adding tax on the total, though I can tell you from my purchase in September that 3.3 cents is the total price not a ‘before tax’ price). So I wanted to make sure no one was disappointed when they saw the offer. That’s all.
To be all fair @Gary gave us a heads up about the additional 10% discount a while back through some Brazilian blogger.
Although registered then using link provided by this blog, I missed out on the additional 10% discount offer which expired on 9/18. Regardless, if you purchase 101K LM today through the website for a total of 237,350 miles for $3,333, your cost will go as low as 0.01404 per miles … and this is the lowest I can find.
Again, the above examples of redemption for award flights to/from US, Brazil, and Europe. Is there any examples of award seats to/from US to Asia?
Thank you 🙂
I can’t tell what you’re saying, Gary. If it is that the $3854 number that appears on Insideflyer is a ypo and the offer actually is 250k for $3300 then that is a very good promo. But some clarity is surely in order.
the offer to buy miles with a 150% bonus appears not to start until oct 5.
perhaps this has something to do with the erroneous price of $38?? instead of $3300 for 100k LM.
the latter price would bring the miles down to 1.32 CPM.
Would you please let us know when the site is actually functional? Really do not want to spend my Saturday afternoon as a beta pig… Gracias!
Site is locking me out. I log onto Milepoint, then want to look at the travel dashboard but it asks me to log in again but says the my log in info is incorrect. Locked out for an hour, tried again after an hour and it still says locked out for an hour. Before being locked out, requested a password reset but nothing arrived by email. A bit frustrated at this point but once the kinks are out, looking forward to using the new site and tools.
@Larry correct.
But Gary you do benefit from folks using this particular offer. You’re part owner of MP/IF. Having people take advantage of this offer encourages future advertising revenue to InsideFlyer not only from Lifemiles but other companies when you can show a positive return to the advertising parner. This in turn financially benefits InsideFlyer and its owners – including you.
Thanks for the clarification. 250000 for $3300 is indeed a great deal.
@Eric There will be lots of offers, telling folks something is good that is not good would be against my interests in building traffic for Inside Flyer. My interest in that site is pretty modest in any case. I just thought that 1.32 cents per mile is a pretty good value for a Star Alliance program with a decent award chart. Indeed, putting money where my mouth is I bought some miles last month from them at a higher price. But for avoidance of doubt I am aware of no fee paid by LifeMiles to InsideFlyer nor are there commissions on any sale.
And apologies to folks who had login issues earlier today I believe those have been fixed.
Hi,
Is this still on? I’ve registered online but not sure how to proceed as the Lifemiles ad does not link me up to purchase..
So, if one is registered on the Inside Flyer for the promo, how does one follow through with purchasing the miles?
same thing happened to me. registered both mine and my mothers account on inside flyer for lifemiles promotion, and both account came back with this : You have claimed all your awards, please check back later for more awards. this is very frustrating as i really need some lifemiles miles right now
I really want to like Inside Flyer, but man, it’s buggy as heck. Dead links, no way to navigate from one section of the site to another, links that bring up blank pages. This is not a functional website at the moment, sadly.
So, I registered on 4th Oct..I think (as the link is a bit glitchy). When should I expect LM to contact me for purchase??
@Danny check your spam, an email went out yesterday from InsideFlyer
Gary, registered on Monday, still no email as of today (checked spam too). Any advice on who to contact? InsideFlyer website’s Contact Us page isn’t working.