How To Buy Avianca LifeMiles and Get the Best Value in 2024

Buying points and miles is generally not a great idea. But there are times when purchasing miles represents great value — and, in some cases, can potentially save you a lot of money.

When it comes to travel rewards, a program that is often overlooked is Avianca LifeMiles. The program has incredible award pricing, tons of airline partners, and does not make passengers pay fuel surcharges.

Best of all, it is easy to accumulate LifeMiles, as the loyalty program is a transfer partner of several rewards programs. It’s also relatively easy to purchase Avianca LifeMiles.

Let’s take a look at how and when you should buy Avianca LifeMiles.

Basics of the Avianca LifeMiles Program

Avianca LifeMiles is an incredibly beneficial program and arguably the best way to book long-haul, premium cabin Star Alliance award tickets. Although the LifeMiles program has undergone devaluations over the years, it still provides excellent redemptions.

The program still uses a zone-based award chart with incredible sweet spots and has interesting pricing quirks when it comes to mixed-cabin awards. With a fixed award chart, it’s easy to determine how many miles you need for a specific redemption.

From 6,500-mile United domestic flights to 60,000-mile business class awards between the U.S. and Europe, there are various ways to redeem Avianca LifeMiles.

In addition to the fantastic award pricing, LifeMiles doesn’t levy fuel surcharges on award flights. This is especially important on award flights operated by Lufthansa or SWISS, which can tack on hundreds of dollars in carrier-imposed surcharges when booked with other programs.

For this reason, LifeMiles is the go-to mileage program for booking award tickets on Lufthansa Group airlines, particularly in premium cabins.

When To Purchase Avianca LifeMiles

Let’s get this out of the way: We don’t generally recommend buying miles. This is because the cost of buying miles is usually higher than the value you get redeeming them.

Generally, however, if the value of the miles exceeds the cost of buying them, purchasing them can be a good idea. But before you hit that confirmation button, there are more things to consider before buying miles.

Your chances of getting value from buying miles tend to be better with Avianca LifeMiles. The LifeMiles program has a generous award chart and does not add fuel surcharges to award redemptions, which is a huge benefit of the program.

Let’s take a look at when it makes sense to buy Avianca LifeMiles and how to actually buy them.

Purchasing Miles at a Deep Discount

You can buy Avianca LifeMiles for 3.3 cents each (i.e., 10,000 LifeMiles for $330) without any bonus. However, this does not represent the best value, as no bonus miles are involved.

Fortunately, Avianca has frequent bonus promotions when purchasing LifeMiles. In the past, these bonuses have been as high as 200%. Nowadays, it’s more common to see bonuses of up to 170%.

If you wanted to buy 10,000 LifeMiles with a 170% bonus, you would receive an extra 17,000 LifeMiles (27,000 LifeMiles total) for $330. This would bring your cost down to just 1.22 cents per mile.

For reference, we value Avianca LifeMiles at 1.4 cents per mile. If redeemed strategically, Avianca LifeMiles can be worth a lot more.

If you’ve done the math and know that purchasing LifeMiles is a good strategy for an upcoming redemption, make sure there’s a LifeMiles bonus promotion when you do it.

Buying for Specific Redemptions

As mentioned, Avianca is a member of Star Alliance, which means you can redeem LifeMiles on all Star Alliance airlines, including Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, and United, among others. Best of all, the LifeMiles program doesn’t tack on fuel surcharges for award redemptions.

Buying the necessary miles for an award redemption can be a great way to book Star Alliance premium cabin seats at a considerable discount. For example, many business class flights between the U.S. and Europe can easily cost upwards of $4,000 one-way.

Avianca LifeMiles charges 63,000 miles for a one-way business class award ticket between the U.S. and Europe. Even without a LifeMiles bonus promotion, you can buy 63,000 Avianca LifeMiles for about $2,100.

This represents huge savings over an expensive cash ticket. Of course, you don’t want to buy LifeMiles without a significant bonus promotion, as they’re relatively frequent.

Overall, LifeMiles represents an incredibly cheap path to Star Alliance redemptions, and buying the miles you need for a redemption can be a great way to save a considerable amount of cash.

Bottom Line:

Purchasing points and miles can be a great way to get a substantial discount when compared to expensive cash fares.

Topping Off Your Account

Of course, you can also buy miles when you need to top off an account for a redemption you already have in mind.

If you are short just a few thousand LifeMiles, it can make sense to buy the remaining miles needed. This is especially true if you have already confirmed award space and need the miles immediately.

Fortunately, most airline loyalty programs let you buy miles in small increments to top off your account.

How To Purchase Avianca LifeMiles

Buying Avianca LifeMiles is quite simple. Head to the Avianca LifeMiles website and log in to your LifeMiles account when prompted.

In the top bar, click on More. This opens a menu with more options, including buying miles.

Select Buy Miles.

From the page that pops up, you can purchase LifeMiles. Click Choose an amount, and a drop-down menu will appear. Here, enter the number of miles you wish to purchase.

After that, agree to the terms and conditions and enter your payment information to complete checkout.

Your purchased LifeMiles should be ready to use instantly.

How Many LifeMiles Can You Purchase?

LifeMiles allows you to purchase up to 200,000 miles per account per calendar year before factoring in any bonuses.

Which Card Should You Use?

In the past, LifeMiles used to sell miles directly, which meant using a credit card with elevated earnings on airfare purchases, such as The Platinum Card^® from American Express or the Chase Sapphire Reserve^®, was the way to go. However, LifeMiles purchases are now completed through points.com.

The best cards to use for LifeMiles purchases are those that maximize your return on everyday spending, such as the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card*×Information collected independently. Not reviewed by Capital One. or the Chase Freedom Unlimited^®.

Final Thoughts

Purchasing airline miles is generally not a great idea, as there are many different ways to earn miles through welcome bonuses and everyday card spending. However, there are certain situations where it may make sense to purchase miles, and this is especially true with Avianca LifeMiles.

Although you should never speculatively buy airline miles, buying Avianca LifeMiles can be a fantastic way to get deep discounts on many Star Alliance partners, particularly for premium cabins. When deciding to buy Avianca LifeMiles, you should always wait for bonus promotions.

The Avianca LifeMiles program continues to offer a ton of value thanks to its generous award chart and long list of Star Alliance partners. Strategically buying Avianca LifeMiles can be an excellent way to fly on some of the world’s best airlines for a fraction of the cost.

The golden rule remains to only buy LifeMiles (on any airline program’s miles) when you have a specific redemption in mind.