25% Transfer Bonus From Citi to Star Alliance Program Avianca LifeMiles

by Gary Leff

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Last November Citi ran a 25% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles and like clockwork it’s back for 2019.

Citi transfers to LifeMiles earn a 25% bonus through December 11:

Star Alliance frequent flyer program Avianca LifeMiles is one of my favorites. They offer domestic US flights from just 3500 miles, and transatlantic awards for as little as 13,500 miles. You can even save miles on a premium cabin award by adding a segment in a lower class of service.

LifeMiles has US-issued credit cards and in general I’m a fan of co-brand cards that aren’t issued by Chase, American Express, Citibank or even Bank of America. This one is from Banco Popular.

  • The standard offer for the premium card is to earn up to 40,000 Bonus LifeMiles after first purchase within 90 days of account opening.
  • The premium (Vuela) card offers a 50% discount on an award ticket redeemed for travel to Central America or Colombia from the United States after $12,000 spent each year and an additional 50% discount on an award ticket redeemed for travel to Central America or Colombia from the United States after $24,000 spent each year.
  • You can earn an additional 20,000 bonus miles after $1,000 spend on purchases within the first 90 days of account opening (for a total of 60,000 bonus miles). Promo code SB4060 must be entered when completing the application in order to receive the additional 20,000 bonus miles. {offer expired}
  • This offer is valid through December 31, 2019.


Avianca is an Airline — and Not Just a Frequent Flyer Program That Sells Partner Seats Cheap

You can fly business class to Europe for 63,000 miles each way or Southeast Asia for 78,000. First class (Lufthansa) is 87,000 miles each way between the US and Europe. And that’s before special deals or cutting the cost with lower-cabin connecting flights.

(HT: One Mile at a Time)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Gary,
    Can you tell me a little more about how to fly Lufthansa first class from the US to Europe for 87,000 miles each way? I’m based in San Francisco. Are you talking about using Avianca miles? Are you talking about figuring in the 25% bonus to get the flights for 87,000 miles? Are there actually seats available for 87,000 miles? And what do you mean about “cutting the cost” with lower cabin connecting flights?

  2. @Gary: Banco Unpopular has something like Chase’s 5/24 although they are unclear what the two sides of the fraction are.

Comments are closed.