17 Best Ways to Earn Lots of Avianca LifeMiles

BY 

Stephen Au

- UPDATED: July 17, 2019

1. Earn Points  / 
2. Earn Airline Points

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LifeMiles is the frequent flyer program that Avianca S.A. launched in 2011, and it replaced their old program, which was named AviancaPlus. Using Avianca LifeMiles is actually one of the best ways to redeem points and miles in the Star Alliance.

There are tons of quick and unique ways to earn LifeMiles. We have a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started.

Sign Up for an Avianca LifeMiles Account

Avianca LifeMiles function a bit differently than other frequent flyer programs. For example, the United MileagePlus program is directly tied to United Airlines meaning you access both directly from United.com.

The same can’t be said for Avianca LifeMiles. You must visit the separate LifeMiles website in order to make award bookings and create a LifeMiles account.

LifeMiles also has a redesigned website, which is a significant upgrade over its predecessor.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to make an Avianca LifeMiles account:

1. Visit the LifeMiles website
2. The default language is Spanish, so you’ll want to click on the flag icon in the top right corner to change your language
3. Click the blue button in the middle of the page that says Join LifeMiles for free
4. Create your login information by typing in your email and a password. Click Next
5. Type in your information, along with your driver’s license or ID number
6. Follow all the prompts and create your LifeMiles account

Your LifeMiles account will be crucial in earning LifeMiles, whether it’s from purchasing miles at one of their great sales, eating out, or booking hotel rooms.

After you create your LifeMiles account, write down your LifeMiles number and get ready to earn a lot of miles!

Earn Avianca LifeMiles With Credit Cards

Using credit cards to earn Avianca LifeMiles is now easier than ever with the addition of American Express Membership Rewards and Capital One Rewards.

There are tons of different options to earn Avianca LifeMiles, whether it’s transferring from flexible currencies or earning LifeMiles from the co-branded Banco Popular credit card.

We have lots of options here, so let’s get to the ways to earn LifeMiles with credit cards.

Citi ThankYou Rewards Credit Cards (Best Option)

In our opinion, transferring Citi ThankYou Rewards points is the best way to earn Avianca LifeMiles quickly.

You can transfer your points at a 1:1 ratio and you can often get huge transfer bonuses. These bonuses can bring the transfer ratio up to 25%, simply by transferring ThankYou points.

In order to accrue Citi ThankYou points, you’ll need to have a credit card that’s linked to the ThankYou Rewards program. Similar to Chase Ultimate Rewards, you must have a ThankYou-points-earning card that allows for points transfers.

For example, having the Citi ThankYou Preferred or Citi Rewards+℠ credit card will not make you eligible to transfer ThankYou points to travel partners. Instead, you can only use your points for gift cards or statement credits at a 1 cent per point value. (The Citi ThankYou® Preferred card has been discontinued.)

If you have a Citi Prestige or Citi Premier℠ card, you can transfer Citi ThankYou points to Avianca LifeMiles.

Recommended Citi Cards (Personal)

Although the portfolio of Citi ThankYou-points-earning cards is smaller than American Express, you’ll find that there are a lot of spending categories that allow you to earn bonus points.

With a wide variety of points-earning categories, you can earn points faster with a Citi card than other credit cards.

These cards also often come with large welcome bonuses that can kickstart your journey to earn lots of Avianca LifeMiles.

Here are the bonus categories that allow you to earn points quickly:

Though the Citi ThankYou® Preferred card has been discontinued, we’ve included its point-earning structure here for your information.

There are tons of ways you can optimize your spending to put the right purchases on the right credit cards and earn the maximum amount of points.

Hot Tip: Check out how you’re able to earn 100k+ Citi ThankYou Rewards points in just 90 days!

American Express Membership Rewards Credit Cards

American Express Membership Rewards are an extremely competitive points currency to have in your arsenal. It’s arguably one of the best flexible points currencies due to the frequent transfer bonuses and ease of earning points.

Amex also has many transfer partners, giving you the ability to use your points how you want to.

American Express has only recently added Avianca LifeMiles as a transfer partner, so we’ve yet to see a transfer bonus like we’ve seen with Citi ThankYou Rewards. As of now, American Express Membership Rewards transfers at a 1:1 ratio.

The advantage of American Express is that they have many credit cards that earn American Express Membership Rewards points, which means you have tons of options to get extra points from bonus categories and earn sign-up bonuses.

Recommended Amex Cards (Personal)

Recommended Amex Cards (Business)

The bonus categories for American Express cards are quite complicated and are difficult to illustrate in a table; check out our guide on the best ways to earn American Express points to learn more.

You can even earn 100k+ American Express Membership Rewards points in 90 days.

Capital One Rewards Credit Cards

Capital One recently came out with their transferable rewards system, which is a welcome addition to traditional giants such as American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Although their transfer ratio isn’t as good as the 1:1 ratio from American Express, Chase, and Citi, the ratio is still solid, at 2:1.5. This means that if you transfer 2,000 Capital One Miles, you’ll receive 1,500 Avianca LifeMiles.

Hot Tip: There are a lot of ways to earn Capital One Miles, so check out our in-depth guide!

Recommended Capital One Cards That Earn Miles (Personal)

The biggest selling point of Capital One is the simple earning structure:

Hot Tip: Check out some of the best ways to redeem Capital One Miles, including many business and first class options!

Banco Popular Avianca Vuela Co-Branded Credit Cards

You can even earn Avianca LifeMiles directly, instead of transferring points from a partner. Currently, the Puerto Rican bank Banco Popular has two co-branded Visa credit cards that offer the ability to earn LifeMiles.

With these cards, you can earn LifeMiles directly, and you can also nab a solid sign-up bonus to boost your LifeMiles!

The Avianca Vida Visa® Card comes with a 20,000 LifeMiles sign-up bonus after your first purchase and a $59 annual fee. Sometimes, the Vida card offers a bonus welcome offer as well!

The Avianca Vuela Visa® Card comes with a 40,000 LifeMiles sign-up bonus after your first purchase and a $149 annual fee. With the Avianca Vuela Visa® Card, you get a free additional piece of baggage for travel between the U.S. and Central America. Similar to the Avianca Vida card, the Vuela card can offer an additional welcome bonus.

Furthermore, if you spend $12,000 in one year, you’ll receive a 50% discount on an award ticket that can be redeemed for travel to Central America or Colombia from the U.S. If you spend another $12,000 you’ll get an additional half-off award ticket.

The Avianca Vuela Visa® Card and the Avianca Vida Visa® Card get you a 15% discount on purchases of miles with Multiply Your Miles.

You can multiply your LifeMiles by using the bonus categories below:

Hot Tip: Check out our complete guide on the best ways to redeem LifeMiles.

Marriott Credit Cards

Marriott has the most flexible rewards currency out there. With 40+ transfer partners, you have a lot of options on how you use your points. Avianca LifeMiles is no exception.

However, there are much better and more effective ways to use your Marriott points, which is why this isn’t at the top of our list.

Marriott to LifeMiles transfers at a 3:1 ratio with a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 Marriott points transferred. In other words, if you transfer 60,000 Marriott points, you’ll receive 20,000 LifeMiles plus a 5,000 bonus, bringing up your total to 25,000 LifeMiles.

You can earn Marriott points from cards offered by both Chase and American Express:

Recommended Marriott Cards

Refer a Friend for Bonus Miles

Citi recently rolled out a referral program for the Citi Premier℠ card, which adds another 10,000 ThankYou points for each approved referral. You can get points for up to 5 referrals in 12 months. This is a great way to involve your friends and family in points and also get a nice bonus.

American Express also offers a refer a friend program. With this program, you’re able to refer your friend to virtually any card in the American Express portfolio.

You’re restricted to referring a personal card from a personal card and a business card from a business card. Log in to your American Express online account to refer friends.

Neither Capital One nor Banco Popular currently offers a publicly available referral system.

Earn Miles Through Shopping and Dining

Earning LifeMiles doesn’t have to involve credit card applications and spending. Although it’s the best feasible way to earn a gigantic chunk of LifeMiles in a short period of time, you can still do great by earning LifeMiles via shopping and dining.

LifeMiles Shopping and Dining Partners

LifeMiles has a whole slew of shopping and dining partners. Although most of the companies are South American, there are quite a few American companies on the list.

Some neat examples of companies where you can earn LifeMiles are Harley Davidson, Steve Madden, Vans, Tumi, Golds Gym, L’Occitane, Armani, and American Eagle.

To start earning LifeMiles with shopping partners, follow these instructions:

1. Visit the LifeMiles shopping portal
2. Click Find commercial partners
3. Change the filter at the top left from Colombia to all countries
4. Select the partner where you want to shop

Keep in mind that you can only earn LifeMiles at specific locations, such as shops in Colombia, Costa Rica, or San Salvador.

You can earn up to 5 LifeMiles per dollar spent with these partners, so it’s a great way to earn miles.

Once you’ve selected your partner, the following page will provide you with directions on how to earn bonus LifeMiles, which can vary from company to company.

LifeMiles Restaurant Partners

Avianca LifeMiles has a variety of restaurant partners, in addition to their shopping partners. You’ll only earn LifeMiles when dining at specific locations.

You can earn up to 5 LifeMiles per $1 spent at restaurant partners. Some examples of restaurant partners are P.F. Chang’s, 9 Hundred Pizza, and Chifa Express.

Remember that earning LifeMiles with partners is subject to the specific terms and conditions, which can vary from partner to partner.

Earn Miles Through Travel

You can earn a lot of LifeMiles for paid flights, hotel stays, and more! This section will be dedicated to travel-related purchases and using them to grow your LifeMiles balance.

Airfare and Airline Purchases

Unsurprisingly, you can earn a lot of Avianca LifeMiles by flying on Avianca flights. Mileage earning is dependent on the fare class and distance of your ticket. Additionally, the minimum number of miles you can accrue for international flights is 500 miles.

Here’s the award chart for accruing Avianca LifeMiles when flying on Avianca:

For example, if you fly from Los Angeles (LAX) to Bogota (BOG) on a fare class A ticket, you’ll travel a total distance of 3,479 miles. You’ll earn 150% on 3,479 miles, which is 5,219 LifeMiles and 2 segments, which go toward elite status.

If you hold LifeMiles elite status, your miles accrual rate goes up.

Here’s the breakdown of Avianca elite status:

• Silver: 25% mileage bonus
• Gold: 75% mileage bonus
• Diamond: 100% mileage bonus

Let’s take the same example from above, but for someone with an elite status of gold. That person flying from Los Angeles (LAX) to Bogota (BOG) on a fare class A ticket will earn a 75% bonus in addition to the base 5,219 LifeMiles, bringing up the accrued total to 9,132 miles.

Crediting Partner Airlines to LifeMiles

You can accrue LifeMiles from many different airline partners, but each partner has specific accrual rates.

You’ll also be able to accrue LifeMiles for flights on Star Alliance partners, Iberia (a Oneworld airline), and Aeromexico (a SkyTeam airline).

You can find the complete list of partner airlines and LifeMiles accrual rates on the Avianca LifeMiles website.

Hot Tip: For more information, check out this in depth guide to help you know where to credit your airline miles.

Car Rentals and Other Ground Transportation

You can also earn LifeMiles through car rental partners.

Here’s a list of car rental partners:

Avis has the best deal on earning LifeMiles, so we would suggest utilizing them when possible.

LifeMiles Hotel Partners

Avianca partners with a lot of different hotel brands, so there are many opportunities to top off your LifeMiles by booking hotels.

You can find out all the hotel partners on the LifeMiles website, but check out our consolidated list below:

If none of these hotel chains is a good fit for you, there are quite a few booking portals that you can utilize to earn LifeMiles.

LifeMiles Hotel Booking Portals

LifeMiles currently partners with these booking portals:

One of the biggest hidden perks of using booking portals is that LifeMiles periodically offers huge bonuses on hotel bookings, but sometimes for only a single day.

These bonuses can actually earn you miles that are more valuable than the booking itself!

LifeMiles Experiences

LifeMiles also offers experiences through Rocket Travel, which is LifeMiles’ partner for LifeMiles Experiences.

You’ll usually earn around 2 to 3 LifeMiles per dollar spent on LifeMiles Experiences.

Specialty Earnings for Avianca LifeMiles

One of the most effective ways to get tons of LifeMiles is by taking advantage of deals that are exclusive to Avianca LifeMiles. As you’ll find out, taking advantage of these deals is extremely easy.

The main thing to watch out for is timing. The best way to illustrate this point is with the example below.

Buy Avianca LifeMiles During Huge Sales

Avianca typically sells LifeMiles at a prohibitively high price of 3.3 cents per mile. We do not recommend purchasing LifeMiles at this price unless you’re in an emergency and need the miles as soon as possible.

Avianca frequently offers gigantic bonuses on purchased miles. And by gigantic, we mean gigantic.

It’s not unusual to see bonuses of 125-150% on purchased miles. In other words, if you buy 1,000 miles during these sales, you’ll get an extra 1,250-1,500 miles for free, bringing your total up to 2,250-2,500 miles.

The maximum number of LifeMiles you can purchase per year is currently 200,000 (before bonuses).

Subscribe to Club LifeMiles

Club LifeMiles is a recently launched subscription service from Avianca LifeMiles that allows you to make recurring purchases for miles.

In addition, the more miles you buy (for a full 12 months), the bigger bonus you get for purchasing miles.

Here’s the breakdown of the subscription levels.

Best case scenario? You buy miles at 1.39 cents per point, which means that you can fly on Lufthansa First Class one-way between the U.S. and Europe (87,000 LifeMiles) for $1,209.30 using this subscription.

Considering that Lufthansa often retails for $10,000 or more, you can get tons of value this way.

Hot Tip: LifeMiles processes all purchases directly on Avianca, meaning that you’ll qualify for 5x points with the Platinum® Card from American Express.

Multiply Your Miles

The very last way that we’ll discuss for earning a lot of LifeMiles is through a program called Multiply Your Miles.

Through this method, you can double and even triple your miles. This is done in these two ways:

• Flying
• Avianca credit card spending

For example, if you earned 2,000 miles from flying and 1,000 miles from Avianca credit card spending, you’re eligible to earn up to 9,000 miles total. Basically, you’ll be able to buy up to 2x the miles for a discounted rate.

If you remember, the Avianca Vuela Visa® Card and Avianca Vida Visa® Card both offer 15% off Multiply Your Miles purchases, which you can use to save even more money!

The overall message of this method is that you’ll be able to buy LifeMiles at a much cheaper price than usual. The catch is it’ll have to be from Avianca-related spending, whether it’s on travel or on their co-branded credit card.

You’ll only be able to buy a relatively small amount compared to the normal miles sales, but you’ll get the miles at a larger discount.

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of neat ways to earn Avianca LifeMiles.

Avianca LifeMiles is an extremely versatile frequent flyer program. They never pass on any fuel surcharges to you, they’ve got tons of ways to get lots of points, and there are many great ways to redeem LifeMiles for maximum value!

Featured Image: Courtesy of Avianca.com