For quite a few years now Avianca LifeMiles has been famous for selling their miles with a 100% bonus every few months. If you have followed us for sometime you'll know this is a great option to get Star Alliance flights on the cheap especially in business class. However Avianca recently announced that on September 30th the price to buy miles will go up 10% (which still isn't too bad) and changes to their award chart as of October 15th which are a devaluation. So what should you do? If you know that you can make your travel work and get the LifeMiles redemption(s) of your choice, buy the miles before September 30th and ensure you redeem for that travel by October 14th!
As we mentioned Avianca is a member of the Star Alliance. So while before I used to tout this offer as a way to get Lufthansa business class from North America to Europe for $1800, you can now use the miles on any Star Alliance airline. The program also offers one way rewards at exactly half the round trip cost and does not charge fuel surcharges on award tickets.
With business class tickets to Europe going for 105,000 miles and Asia for 125 - 130,000 miles you can travel 'luxuriously' for a lot less with this deal. What used to be a decent feature of LifeMiles is their Cash + Part Points option but that was devalued nearly a year ago. This option only requires that you have 40% of the points for a reward (so buy 40% during this 100% bonus period) and then you can buy the rest of the miles (the other 60%) at about 1.56 cents per mile (used to be 1.25 cents!).
Some things to consider with the buy miles option before you pull the trigger is that their call center tends to be on the less helpful side so you are better off booking award tickets online which also means you are limited to the powers of that source, mixed class awards are not allowed unless you book each award ticket as separate one way flights and they have devalued the program without notice in the past so only buy these miles if you think you will use them in the next short while
Offer details
100% Bonus LifeMiles when you buy LifeMiles online. You must be a LifeMiles member as of Sep 2 to purchase. Full details Until Sep 30, 14
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