Star Alliance member Avianca LifeMiles has one of the most valuable frequent flyer programs for experts in award travel. They have reasonable redemption prices. There are no fuel surcharges. And when you have some coach segments along with business or first class, the price of the award drops.
They’re a transfer part of American Express, Citi, Capital One, and Bilt. And they frequently sell points inexpensively. But there hasn’t been a U.S. credit card for the program since Avianca and U.S. co-brand issuing partner Banco Popular ended their relationship two years ago.
That’s about to change. They are about to launch a new U.S. credit card, and I understand it’ll have some interesting benefits. There will actually be two different card options, both American Express, and I’m especially excited to see what the super premium card has to offer.
- They haven’t released details of the card yet, but if you sign up to be on the wait list (they’ll send you a note when the card is available) you’ll earn extra points with your initial bonus. There is literally no reason not to do this.
- Between credit card, points transfers, and deep discount sales, it’ll be really easy to get their points in the U.S., and they’re redeemable for travel across Star Alliance airlines like United, Air Canada, and Lufthansa.
What’s more the card isn’t from Chase, Citi, or Bank of America. It’s a Cardless product. It’s great to have card options beyond the usual suspects.
Join the waitlist and you’ll be eligible for:
- 10,000 extra miles when approved for the premium $249 annual fee card and meeting the minimum spend requirement
- 5,000 extra miles when approved for the $99 annual fee card and meeting the minimum spend requirement
To be eligible for these additional bonus points on top of the regular bonus offer you’ll need to get the card within 30 days of applications.
@ Gary — LifeMiles is useless. When is the last time you used it to book a flight?
Gene – I used them last month to book a roundtrip Air Canada flight for 6,000 miles each way when Aeroplan wanted 15K each way and United wanted 29K each way.
Weren’t very useless to me
The issue with Cardless is as far I am concerned you can only get a product with them. For example: If you get the Latam CC; that’s it, you CAN’T get the TAP, or soon to come Qatar or now Avianca, even if you had cancelled the CC
I used them to get myself on Copa dream business from YYZ to MVD. Very useful program imo, excited for this card.
Lifemiles can be a great value, I’ve booked many excellent redemptions with them.
There are possible frustrations you need to just be aware of. The website can occasionally be glitchy requiring manual intervention. If there’s a situation that results in you being owed a fee-free refund and miles redeposit, it can be painful getting it accomplished.
But every program has its pros and cons. Lifemiles definitely has some strong use cases.
Excited for the new card. The Banco Popular card was OK for the SUB but the bank website was straight out of 2001 lol.
@Gene Lifemiles has plenty of value. But not for contingent/provisional bookings or bookings where there tend to be lots of schedule changes. Just because lifemiles customer service is awful doesn’t mean there isn’t outsized value. I actually like lifemiles because it separates the children from the adults in this hobby. It takes effort and thought to actually use lifemiles well.
Would people put spending on a card that generate LifeMiles, beyond initial required minimum spend? Unlikely because they can always buy these miles cheaply from Avianca, unless, of course, the card gives them some other compelling reason to do so (e.g. better than 2 miles/$ on everyday spend).
I used them to book business class to Dublin on Air Canada. It was economy for the domestic portion, so It was only like 55k miles each way. Plus there was a transfer bonus so basically 48k for lie flat with barely any taxes a fees.
Gary, you said American express. The link says Cardless. Is Cardless an Amex sub?
@ eds183 — Exactly, it shouldn’t take the absurd, infuriating effort that is required. I am all for making bookings less than easy, but LifeMiles is not worth my energy. I can’t remember the last time that I made an LM booking where the flights weren’t eventually cancelled and no alternatives were available. Of courese, they keep their ripoff fee and mkae it hell to get a refund. That is not acceptable.
@Brachfan – Cardless has Mastercard, now Visa (with the new Qatar product) and American Express cards. Third parties can offer cards that process on the Amex network, and Amex is an investor in Cardless.
@gary since the issuer is cardless, I am assuming being in Amex purgatory wouldn’t preclude one from being approved for the bonus? Is it right that one can only get one cardless product ever as another person mentioned? If so, one would have to choose between Qatar and avianca.
@Prateek Singh – Amex isn’t the issuer, just the payment network, so I assume there’d be no conflict there