Avianca, the flag carrier of Columbia, is the second largest airline in Latin America and has the most destinations on the continent. Their CyberWeek promotion offers to purchase up to 200,000 award miles with a bonus of 140%, for a grand total of up to 480,000 miles – enough to travel the world in First Class for two people – at the very low price of 1.375 cents/mile! That got my attention and it deserves yours!
Avianca is the result of a series of mergers, the latest being with TACA Airlines, the Central American carrier, They serve 114 destinations with a fleet of 173 planes, connecting much of Latin America with the world. They are a StarAlliance member, so their loyalty program LifeMiles will also give you access to all member airlines, like United, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines or ANA! LifeMiles has gotten on frequent traveler’s radar through their frequent miles sales and ability to transfer points from credit card programs, like the Citi Prestige ThankYou or American Express Membership Rewards. This makes it so easy to top of your LifeMiles account and book awards that it becomes another “currency” to purchase flights!
The current promotion runs through November 26th, 2018 and allows you to purchase as little as 1,000miles and up to 200,000 miles. To all purchases a bonus of 140% is applied, so you can purchase up to 200,000 + 280,000 = 480,000 miles. It’s notable that the bonus applies for any miles purchase (usually the best bonus is reserved for higher amounts) as well as for the total you can purchase (this is more than most airlines allow).
Here are some examples how to use those miles on Star Alliance flights – all prices are one-way and in brackets is the cost for the same flights with United MileagePlus :
– United States to South East Asia in business class: 78,000 miles (UA 90,000)
– United States to Philippines in first class: 90,000 miles (UA 140,000)
– United States to Europe in business class: 63,000 miles (UA 70,000)
– Philippines to Europe in business class: 75,000 miles (UA 100,000)
These are some pretty significant savings and makes it possible to purchase miles for a round-trip flight in business class between the US and Asia for only $2,145 with a large selection of StarAlliance airlines to fly on.
The Avianca LifeMiles award chart is based on regions that differ from other programs, giving you some other room to safe. You can find the full StarAlliance award chart here!
I am a new member to Avianca LifeMiles and have never redeemed miles for a free flight. Reports suggest that Avianca sees less award seats than other airlines, the web site is a little difficult and call center service is poor, making it more effort to redeem miles for a free flight than on for example United or Lufthansa. Avianca LifeMiles runs these promotions frequently and also offers the chance to sign up for a monthly subscription to buy miles. So, if you don’t have a specific flight redemption in mind, there is a good chance there will be more promotions at similar prices.
For a slightly better deal, check out the OneMileAtATime blog – Lucky has negotiated a special promotion for an even better deal of 145% bonus, so if you do want to buy, I’d recommend to register through his promotion!
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