Star Alliance program Avianca LifeMiles is offering a 100% bonus on transferred miles through February 23.

Star Alliance member Avianca has really useful miles (that have gotten more useful over the past few months!) through the LifeMiles program:

• No fuel surcharges
  
• Reasonable award chart
  
• They sell miles cheap

Recently their miles have gotten more valuable because they’ve gotten more flexible, allowing mixed cabin redemptions and Lufthansa first class redemptions.

Not all connections are bookable, you’re pretty much limited to the options you see on their redemption website (which is quite good) and telephone customer service is challenging (e-mail is better).

With this offer you can effectively buy miles with this promotion for 1.5 cents apiece. For many programs, that’s a great price. However LifeMiles frequently sells miles as inexpensively as 1.35 cents, so there’s no rush.

One interesting thing about LifeMiles is that the cost to transfer and buy miles varies based on the country your account is registered in though of course this is largely a taxation issue and the US doesn’t tax the sale of miles by non-US based programs. (Because US tax rules on the sale of miles make some basic mistaken assumptions, which you can challenge.)

Since this promotion requires you to move miles into another account to get the bonus and that means you already need to have miles in an account, it’s worth remembering that LifeMiles lets you book awards with a combination of miles and cash anyway buying miles at a discount at the time of redemption.

So I don’t recommend taking advantage of this offer for most people.

Terms and conditions:

• This promotion is available at LifeMiles.com, Avianca’s Information Centers and Call Center except for Venezuela and Argentina where is only available through LifeMiles.com.
  
• This promotion applies between February 9th and 23rd, 2016(between 00.00-12.00 GMT -5, Colombia), as the last date of transfer.
  
• Minimum transfer miles: 1,000.
  
• The miles must be transferred in multiples of 1,000.
  
• Maximum transfer miles per member per calendar year: LM 75,000 (excluding additional bonuses).
  
• Maximum LifeMiles to receive per member per calendar year: LM 75,000 (excluding additional bonuses).
  
• Transfer fee for each block of 1,000 LifeMiles: USD $17.70* including taxes for each country**.
  
• The amount paid for the miles’ transfer is not refundable.
  
• At LifeMiles.com, the purchase can only be done through ENJOY/Transfer LifeMiles.
  
• Does not apply to the Flexible Redemption (miles + money) during the payment process of air ticket redemption.
  
• Form of payment through Call Center and LifeMiles.com: credit card or international debit card.
  
• Cash payments are only allowed at Avianca’s Information Centers.
  
• The miles transferred and earned with this promotion do not apply to achieve or maintain Elite status.
  
• The transferred miles, once accrued, can be redeemed according to the conditions specified in the LifeMiles’ Terms and Conditions and portfolio of products and services available for redemption.
  
• LifeMiles Terms and Conditions may apply, you can find them at LifeMiles.com.
  
• LifeMiles is a trademark of LifeMiles B.V.
  
• *For residents in Colombia: The values must be calculated at the TRM rate of the date of transaction.
  
• **For residents in Peru: the transfer fee for each block of 1,000 LifeMiles: USD $17.7, S. / 60.7 including taxes.
  Rate change to January 20th, 2016: S /. 3.43.
  
• The final price in Nuevos Soles will be determined according to the Exchange rate of the day of the redemption.
  
• For the rest of countries, the values must be calculated at the exchange rate of the date of transaction.
  
• **The price can be less depending on the country of residence that the member has registered in our data base.