#18 Among Airlines
Point Value
1.30 ¢
Hobby Score
6.3
Avianca LifeMiles has good value, especially for international premium cabin flights.
Avianca Lifemiles associated alliance is Star Alliance
Visit Star Alliance
The most efficient ways to earn Avianca LifeMiles are to fly on Avianca or one of its partners or to open one of their co-branded credit cards to earn miles directly. Avianca partners with several major credit card programs, giving you the flexibility to transfer points for top ups or to book flights with Avianca or its partners.
You earn LifeMiles on Avianca flights based on the fare type you book. Elite members earn additional bonus miles on top of the base earning rates.
You will earn 5 miles per dollar spent on the following additional services:
Miles earned per dollar by fare type:
Elite bonus earning rates:
Avianca offers two co-branded credit cards backed by American Express. Both are personal cards and come with different signup bonuses, annual fees, and perks. These cards are an easy way to earn LifeMiles directly.
The following major credit card rewards programs all partner with Avianca and transfer to LifeMiles at a 1:1 ratio:
You can also transfer hotel points, but the rates are poor:
We don’t recommend transferring hotel points unless you need a small top up and have no other options.
Avianca is part of Star Alliance, so you can earn LifeMiles when flying with partners such as United, Lufthansa, Air Canada, and many others. The earning rates vary by airline, fare class, and route.
Avianca LifeMiles Elite American Express Credit Card
Redeeming your LifeMiles for flights on Avianca or its partners will almost always give you the highest value. The program is often overlooked, but there are many strong sweet spots across Avianca, Star Alliance partners, and select non-alliance partners.
The LifeMiles website is known for being slow, buggy, and unreliable, but once results load, you’ll see availability across Avianca, United, and other Star Alliance partners.
You can redeem LifeMiles for a variety of travel and non-travel purchases, but these options offer poor value compared to booking flights. We recommend avoiding these redemptions unless you have a small balance to burn.
Avianca also has a travel portal where you can use LifeMiles for these bookings, but prices are often inflated and rarely competitive compared to paying cash.
Discover your points' highest-value redemption options. Use the filters to find the optimal sweet spot for your next trip.
Search results default to Avianca flights, but you can choose to add Star Alliance carriers and United Airlines flights to the results (if they’re applicable for that flight)
There's no easy way to search for this, but you may see availability for mixed cabin bookings. Each leg is priced accordingly, so you can fly economy on a short leg and business on a longer leg for a fair price
Searching on Lifemiles can be frustrating. The site moves slow, and changing dates or other parameters can take longer compared to other airlines. You can find good redemptions, though, but you need to set aside some time while searching
If you are an experienced points user, Avianca is a strong program with a variety of sweet spots, many of them with its partners. You can find high-value international premium cabin redemptions on Star Alliance carriers like United, Lufthansa, Swiss, and Singapore Airlines. The rates are competitive, and the biggest advantage is that Avianca does not pass on fuel surcharges, which can save hundreds of dollars on long-haul flights.
LifeMiles is not always the easiest program to use, as knowledge of booking partner awards is needed to get the most value. Since Avianca is a transfer partner of Amex, Citi, Capital One, and Bilt, it is easy to accumulate points to transfer. However, Avianca offers only two co-branded credit cards, so unless you also fly the airline throughout the year, you’ll rely mostly on transferable points from credit card systems.
LifeMiles isn’t the best program for beginners. Searching for award flights can be frustrating, as the site and app are slow and clunky. Phantom award space is known to appear, so confirming availability before transferring points is always wise. For savvy travelers who have been in the hobby for a while and know how to find partner award space, LifeMiles is an excellent program with plenty of outsized value.
There are four elite status levels with Avianca. To qualify for each tier, you must earn a specific number of Elite Qualifying Miles, with a minimum portion earned on Avianca-operated flights. All requirements must be met between January 1 and December 31 each year.
See below for qualifications to reach each tier and benefits of each. The last two are lifetime status possibilities
LifeMiles expire after 12 months of inactivity, so before canceling a card, it’s important to decide what you want to do with your miles. There have been inconsistent reports about whether transferring miles from other programs resets expiration. Avianca’s terms state this does not extend the life of your miles, so don’t rely on it.
If you have a co-branded card, a single purchase will add miles to your account and reset the clock. If you’re not planning to book a flight within the next year, consider holding the card for one more year to keep your miles alive.
Family pooling is available only to elite members. If you hold status or have a LifeMiles+ subscription, your miles are safe for 24 months instead of 12.
