Oh Joy, Another Devaluation, This Time It’s Avianca Lifemiles

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Tara

Got this email which has some unwelcome news for Aussies who buy Avianca Lifemiles for cheap Star Alliance awards. It’s not all bad, some awards to South America went down. Thankfully I burned my balance last year in Ecuador and Colombia!

This is why I always say don’t buy miles unless you are redeeming them straight away.

We want to inform you that starting May 15^th, 2017, the amount of miles required for redemption of air tickets of routes from Australia, New Zealand and Oceania, in Economic, Business and First class from Star Alliance table will have some changes. The changes for some routes will be reductions, and for others they will be increments, while some other regions will remain the same.

Remember you can use your miles to redeem Round-trip, One-way, Multi-City tickets, and use flexible payments combining LifeMiles + Money. General terms and conditions for ticket redemptions apply.

Review the table here

Minor Changes To Avianca Lifemiles

Posted on March 25, 2017 by Tara

Don’t panic, there is nothing too drastic here and many awards went down. Some appear to have increased last year. I paid 3000 Lifemiles for domestic Ecuador and domestic Colombia in 2015 for the trip we did in 2016. So these went up to 4000, now back to 3500 each way.

FULL DETAILS

Avianca’s New Buy Lifemiles Promo Through 28 Feb

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Tara

Avianca has periodic promos throughout the year so only take advantage of them when you will be redeeming them within a few months. Lifemiles can be very valuable to eco-tourists visiting Central and South America as it gives you access to all the birding hotspots such as Napo Wildlife Centre, Galapagos, many places in Colombia & Peru and more!

Only 3000 Lifemiles for Avianca’s subsidiary Aerogal from Quito to Coca!

Here’s the details of the current promo:

For LifeMiles members that have Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Chile or Venezuela as their country of residence in their Member’s profile the bonus percentage applies as follows: for purchases from 1,000 – 10,000 LifeMiles receive 2×1, for purchases from 11,000 –40,000 LifeMiles receive 2×1 + 15% additional miles, for purchases from 41,000 – 200,000 receive 2×1 + 25% additional miles.
For LifeMiles members that have any other country as their country of residence in their Member´s profile the bonus percentage applies as follows: The bonus percentage apply as follows: for purchases from 1,000 – 50,000 LifeMiles receive 2×1, for purchases from 51,000 – 100,000 LifeMiles receive 2×1 + 15% additional miles, for purchases from 101,000 – 200,000 receive 2×1 + 25% additional miles.
The bonuses are calculated based on the miles purchased per individual transaction without taking into account the 2×1 bonus.
The miles must be purchased in multiples of 1,000.
The minimum miles to purchase per transaction is 1,000 LifeMiles.
The maximum miles to purchase per transaction during this promotion to receive the bonus showed in the table above is 200,000 LifeMiles if the Member has not purchased miles in 2017 or 200,000 LifeMiles minus the miles previously purchased by the Member in 2017.
The Member may purchase miles outside of the limits showed in the table above but in such case the transactions will be processed but no bonuses will be granted.
The maximum amount of miles to receive by a member per calendar year outside of this promotion is 200,000 LifeMiles (including miles purchased and bonuses received). If the member surpasses the limit, through purchases made during this promotion and other purchases in 2017, taking into account the bonuses received for those purchases, he or she will not be able to purchase any more miles until the next calendar year.
Each package of 1,000 LifeMiles costs USD $33.00 without applicable taxes and USD $40.26* including applicable taxes according to correspondence country registered in the LifeMiles database**
Only form of payment through Avianca´s Call Center and LifeMiles.com: credit card or international debit card. Cash payments are only allowed at Avianca´s Information Centers. Other Conditions: The receipt of the transaction will reflect the total number of miles accrued to the member´s account, including the bonus miles and the total charge for the transaction.
This promotion applies for miles purchases made between February 15th and February 28th, 2017 (between 00.00-23.59 GMT -6, El Salvador).
The miles purchased and earned with this promotion do not apply to achieve or maintain the Elite status.
The purchase of miles is not reversible or refundable. The purchase of miles is an immediate execution contract. Once the payment is made, the miles will be accrued immediately on the members account. As of that moment the miles can be used according to the terms and conditions of the LifeMiles Program. For these reasons the purchase of miles is a contract that cannot be resolved and retraction or similar rights according to applicable law are not applicable.
Miles are not endorsable.
Miles purchase is available through Avianca´s Call Centers, LifeMiles.com and Avianca Information Centers. For residents of Curacao it is only available through LifeMiles.com and Avianca´s Call Centers. For residents of Venezuela, it is only available through LifeMiles.com.
Does not apply to the Flexible Redemption (miles + money) during the payment process of air ticket redemption.
Miles purchased, once accrued, can be redeemed in accordance with the conditions specified in the LifeMiles Program Terms and Conditions and the portfolio of products and services available for redemption.
LifeMiles Terms and Conditions apply. LifeMiles is a trademark of LifeMiles B.V.

*For residents in Colombia: the values are settled based on Colombia´s exchange rate on the date of the transaction. For residents in Peru each package of 1,000 miles has a cost of USD 38,94 or S/.128.23 including taxes. Prices in Nuevos Soles reflect the reference exchange rate to February 10th 2017: S/. 3.293 Per 1 USD dollar. Final prices in Nuevos Soles will be determined bases on the exchange rate of the date of the transaction. For residents in Costa Rica the values are settled based on the exchange rate as provided by IATA. For the rest of the countries the values are settled based on the exchange rate of the date of the transaction.
**The price can be lower depending of the correspondence country entered on the Member´s profile in their LifeMiles account.

Getting To Colombia With Airline Miles

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Tara

Most frequent flier programs divide the continent of South America into northern and southern regions. Colombia, which has an amazing bird list with over 1900 species recorded, falls into the northern region. I already have a blog with my recommendations for which programs to join if you are new to the world of miles and points.

The major gateway cities for Colombia include Bogota (BOG), Medellin (MDE) and Cartagena (CTG). It will be the same number of miles no matter which you choose. Once you have been in the miles and points game for awhile, you will get a feel for which airline to use where but if you are just starting out Wikipedia will show you all the airlines that fly into Bogota, Medellin, Cartegena and any of Colombia’s airports. To present examples below, I will be using Bogota as the example gateway airport.

ONE WORLD OPTIONS

From North America you can use American Airlines, LATAM.

From South America you can use LATAM.

From Australia and New Zealand you can use Qantas or LATAM via Santiago.

From UK and Europe you can travel via the USA using BA or IB to get to the USA, then AA, LATAM to South America.

From Asia or Africa there are no direct flights so you will need to travel via the USA or Europe.

STAR ALLIANCE OPTIONS

From North America you can use United, Air Canada, Avianca-Taca or Copa.

From South America you can use Avianca-Taca or Copa.

From Europe you can use Avianca, Lufthansa or Turkish Airlines.

From Australia and New Zealand, Asia and Africa there are no direct flights, you can use NZ to Buenos Aires (EZE) or travel via the USA. Depending on which program’s miles you have, this may require one or two awards.

SKYTEAM OPTIONS

From North America you can use AeroMexico or Delta.

From Argentina & Southern South America you can use Aerolinas Argentinas.

From Europe you can use Air Europa, Air France or KLM, or you can connect in the USA on Delta.

From Australia, Asia and Africa there are no direct flights, you will need to travel via the USA or Europe.

HOW MANY MILES WILL IT COST?

Every airline member of the 3 main alliances has it’s own frequent flier program. They often have alliances with other airlines outside the program. I have made some reference charts for the airline alliances and I strongly recommend that you check out the program of the airline in your country and the USA based partners of each program as the USA airlines tend to have the most lucrative bonuses. Americans can get very generous credit card bonuses. Details of credit card partners (and other partners) will be on each airline’s website, however often there are more lucrative sign up bonuses. Details are usually posted in the Flyer Talk thread so I strongly suggest you read this thread and the Miles Buzz forum before you apply for any cards just in case a better bonus has been offered. I don’t have any affiliate links and I recommend you do extensive research on your own when applying for airline credit cards.

USING ONE WORLD

AMERICAN AIRLINES

No matter where you live, frequent flyer programs based in the USA usually offer the best deals but it’s still a good idea to look at other members of the alliance. Try to avoid carriers that charge a fuel surcharge. Looking at AA’s award chart, we can see that Colombia is in South America Zone 1.

So let’s look at the chart. AA no longer has all zones on one convenient chart so you need to look at the website for the region you are departing from. You will notice there are taxes and fees with certain routes and that the awards are prices as one way trips.

We can see that a South Pacific to Central/South America award will cost 45,000 miles each way (90,000 round trip) in economy, 82,500 (160,000 round trip) in business class and 112,500 each way (225,000 round trip in first class. AA doesn’t allow you to transit the USA on this award so you must fly on the only carriers that operate between Australia and South America-Qantas and LATAM.

If you are based in North America, economy will cost 30,000 each way (60,000 round trip), business class is 57,500 each way (115,000 round trip) and first is 85,000 each way or 170,000 round trip. You would be flying on AA or LATAM.

AVIOS (BA OR IB)

Avios can be a great bargain for shorter flights. The awards are priced by distance flown per segment rather than zone to zone.

Avios chart

Using the Great Circle Mapper, we can see that a direct flight from Miami to Bogota would cost 10,000 Avios each way, a direct flight from LAX to Bogota would cost 20,000 Avios and a direct flight from NYC to Bogota would cost 12,500 Avios. If you are using credit card miles, transferring them to Avios rather than UA or AA could save you some points. If you need a connection from elsewhere in the USA to the gateway city, you need to pay for that segment separately with the Avios cost for the distance flown. Example OKC-MIA is 1222 miles so you need to add 10,000 Avios to the total price of the ticket.

QANTAS FREQUENT FLYER

For Qantas, it is easiest to use their points calculator to see how many points you need, then look for availability. Not all itineraries can be booked online, sometimes you have to call them. Using the example of Sydney to Bogota we can see that they route through the USA (probably because the Santiago route is very hard to get) and economy is 60,000 points one way. If I were making this trip for real, I would be putting a lot more effort into finding a routing on QF through Santiago. Although business class shows availability on the random date I chose, if you hover over the seat icon you will see that the DFW-BOG segment is in economy. I am actually amazed that SYD-DFW has premium seats! On the next screen you see the points plus taxes & fees that must be paid by credit card.

If you are based somewhere else, leave a comment if you don’t understand this part and I will help you out. Meanwhile, here is a reference list for other One World carriers.

USING STAR ALLIANCE

United, Avianca and Singapore are probably the most common Star Alliance programs in use because of good credit card deals and buy miles promos.

UNITED AIRLINES

United Airlines is a USA based carrier that offers one way awards on its own flights and other Star Alliance carriers. Due to the size of their award chart, I can’t paste it here so will link to it and give examples. For example Orlando to Bogota has availability on several dates which I picked at random. They are colour coded for economy, business/first or all three classes. Make sure you scroll all the way down to see all the options. Some routes are only 20k and others are a whopping 45k! And beware of routes where it is cheaper to fly business class than economy!

AVIANCA TACA LIFEMILES

Lifemiles has some very attractive promos to buy and share miles. While this doesn’t give you a free trip, it can greatly reduce the cost of a trip especially if you are after business or first class awards. You need to be an existing member of Lifemiles when they announce a promo so join now if you haven’t already. Use their calculator to get an idea of award costs. This will be a range which depends on class and any promos.

They have a Star Alliance Award chart and you can see that they divide the continent of South America into northern and southern regions. Colombia is in the Northern South America region. Australia and New Zealand are in the “Others” category. The chart shows one-way awards. I prefer to keep my Lifemiles for intra-South/Central America awards which can get pricy but are bargains using awards.

SINGAPORE AIRLINES

SQ miles have become much easier to get in recent years. Americans can use Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi Thank You, Amex Membership Rewards. Aussies can use the Australian Amex Membership Rewards. Everyone can use SPG. Just beware of the high fuel (carrier) surcharges when you use Krisflyer. Personally, I would be happy to use SQ miles for intra-South America awards where surcharges are low or even non-exixtant but would use other programs to get from Australia to South America. SQ has only one region for all of South America so their awards can be a bargain if you are traveling around the continent!

I don’t use all the programs that are out there but these are the most commonly used programs by travel hackers in the USA and Australia so do some research to see which one works for you! Bear in mind that the tickets are not completely free, there is usually a booking fee of $25-50 and various taxes, but you would have to pay the taxes whether you pay cash or miles for the ticket in any case.

WHAT ABOUT JUST PAYING CASH (WELL, CREDIT CARD)?

No, it’s not blasphemy but sometimes it is a good idea to save your miles and simply pay for the ticket. The 3 main Central/South American carriers – Avianca, Copa & LATAM have been very competitive lately ex-USA and releasing some very good deals. These are a few examples but they expire soon so always check the airlines’ website for current specials.

Getting To Ecuador With Airline Miles

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Tara

Most frequent flier programs divide the continent of South America into northern and southern regions. Ecuador, which is one of the best destinations for eco-tourism falls into the northern region. I already have a blog with my recommendations for which programs to join if you are new to the world of miles and points.

The gateway cities for Ecuador include Quito (UIO) and Guayaquil (GYE). I have a separate post for using Guayaquil as a gateway city so in this post I will be using Quito as the example. In any case, it will be the same number of miles. Once you have been in the miles and points game for awhile, you will get a feel for which airline to use where but if you are just starting out, Wikipedia will show you a list of all airlines that fly into Quito.

ONE WORLD OPTIONS

From North America you can use American Airlines or LATAM.

From South America you can use LATAM.

From Australia and New Zealand you can use Qantas or LATAM via Santiago.

From UK and Europe you can travel via the USA using BA or IB to get to the USA, then AA, LAN or TAM to South America.

From Asia or Africa there are no direct flights so you will need to travel via the USA or Europe.

STAR ALLIANCE OPTIONS

From North America you can use United, Avianca-Taca or Copa

From South America you can use Avianca-Taca

From Australia and New Zealand, Europe, Asia and Africa there are no direct flights, you can use NZ to Buenos Aires (EZE) or travel via the USA. Depending on which program’s miles you have, this may require one or two awards.

SKYTEAM OPTIONS

From North America you can use AeroMexico or Delta.

From Europe you can use Air Europa, Air France or KLM, or you can connect in the USA on Delta.

From Australia, Asia and Africa there are no direct flights, you will need to travel via the USA or Europe.

HOW MANY MILES WILL IT COST?

USING ONE WORLD

AMERICAN AIRLINES

AVIOS (BA OR IB)

Avios can be a great bargain for shorter flights. The awards are priced by distance flown per segment rather than zone to zone.

Using the Great Circle Mapper, we can see that a direct flight from Miami to Quito would cost 10,000 Avios each way, a direct flight from LAX to Quito would cost 20,000 Avios and a direct flight from NYC to Quito would cost 12,500 Avios. If you are using credit card miles, transferring them to Avios rather than UA or AA could save you some points. If you need a connection from elsewhere in the USA to the gateway city, you need to pay for that segment separately with the Avios cost for the distance flown. Example OKC-MIA is 1222 miles so you need to add 10,000 Avios to the total price of the ticket.

QANTAS FREQUENT FLYER

If you are based somewhere else, leave a comment if you don’t understand this part and I will help you out. Meanwhile, here is a reference list for other One World carriers.

USING STAR ALLIANCE

United, Avianca and Singapore are probably the most common Star Alliance programs in use because of good credit card deals and buy miles promos.

UNITED AIRLINES

United Airlines is a USA based carrier that offers one way awards on its own flights and other Star Alliance carriers. Due to the size of their award chart, I can’t paste it here so will link to it and give examples. For example Seattle to Quito has availability on several dates which I picked at random. They are colour coded for economy, business/first or all three classes. Make sure you scroll all the way down to get the best price. Some routes are only 20k and others are a whopping 45k!

AVIANCA TACA LIFEMILES

They have a Star Alliance Award chart and you can see that they divide the continent of South America into northern and southern regions. Ecuador is in the Northern South America region. Australia and New Zealand are in the “Others” category. The chart shows one way awards. Personally, I prefer to keep my Lifemiles for intra-South/Central America awards which can get pricy but are bargains using awards.

SINGAPORE AIRLINES

WHAT ABOUT JUST PAYING CASH (WELL, CREDIT CARD)?

Two People To The Colombian Amazon Rainforest For Under $600

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Tara

Avianca has some really good deals going on right now that can get 2 people from Miami to Leticia in the Colombian Amazon Rainforest for less than $600! If you don’t live near Miami, then use Avios on AA for a shorthaul. Here’s a sample booking.

Once you get there, find a nice eco-lodge and enjoy the birds! Here’s a couple I found online though I haven’t stayed at either myself, they do look really good!

Amazonas Jungle Tours

Yoi Ecotours

This is a really good opportunity for those in the USA who can take advantage of it, I know I’d be jumping on it!

Is The New Lifemiles Promo Right For You?

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Tara

While I do believe that credit card miles are the easiest and cheapest to acquire the fact remains that there are many people around the world who don’t have good deals on credit cards that earn miles. Australia does have a few deals going but playing the miles and points game here is mostly centered around buying cheap miles and redeeming them for premium class airfares at a huge discount. I don’t recommend buying miles on spec as the program could always devalue before you can spend them. Assuming I couldn’t get free miles from credit card sign up bonuses, I would wait until I was within 6 months of booking a trip before I would actually pay for miles, even at a discount.

The New Lifemiles Promo

The maximum you can acquire from this promo is 352,906 miles which will get you a few RT Star Alliance trips in business class. It would probably work out cheaper flying business class by this means than paying for economy tickets the normal way.

EXAMPLE – ROUND TRIP TO THE GALAPAGOS

This is one of the harder awards to get as I already said in my Lan post. There has been talk on Flyertalk that Avianca does occasionally have phantom award space on the United portal so I don’t consider United a reliable source for a Galapagos award.

Here’s the cost of using Lifemiles to go RT from Guayaquil to Baltra airport in the Galapagos.

10,000 miles per person on the outbound.

Please note that availability to/from SCY San Cristobal is much more difficult. This makes a difference to me since we are birding and not going on a cruise so chose this island as having the most land-based birds.

10,000 miles per person for the return flight from Baltra GPS.

You need 40,000 Lifemiles for 2 people to go RT from Guayaquil to the Galapagos. With the current promo, if you only buy the minimum to achieve the trip you are in the 4th tier which gets a 105% bonus. You still have to buy 20,000 miles to get at least 40,000 miles so you end up with 41,000 miles (I had 406 left over after my redemptions for next year so ignore those).

This ends up costing you $660 USD.

If you want to max out the promo, it will end up costing you $4950 for 352,500 miles.

So to determine if this is a good deal, lets look at our RT trip to the Galapagos for 2 people. When you buy miles, you still have to pay the taxes on top so you are only saving the cost of the base fare. In this case it’s $416 per person so $832 for both. You can save $172 if you use the Lifemiles promo to book these tickets. Before you buy the miles, you want to check the booking engine to make sure the award is available, especially if you don’t have much flexibility on dates. Personally, if I was ready to book right away and would otherwise have to pay cash, I’d be happy to save $172, otherwise I would hold off until I got closer to the booking window.

So this is basically the math you have to do before participating in these promos. They can be very useful in the right circumstances!

***Apologies for posting this after other bloggers beat me to it, we were out camping in the Aussie Outback!

Why You Can’t Get AA/BA Partner Awards On Lan To The Galapagos

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Tara

I experienced it myself – the frustration of trying to get award space on Lan from Guayaquil to the Galapagos. Most people want to get to GPS (Baltra) as that is where the Galapagos cruises depart from and Lan flies there daily. In my case, since we aren’t doing a cruise, I wanted to get to SCY (San Cristobal) since it has the best land-based birding options but Lan only has 4 flights a week there. For the purposes of this demonstration, I will use GPS so you can see the fluctuations throughout a week on a daily basis.

Most people going to the Galapagos will want to book as far ahead as possible, especially if they are connecting to a cruise. At the time I wrote this post, Lan has availability loaded to 25 July at the 20,000 round trip level (10,000 each way). BA has picked this space up although it usually doesn’t at this level. On the 4 days preceeding 25 July there is no award space on BA for this route.

You can see here the different levels of economy awards. Lan only flies economy class to the Galapagos. Usually you need seats at the 8000 km each way level to have it show up on a partner award request. These seats are selling for anywhere between 11,000 – 14,000 so you can only book them on Lan.

It can get much worse – have a look at these flights over Semana Santa (Easter Holy Week) which is ultra-peak season! Award seats can go up to 22,000 each way!

You can sometimes get lucky with close-in bookings. Although surrounding dates have the high award rates, there is a window of opportunity on a few dates in September as shown by the red dots.

And this is how it looks on BA’s booking system.

So how can you get to the Galapagos?

1. Lanpass: Get the US Bank Lan Visa card, then supplement the award with miles transferred from SPG. It takes about a week for the miles to land which is really frustrating as the award prices can fluctuate daily.

2. Fly on Aerogal, the Avianca partner who is a member of Star Alliance. Unfortunately Avianca doesn’t have any transfer partners such as SPG, Ultimate Rewards, Thankyou Points or Amex MR so you have to buy miles, preferably on a promo deal. They do have a co-branded card with US Bank.

3. Use United, although availability has been patchy in the past, I am seeing good availability at time of writing. Oddly enough if you are in GYE, you have to transfer in UIO to get to the Galapagos.

4. Use your miles to Quito or Guayaquil and pay for the flights to the Galapagos. Expedia search on random dates for RT flights.

However you manage to get to the Galapagos, rest assured it will be well worth it! We are going next year and can’t wait!

September Buy Miles Promos

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Tara

As usual, each beginning of a month brings an assortment of “buy miles, get bonus” promos. If you live in the USA you probably won’t be interested as its cheaper to manufacture spend. If you live anywhere else, these promos may be a good idea to top up your miles accounts but ONLY if you plan to use them within the next few months. These promos aren’t good enough to buy miles on speculation. Whether it is worth it to buy miles vs just paying for a revenue ticket depends on where you are going and what class of service you would be booking in so you need to do the math for both before jumping in on these promos. Also be sure to click on the links and read all the T&Cs before buying.

US AIRWAYS

These will ultimately turn into AAdvantage miles when the programs combine next year. The tiered system is very annoying because if you just need a couple thousand to top up you don’t get the maximum bonus. You need to log into your account to actually see the tiers but most people seem to get this one. At top levels you would be buying miles for $18.80 per block of 1000 miles.

UNITED AIRLINES

This one is more unusual in that it is crowd-sourcing the actual bonus. Everyone gets a minimum of 35% extra but that could go up to 100% extra if over 4500 people buy the deal.

If the 4500 level is reached it would mean buying miles for $18.80 per block of 1000 miles.

AVIANCA-TACA LIFEMILES

Contrary to other bloggers out there, I use this program for bargain flights within Central and South America so no “tricks” needed for me! It’s a straightforward 100% promo (gotta love airlines who keep it simple) but it is also the last chance to buy miles for $15.00 per block of 1000 miles as the price increases 15 October to $16.00.

Changes In Avianca And Star Alliance Ticket Redemption

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Tara

At least they are giving 3 months advance notice! I have another post on best uses of Lifemiles for eco-tourists. I still think they are best used on their own metal for intra-Peru or intra-Central America. The figures below are for round-trip tickets, one ways are half the amount.

From October 15^th, 2014, redemption fares for flights with Avianca will change, which include reductions and increases, as shown in the following table:

Origin		Destination		Miles¹ from October 15^th, 2014
Miami		Central America		28.000
Florida		Central America The Caribbean		25.000
		Mexico		30.000
		South America		40.000
		Europe		80.000
		Colombia³ Ecuador	Venezuela Peru	30.000
Orlando		Bogota and Medellin		33.000

Washington		Bogota		37.000
New York		Medellin		37.000
Dallas Newark New York Washington	Chicago Houston Toronto	Colombia		35.000
		Central America⁴ The Caribbean		30.000
		Ecuador		35.000
		Europe		80.000
Dallas Newark New York Washington	Chicago Houston Toronto	Mexico		30.000
Dallas Newark New York	Washington Chicago Houston	Peru Venezuela		35.000
Dallas Newark New York	Washington Chicago Houston
Toronto
Dallas Newark New York	Washington Chicago Houston	Buenos Aires Montevideo Santiago de Chile		45.000
Dallas Newark New York	Washington Chicago Houston	Asuncion Brasilia Rio de Janeiro Sao Paulo	Porto Alegre La Paz Santa Cruz
Toronto		South America

Los Angeles		Bogota		38.000
Los Angeles		Lima		37.000
Los Angeles and San Francisco		Central America and The Caribbean		35.000
		Colombia Ecuador	Peru Venezuela	35.000
		Mexico		40.000
		Europe		80.000
		South America		45.000

Mexico		Central America The Caribbean Colombia²		25.000
		Peru		27.000
		Ecuador		28.000
		Venezuela		30.000
		Asuncion Buenos Aires Montevideo Santiago de Chile	Brasilia Rio de Janeiro Sao Paulo Porto Alegre La Paz Santa Cruz	45.000
		Miami Orlando Fort Lauderdale		30.000
		Dallas Newark Washington	Houston New York Chicago
		Toronto
		Los Angeles San Francisco		40.000
		Europe		80.000

¹ The amount of miles represent round trip tickets
² Except Mexico to Bogota, Medellin or Cali, from 28.000 miles
³ Except Orlando – Bogota / Medellin, from 33.000 miles
⁴ Except Houston-El Salvador, from 35.000 miles; Dallas/Washington/New York / Toronto, – El Salvador, from 36.000 miles

Flights with Star Alliance member airlines

As for changes in air ticket redemption with Star Alliance member airlines, these include increases up to 13.000 miles in Economy Class and up to 26.000 miles in Business Class. Both cases apply for roundtrip flights from North America.

For roundtrip flights from Mexico, there will be reductions up to 15.000 miles and increases up to 14.000 miles in Economy Class, also reductions up to 20.000 miles and increases up to 28.000 miles in Business class.

To be sure that our members have the opportunity to understand all changes before these take place, all modifications will be effective from October 15^th, 2014.

Terms and Conditions

The table shown above is illustrative only; its intention is to summarize the amount of miles that will be required per region for the X class in economy cabin. The amount of miles required for a ticket redemption is calculated based on a specific origin and destination and could not match with the amount of miles shown on the table above, it could be higher.
The amount of miles required could vary depending on the date, route and redemption product.
To know the exact amount of required miles for each origin and destination, it will be necessary to consult the amount through the redemption system athttps://www.lifemiles.com/eng/use/red/dynredpar.aspx after October 15th, 2014.
The amounts listed by the redemption system shall prevail over those shown on the table above.
LifeMiles is a trademark of LifeMiles Corp.
LifeMiles Terms and Conditions apply and can be found at www.lifemiles.com.

Miles To The Wild

Create unforgettable eco-tourism and birding adventures using miles & points!

Tag Archives: avianca lifemiles

Oh Joy, Another Devaluation, This Time It’s Avianca Lifemiles

Minor Changes To Avianca Lifemiles

Avianca’s New Buy Lifemiles Promo Through 28 Feb

Getting To Colombia With Airline Miles

ONE WORLD OPTIONS

STAR ALLIANCE OPTIONS

SKYTEAM OPTIONS

HOW MANY MILES WILL IT COST?

USING ONE WORLD

USING STAR ALLIANCE

WHAT ABOUT JUST PAYING CASH (WELL, CREDIT CARD)?

Getting To Ecuador With Airline Miles

USING ONE WORLD

USING STAR ALLIANCE

WHAT ABOUT JUST PAYING CASH (WELL, CREDIT CARD)?

Two People To The Colombian Amazon Rainforest For Under $600

Is The New Lifemiles Promo Right For You?

EXAMPLE – ROUND TRIP TO THE GALAPAGOS

Why You Can’t Get AA/BA Partner Awards On Lan To The Galapagos

September Buy Miles Promos

US AIRWAYS

UNITED AIRLINES

AVIANCA-TACA LIFEMILES

Changes In Avianca And Star Alliance Ticket Redemption

Flights with Star Alliance member airlines

Terms and Conditions