Through the end of May, you can earn up to 125% bonus when your buy LifeMiles.
The number of bonus miles is tiered depending on how many miles are purchased:
- Buy 1,000 – 50,000 LifeMiles, Receive 100% Bonus
- Buy 51,000 – 100,000 LifeMiles, Receive 115% Bonus
- Buy 101,000 – 200,000 LifeMiles, Receive 125% Bonus
Since the bonus is higher if you buy more miles, the cost of the miles you are purchasing also decreases slightly. At the highest level, you are buying miles for around 1.47 cents each.
There has been some mention of higher targeted bonuses, mostly from people who have the Avianca LifeMiles credit card.
Is Buying LifeMiles a Good Deal?
As a general rule, it doesn’t make sense to buy miles unless you have a specific use for them. This is mainly because devaluations happen all the time, often without notice.
That being said, this LifeMiles purchase bonus can present a decent opportunity to score reasonably priced tickets and save some miles in another program.
To give you an idea of award prices, Avianca charges (each direction):
- 63,000 LifeMiles for business class from the U.S. to Europe
- 30,000 LifeMiles for economy class from the U.S. to Europe
- 78,000 LifeMiles for business class from the U.S. to Southeast Asia
- 39,000 LifeMiles for economy class from the U.S. to Southeast Asia
For comparison, United charges (each direction):
- 57,500 – 70,000 United miles for business class from the U.S. to Europe
- 30,000 United miles for economy class from the U.S. to Europe
- 70,000 – 80,000 United miles for business class from the U.S. to Southeast Asia
- 40,000 United miles for economy class from the U.S. to Southeast Asia
LifeMiles might not always be the best price available, but it is usually a very competitive price. You can also compare prices for any award using the Award Maximizer.
The deals to purchase LifeMiles come up pretty frequently, and this one isn’t the best that we have seen. In the past year, there have been bonus offerings up to 140% for purchasing miles. If you need miles now to book a trip, this bonus isn’t bad. If you are buying miles speculatively (even though I wouldn’t recommend this), it probably makes sense to wait for a promotion with a higher bonus. As always, crunch the numbers and think about what travel plans you need to make before you decide!
