Bilt Rewards has added Avianca LifeMiles as a 1:1 points transfer partner. Transfer a minimum of 2,000 points, reduced to 1,000 minimum for those with status in the program.

Avianca LifeMiles is a popular Star Alliance frequent flyer program for U.S. members because they sell miles inexpensively on a regular basis, and because you can transfer points into their program from several different credit card currencies.

• They have generally reasonable redemption pricing
  
• with no fuel surcharges
  
• though getting customer service when things go wrong can be challenging at times.

The best way to redeem Bilt points is transferring them to partner airline and hotel programs. They’ve got coverage across all of the airline alliances, and are unique in having both United Airlines and American Airlines as transfer partners – plus Hyatt.

• Star Alliance: Air Canada Aeroplan, Turkish Miles & Smiles, United Airlines MileagePlus, Avianca LifeMiles
  
• oneworld: American AAdvantage, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
  
• SkyTeam: Air France KLM Flying Blue
  
• Non-alliance: Emirates Skywards, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles
  
• Hotels: Hyatt, IHG Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy

It’s unlikely I will transfer to LifeMiles. However the program offers really unique pockets of value, perfect for expert frequent flyers. For instance when you book tickets between the U.S. and Asia in business class, a connecting flight in coach usually brings the cost of the award down even though you’re flying more.

Sometimes you’ll find that LifeMiles doesn’t make awards available that other partners can book. And sometimes that is intentional. Program executives have told me multiple times in the past that they see some awards that are unprofitable for them to offer and those may be blocked.

I have a decent stash of LifeMiles and use them, but prefer to buy miles when offered cheap and save my Bilt Rewards for the numerous high value opportunities that the program offers – for instance, I took advantage of a 150% transfer bonus to move 200,000 Bilt points into 500,000 Virgin points.

They have the program with the most extreme value (Turkish). I used HawaiianMiles for my last Hawaii trip to upgrade cheap tickets. And first class upgrades are an amazing value since I find they’re almost always available close to departure and you can even upgrade business class awards.

You can also use Bilt points at 1.25 cents apiece towards travel through their (Expedia-powered) portal, redeem for rent (please don’t) or Amazon purchases (please don’t).