Lifemiles Launches Lifemiles+ Subscription And Credit Cards, Will You Bite?

Never Miss Another Deal - Follow DansDeals on Facebook

Lifemiles Background

There’s a lot to love and a lot to hate about Avianca Lifemiles.

They generally charge reasonable amounts of miles. However, they no longer have an award chart, so they can devalue at any time without warning.

Based on my testing, this is what they charge for domestic flights on United:

• 6.5K miles in coach and 15K-16K miles in business for flights under 500 miles in distance.
• 7.5K miles in coach and 15K-16K miles in business for flights 500-799 miles in distance.
• 10K miles in coach and 15K-25K miles in business for flights 800-1,199 miles in distance.
• 12.5K+ miles in coach and 15K+ miles in business for flights 1,200+ miles in distance.

They used to be a go-to for domestic redemptions, but last month, United started blocking a majority of their domestic saver award space from partner airline programs like Lifemiles.

But there is still some bookable space and there are international Star Alliance bargains in coach, business, and first class as well.

You can also still get United card and elite benefits when using Lifemiles for United flights.

They also charge a non-refundable $10-$25 booking fee for award tickets and often can’t book awards within 24 hours of a flight. You’ll only see the actual booking fee for your award if you have sufficient miles for an award in your account, during the award booking process.

Canceling an award costs between $50 for a short-haul domestic award and up to $200. You’ll see the price for the cancelation fee for your award if you have sufficient miles for an award in your account, during the award booking process.

And if anything goes wrong, good luck. Customer service at Lifemiles is absolutely horrendous, though they claim to be working on fixing that.

More troubling, while many programs are removing expiration dates or making miles last longer, Lifemiles has gone the other way. Their old expiration policy was that earning or redeeming any miles extended the validity of your miles by 24 months. However, in a shameless money grab, that was changed to only earning activity extending miles, and only by 12 months. Redeeming miles no longer extends the validity of your miles.

But with all that being said, I do find niche value in the program, by transferring over points from AMEX, Capital One, or Citi on demand when needed for an award.

Do I trust Lifemiles? Not in particular, though few programs are very trustworthy. But the lack of an award chart is a sure sign to me that I can’t trust a program. Air Canada is a good alternate Star Alliance option that has an award chart which keeps them honest. Either way, I don’t like allowing miles to sit in an airline program where they can be devalued without notice.

However, Lifemiles is hoping to be more than just a transfer depot with new subscription and credit card offerings.

Lifemiles+ Subscriptions

They have launched Lifemiles+ subscriptions with interesting benefits. If you subscribe, you can’t cancel for 6 months. If they aren’t able to charge your credit card after 3 attempts, you won’t be able to subscribe again in the future.

• Lite costs $20/month (free for elite cardholders) and gets you 500 miles per month. If you have a Lifemiles credit card, you can earn up to another 1,000 bonus miles monthly, equal to how much you earn from spending on the card that month. You also get a 10% rebate on Star Alliance award redemptions within 15 days of redeeming miles.
  • If you value Lifemiles at 1.2 cents each, the 500 miles is like getting $6 back per month.
• Basic costs $50/month ($30 for elite cardholders) and gets you 2,000 miles per month. If you have a Lifemiles credit card, you can earn up to another 2,000 bonus miles monthly, equal to how much you earn from spending on the card that month. You also get a 10% rebate on Star Alliance award redemptions within 15 days of redeeming miles. And you’ll get free award changes/cancelations, though booking fees are non-refundable.
  • If you value Lifemiles at 1.2 cents each, the 2,000 miles is like getting $24 back per month.
• Pro costs $100/month ($80 for elite cardholders) and gets you 4,500 miles per month. If you have a Lifemiles credit card, you can earn up to another 4,500 bonus miles monthly, equal to how much you earn from spending on the card that month. You also get a 10% rebate on Star Alliance award redemptions within 15 days of redeeming miles. And you’ll get free award changes/cancelations, though booking fees are non-refundable.
  • If you value Lifemiles at 1.2 cents each, the 4,500 miles is like getting $54 back per month.
• Max costs $200/month ($180 for elite cardholders) and gets you 10,000 miles per month. If you have a Lifemiles credit card, you can earn up to another 10,000 bonus miles monthly, equal to how much you earn from spending on the card that month. You also get a 10% rebate on Star Alliance award redemptions within 15 days of redeeming miles. And you’ll get free award changes/cancelations, though booking fees are non-refundable.
  • If you value Lifemiles at 1.2 cents each, the 10,000 miles is like getting $120 back per month.

Are those worthwhile? The bonus miles are nice, though I’m skeptical about collecting miles in a program that can devalue at will. I’d much rather have transferrable points that I can transfer on demand and have nothing at risk. But ultimately this will boil down to how many Star Alliance redemptions you make, as those get a 10% rebate on all plans, and get free cancelations on the Basic plan and higher.

Is it worth subscribing if you’re redeeming 1 award? Maybe, depending on how big the rebate will be and the likelihood of needing to cancel an award. This would be more intriguing if it was a 10% discount on awards, as a 10% rebate means you need to monitor your account for expiration and that the points can be devalued down the line.

But if you’re redeeming 100,000 miles, you’re looking at getting a rebate of 10K miles. If you value the Lifemiles at 1.2 cents each, that’s a $120 value, which does cover the cost of the Lite plan for the required 6 months. Of course, you’ll need to make sure to redeem those miles and not let them expire, but the argument to subscribe before a redemption like that is solid.

It seems like you should be able to subscribe to a Lite plan when buying an award for the 10% rebate, and then upgrade to a Basic plan if you need free cancelations. And it appears from the terms that changing plans can be done without extending the 6 month minimum subscription length.

Cardless Lifemiles AMEX Cards

In other news, Avianca Lifemiles also launched 2 new credit cards from Cardless.

Cardless (not actually cardless) has been coming out with foreign airline cards of late, such as TAP, Qatar, LATAM, and now Lifemiles. Many more airlines will be launching in the future.

The biggest problem with Cardless is they have a 1 card per lifetime rule. Once you get a Cardless card, you can never get another one of their cards. And as they are still coming out with other airline cards and offers down the line, locking into a card now feels foolish and premature.

• The Lifemiles AMEX card has a $99 annual fee and comes with 40K bonus miles for spending $3,000 in 90 days.
  • You’ll earn 2 miles per dollar on Avianca/Lifemiles spending, dining, and groceries, and 1 mile per dollar elsewhere.
  • You’ll also earn Silver status with Avianca lounge access (though most of these are accessible via Priority Pass) and other benefits for flying Avianca. This also awards Star Alliance Silver status, though the only benefits of that status is priority flight waitlisting/standby.
• The Lifemiles AMEX Elite card has a $249 annual fee and comes with 60K bonus miles for spending $4,500 in 90 days and another 40K bonus miles for spending $25,000 in 12 months.
  • You’ll earn 3 miles per dollar on Avianca/Lifemiles spending, 2 miles per dollar on dining and travel, and 1 mile per dollar elsewhere
  • You’ll also earn Silver status with Avianca lounge access (though most of these are accessible via Priority Pass) and other benefits for flying Avianca. This also awards Star Alliance Silver status, though the only benefits of that status is priority flight waitlisting/standby.
  • You’ll also get a free subscription to Lifemiles+ Lite, or a $20 discount off other subscription levels, as noted above. That means you’ll get 500 bonus miles per month and up to another 1,000 miles per month, matching your earnings for that month.

I don’t like spending on co-brand cards and none of that moves the needle for me.

I’d much rather earn 2 points per dollar everywhere on a card like the AMEX Blue Business Plus, Citi Double Cash® Card, Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Venture X Business, or Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card. Those currencies also have occasional 15-25% transfer bonuses to Lifemiles, which can move those earnings up to 2.5 points per dollar spend.

There are also plenty of cards that give bonus miles on travel, dining, and groceries that don’t lock you into a single currency.

Plus that way, I’m not locked into a currency that can be devalued without warning or that may not have award availability when another airline may have award space.

But if you’re an Avianca Lifemiles superfan, and don’t mind locking into your once per lifetime Cardless restriction, maybe this will make sense for you?

Will you signup for a Lifemiles subscription or credit card?