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Update, 1/18/24: The Citi transfer offer is alive with a 25% bonus through 4/13!
Update, 11/4/23: The Citi transfer offer ends tonight!
Update, 10/16/23: The Citi transfer offer is alive with a 25% bonus through 11/4!
Update, 6/29/23: The Citi transfer offer ends tomorrow.
Update, 6/5/23: The Citi transfer offer is alive with a 25% bonus through 6/30!
Fly short-haul for 5.2K Citi points (4,680 points after a 10% Citi Rewards+ rebate) versus 15K United miles or $414 for a paid ticket, a value of 8 cents per mile!
Fly to Australia for 32K Citi points in coach or 64K Citi points in business class, versus 55K United miles in coach or 100K in business class:
HT: Moremomo
Update, 3/1/23: This Citi transfer offer is alive with a 20% bonus through 3/31!
Update, 4/30/22: This transfer offer ends today!
Last week I transferred over 11,000 Citi points (9,900 points after the 10% Citi Rewards+ rebate) into 13,750 Lifemiles and booked a flight for 13K Lifemiles that was selling for 49,600 United miles!
Originally posted on 4/1/22:
You can transfer points from Citi to Lifemiles with a 25% transfer bonus through 4/30.
With this promotion you’ll be able to redeem United award flights from 5.2K points each way.
Here is how to get United benefits when booking with Lifemiles.
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.
Lifemiles is one of the rare mileage programs that doesn’t collect any fuel surcharges. 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.
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 got rid of their award charts in 2019, so I set about figuring out what they 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.
- 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.
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.
- You can transfer AMEX, Capital One Or Citi points to Lifemiles instantly at a 1:1 ratio or Marriott points at a 60K:25K ratio.
AMEX cards with transferable Membership Rewards points include:
- AMEX Blue Business Plus
- AMEX Platinum Business
- AMEX Gold Business Card
- American Express® Gold Card
- AMEX Green Consumer Card
- The Platinum Card® from American Express
- AMEX Everyday Preferred Consumer Card
- AMEX Everyday Consumer Card
If you or a friend has one of the following Citi cards, you can transfer points into miles:
Citi no-annual fee cards that are fantastic for earning points, but require a Citi Premier® Card for points transfers include:
Capital One cards with transferable points include:
- Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
- Capital One Spark Miles for Business
- Capital One Spark Cash Plus
Marriott cards with transferable points include:
- Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Consumer Card
- Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card
- Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express®Card
- Marriott Bonvoy Bold Card
Will you transfer points to Lifemiles?
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56 Comments On "Transfer Citi Points To Avianca Lifemiles And Get A 25% Bonus, Redeem United Award Flights From 5.2K Points!"
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United flight from LAX-EWR on May 14th showing up as this – M16,299 + USD 193. So if I transfer the points it will just be 16299 points with no cash required?
Thanks DAN
That doesn’t sound like a pure award ticket.
Dan, no April fools post this year?
There’s no fuel surcharge but there’s an enormous amount of fees on a one way flight to Canada.
Estimated taxes, Fees, and LifeMiles/Airline Charges: US$ 99.07
That doesn’t sound like a pure award ticket.
So does that mean its not available for that day?
Not for that flight.
I have tried countless times and cannot seems to get the fees lower. Any advice? (e.g. EWR to YYZ on 8/14 -8/17. 13,000 MILES + 123.31 in fees.)
What is a “pure” award ticket?
Not live on my account
It’s a bonus added by lifemiles.
what am i missing, I tried running scenarios in local airports and it in the tri state area and it only has to out of the country, how do you book domestic from EWR to Florida or from JFK…
How much will be nyc to den?
Tryin to get to sjd from bwi on 5/18 – 5/22.
What’s the best way to do it with united?
“That doesn’t sound like a pure award ticket.” so how do you select a pure award ticket?
How do a cancel a life miles award ticket ?
it is not showing i am goign to get 25% bonus on ty website it just shows 1;1 ratio
Same here, but I took Dan’s word for it and went through with the transfer. I transferred 1000 points and received 1250. I did this to prevent my existing miles from expiring the end of this month, but so far, they have not updated the expiration date. Is that normal?
They updated the expiration date to 8/31/2023.
Do they transfer instantly?
Transfers to Avianca LifeMiles are often completed within 24 hours, however the process may occasionally take up to 5 business days. I just transferred from citi and it showed up in my lifemiles account right away.
Does the bonus apply instantly?
Yes.
Why are my 53,000 thank you points only allowed to transfer to Sears and KMart :(.
Is there any way to get them out of my Thank you account? I wanted to transfer to LifeMiles.
What cards do you have?
I have a citi rewards+ and there not letting me transfer
You need a Premier card.
Dan, as a strategy, would you recommend transferring Citi points just to have them there for future travel? I’m wondering if the bonus makes it worthwhile to do that.
its a tradeoff as u can get great value thru TK and VS too (see recent post)
Wondering this too @dan
Just transfer when you need them. Should be instant now.
I recently booked a coach flight from DCA to YYZ for LM6.5k on AC so maybe only NYC gets charged more. Not really sure why that would be tho
Can’t find award availability
Any tips
Thank for the great advice as usual
Hatzlacha!
Any good way to get to Israel with lifemiles
life miles has a 115% bonus till march 14 when you transfer miles to another account
1000 = 2150
15$ for every 1k = 1.3 cent per mile
I need 100m AMEX MR
does anyone know if once you booked an award with lifemiles on a united flight if you need to change can you work directly with united?
Can you book this out of north America?
dont see any pure awrds for ewr to det for May what am I doing wrong?
do you need miles in you account to see award flights?
paying 40% in miles and the rest cash now gives a rate of $33 per every 1000 miles, I don’t see the $15 price anymore
Perfect alternative for united, after awful (and yes… Massive) devaluation
One of the many good partner options!
Hi. I’m trying to transfer my points from Citibank to lifemiles but I’m not seeing the 25% bonus when I get to the Citibank transfer page. I signed into my life miles and I’m still not seeing it. What am I doing wrong?
It’s a bonus from Lifemiles, not Citi. It will be added after the transfer.
With no future plans at the moment, but wanna downgrade my citi card is it worth transferring?
What’s the cancellation policy after booking with lifemiles? Is it like/through untied awards and no fee easy cancel?
Nah, 150 dollar fee
Just transferred a few pts, aside for the 25% bonus from LM got a msg from citi I get 10% back on next statement!
is this supposed to show on the citi side? or will it just show up in the lifemiles account? I don’t see it when I try to transfer citi points
Newark to Toronto is 6.5k now
Maybe they changed it after @dan called attention to it!
I’m having a hard time accessing the lifemiles website . any advice ?
Use another browser or incognito.
Thanks. I tried that and the app. nothing doing. keep on getting an error message in spanish…?
Try Firefox
I’m terribly unlucky: most of the time United miles are half or less than Avianca’s. Unlucky because I am low on United but I can transfer lots of Avianca miles.