Through July 26th Avianca LifeMiles is offering a 100% bonus on transferred miles. For each 1000 miles you transfer into someone’s account, they receive 2000 miles.
You can transfer up to 75,000 miles per year (which in this offer would be matched by an additional 75,000).
The cost to transfer is $15 per 1000 miles (or 1.5 cents apiece). As a result you’re effectively buying miles at 1.5 cents each.
Just last month Lifemiles was selling miles for just over 1.4 cents apiece without having to have any in your account to start. They frequently sell miles between 1.35 and 1.5 cents apiece. So this is another opportunity, and one you can take advantage of with a different cap than buying miles (since your annual limit is separate for each).
Star Alliance member Avianca has really useful miles (that have gotten more useful over the past year!) 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.
Lufthansa First Class Terminal, Frankfurt
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).
I don’t recommend hoarding miles. LifeMiles has made changes to their award chart in the past without notice. However, the CEO of LifeMiles told me back in April that they found certain awards (and certain routings) that weren’t profitable for them at the low price point at which they sell miles. He says they’ve eliminated those and they’re confident of the math at this point.
