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Update: This offer ends tomorrow!
Transfer AMEX Points To Avianca Lifemiles And Get A 15% Transfer Bonus
You can transfer increments of 1,000 AMEX Membership Rewards Points into 1,150 Avianca Lifemiles through 10/31/19.
With this promotion you’ll be able to redeem United award flights for less than 6K points each way!
As always, I don’t recommend transferring points to airlines unless you have short-term plans to use them.
Lifemiles is one of the rare mileage programs that doesn’t collect any fuel surcharges. United is another program that does not collect fuel surcharges, but AMEX points can’t be transferred to United as they are exclusively with Chase.
AMEX cards with transferable Membership Rewards points to Avianca include:
You can also transfer Marriott points to Lifemiles at a 60K:25K ratio or Citi ThankYou points to Lifemiles at a 1K:1K ratio.
Note that Avianca Lifemiles require earning activity every 12 months in order to stop your miles from expiring. Transferring points to Lifemiles will extend the points validity for 12 more months.
- You’ll need to open a Lifemiles account here before you can search for award tickets online.
- Lifemiles allows you to use cash+points on award tickets, where you can effectively buy miles from about 1.5 cents each on the award search results page. You do need to have 40% of the required miles in order to do this.
Avianca is a Star Alliance member and their Lifemiles program is an interesting one. Lifemiles can be used to book travel with partner airlines like United and Air Canada within North America.
Back when I used to give regular seminars I talked about many of the glitch cities that existed that allowed you to fly to Europe or Asia for just 12.5K Lifemiles, but a blogger managed to have them killed by complaining to the DoT about a flight that involved a trip from North America to Guam via Asia that Lifemiles used to count as a domestic US award.
They recently got rid of their award charts, so I set about figuring out what they now charge for awards.
On their old award chart, Lifemiles split up the US into 3 zones:
US Zone 1: Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Washington DC.
US Zone 2: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin
US Zone 3: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
This used to be the one-way mileage requirements for travel within the US:
| From/To | US Zone 1 | US Zone 2 | US Zone 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Zone 1 | 7.5K Coach 15K Business | 10K Coach 15K Business | 12.5K Coach 25K Business |
| US Zone 2 | 10K Coach 15K Business | 7.5K Coach 15K Business | 12.5K Coach 25K Business |
| US Zone 3 | 12.5K Coach 25K Business | 12.5K Coach 25K Business | 7.5K Coach 15K Business |
The new formula isn’t published, but first I tried to figure out if it could be based off of the previous zones.
It soon became clear that the old zones are dead and things were working based on the distance of the flight.
I used GCMap.com to calculate the distance between airports and try to figure out what their new award chart is.
I included the distance flown in parenthesis in the sample routes below. Based on those I believe that Lifemiles typically charges:
- 6.5K miles in coach and 15K-16K miles in business for flights under 500 miles in distance.
- 7.5K miles in coach and 15K-16K miles in business for flights 500-799 miles in distance.
- 10K miles in coach and 15K-25K miles in business for flights 800-1,199 miles in distance.
- 12.5K+ miles in coach and 15K+ miles in business for flights 1,200+ miles in distance.
There are some exceptions. The short haul pricing only seems to apply within the US, as flights between NYC and Toronto or Montreal are 10K in coach or 15K in business. Chicago to Great Falls is 1,210 miles in distance and should cost 12.5K miles in coach, but only costs 7.5K miles. But for the most part, domestic routes in coach seemed to follow this formula.
Business class pricing though is all over the place.
Lifemiles used to always charge a $25 booking fee on top of tax, but now the booking fee is variable and starts at $10.
Note that Lifemiles also allows cash plus points. For example you can use 3.5K miles+$45 instead of 6.5K miles.
- All of these routes are under 500 miles in distance, cost 6.5K miles each way in coach, and had a $10 booking fee:
- Chicago-Kansas City (403): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- Cleveland-Chicago (315): 6.5K coach, 16K business. $10 booking fee.
- Houston-New Orleans (305): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- LaGuardia/Newark-Cleveland (404): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- Newark-Boston (200): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- Newark-Columbus (463): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- Newark-Detroit (488): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- Newark-Pittsburgh (319): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- Newark-Washington/IAD (212): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- Los Angeles-Las Vegas (236): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- Los Angeles-Phoenix (370): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- Los Angeles-San Francisco (337): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- Washington/IAD-Charlotte (322): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- The following routes cost 7.5K miles in coach and vary between 500-799 miles in distance. The booking fee on these is $10 as well:
- Newark-Atlanta (746): 7.5K coach, 16K business. $10 booking fee.
- Newark-Charlotte (529): 7.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- Newark-Cincinnati (569): 7.5K coach, 16K business. $10 booking fee.
- LaGuardia/Newark-Chicago (719): 7.5K coach, 16K business. $10 booking fee.
- Los Angeles-Jackson Hole (784): 7.5K coach. 15K business. $10 booking fee.
- San Francisco-Seattle (679): 7.5K coach, 25K business. $10 booking fee.
- Washington/IAD-Orlando (758): 7.5K coach, 16K business. $10 booking fee.
Exception route: Chicago-Great Falls (1,210): 7.5K coach, 15K business. $25 booking fee.
- The following routes cost 10K miles each and vary between 800-1,199 miles in distance. The booking fee on these ranged from $15-$25:
- Chicago-Bozeman (1,186): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
- Chicago-Denver (888): 10K coach, 25K business. $15 booking fee.
- Cleveland-Orlando (895): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
- Chicago-Fort Lauderdale (1,182): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
- LaGuardia/Newark-Toronto (357): 10K coach, 15K business. $25 booking fee.
- LaGuardia/Newark-Montreal (324): 10K coach, 15K business. $25 booking fee.
- Los Angeles-Colorado Springs (833): 10K coach. $15 booking fee.
- Los Angeles-Denver (862): 10K coach, 25K business. $15 booking fee.
- Los Angeles-Seattle (954): 10K coach, 25K business. $15 booking fee.
- Newark-Fort Lauderdale (1,065): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
- Newark-Kansas City (1,094): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
- Newark-Orlando (937): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
- Newark-New Orleans (1,167): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
- Washington/IAD-Fort Lauderdale (901): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
- The following awards over 1,200 miles in distance cost 12.5K or more miles:
- Chicago-El Paso (1,236): 12.5K coach, 25K business. $15 booking fee.
- Chicago-Salt Lake City (1,250): 12.5K coach, 25K business. $15 booking fee.
- LaGuardia/Newark-Houston (1,400): 12.5K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
- Newark-Vancouver (2,429): 12.5K coach, 25K business. $25 booking fee.
- Newark-Los Angeles (2,454): 13.5K coach, 25K business. $25 booking fee.
- Los Angeles-Honolulu (2,256): 15K coach, 40K business. $25 booking fee.
- Newark-Honolulu (4,962): 15K coach. Keep dreaming in business. $25 booking fee.
- JFK-Zurich (3,931): 16.5K coach, 63K business. $25 booking fee.
- Newark-Sao Paulo (4,758): 30K coach, 50K business. $25 booking fee.
- Newark-Tel Aviv (5,692): 42.5K coach, 78K business. $25 booking fee.
Back in the day I’d use 7.5K BA Avios for a last minute flight. However American now blocks nonstop saver award space within 2 weeks on the route. Plus, American seems to know when I fly as they delay or cancel nearly every single flight I have on them.
A paid last minute ticket is a small fortune:
But 6.5K miles? Now that’s a bargain!
While I typically book all of my travel as one-way as that allows the most flexibility, with Lifemiles you’ll pay the booking fee twice if you book 2 one-way awards instead of a round-trip award.
It’s worth noting that Lifemiles has non-existent customer service and their website does not see all of the awards that it should, so you should always check for availability before transferring miles.
Will you transfer points to Lifemiles?
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40 Comments On "Ends Tomorrow: Transfer AMEX Points To Avianca Lifemiles And Get A 15% Bonus! Redeem United Award Flights For Under 6K Points!"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Will they have more availability than United or the same (lass)?
Same as United saver when not logged in.
In my experience they have much less availability than United or even Aeroplan. It’s fairly difficult to snag valuable Business class tickets on Lifemiles.
To counter, I literally booked TLV-EWR in Polaris Business via Lifemiles yesterday… and for less than the mileage United demands. 🙂
How much did it cost?
Can I book united to Europe through lifemiles?
Sure.
Can we add our united number after booking to get elite benefits? (economy plus seats, etc.)
Yes. I did that and got upgraded on my United award.
Amazing. Thanks!
Do you know how much USA-TLV will cost?
What options is there JFK – TLV with lifemiles?
42.5K coach is just like united
how good is united availability in business from ny to tlv with LM ?
none
As “good” as united itself or worse if there is such a possibility
Can barely find anything to europe in business
Or even economy.
Do they have the $75 last minute booking fee like United? Any other way to avoid the hefty last minute booking fee?
Nope, but they do have a small booking fee, as described in the post.
What’s the best option for Canada booking ? We have a wedding in November. We have quite a few points with Amex platinum business.
What are cancellation fees.
What do they charge for changes /cancelation
$150 change fee
$100 iirc cancellation fee
Wont this be affected by the new change coming on November 14th/15th with dynamic pricing for partners?
1. No.
2. There is no dynamic pricing for partners.
There was announcement on many blogs today about it.
“The partner award chart will remain in effect for travel through November 14, 2019. For travel on or after November 15, 2019, there may be flights that require a higher number of miles than the amounts indicated on the award chart. When you search for awards while booking, you’ll see the applicable award level.”
Mostly old and fake news
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/united-partner-award-rates-may-higher-charts-eliminated-excursionist-perk-will-remain/
A few days ago a short haul usa to Canada (phl yyz) was pricing at 10k as described in your post but now its saying 12.5k . any idea why?
Would we get free checked bag with United card on a United flight booked with Lifemiles and fees paid by United card?
Yes.
I’m not so sure this is correct. I once booked a United flight through Aeroplan, paid the taxes with my United card but they charged me for a checked bag. I wrote to United and they said they would make a one time exception, but the fee was payable when booking through Aeroplan.
Did you switch the reservation to include your MileagePlus number?
It occurred in 2015, so I don’t recall. But I did find United’s response:
I am responding to your complaint to the U.S. Department of
Transportation regarding your travel experience on United Express flight
6296 from Vancouver to Los Angeles on April 26th.
I regret that you were charged a fee of $26.25 CAD for checking your bag in Vancouver. You mentioned that you used a United MileagePlus Chase credit card to pay for the charges on your award ticket and, as a
benefit of doing so; you are entitled to have the charge waived. The
award ticket was redeemed using your Aero plan miles which is an Air
Canada mileage program and not United Airlines.
However, I can certainly understand where this can be interpreted
differently. As a one-time exception, I have requested a refund of the
$26.25 (CAD) charge to be refunded back to the original form of payment. Please allow up to one billing cycle for this charge to show up in your statement.
On behalf of the entire United team, we are looking forward to welcoming
you onboard again as we intend to work hard to earn a more favorable
impression.
Your loyalty as a MileagePlus member means a lot to us.
If you add your United number you should be good to go.
Do the transfers post immediately ?
Yes.
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/mileage-expiration-guide-for-38-loyalty-programs-how-to-keep-your-points-from-expiring-and-how-to-bring-them-back-to-life-after-theyve-expired/
Dan, does lifemiles have close-in booking fee? may need to fly from MSY to IAH on Nov. 9th? Thx
Nope.
Can someone please send a link that works for the Avianca rewards booking.