Avianca is a Star Alliance member and their Lifemiles program can be a lucrative way to book travel with partner airlines like United and Air Canada within North America.
However Avianca is currently in bankruptcy, made all the more complicated as Lifemiles is a completely separate entity.
Lifemiles says they will continue to exist even if Avianca would go under and your miles aren’t at risk, but that’s not entirely true. Only airline mileage programs have access to book Star Alliance partner award tickets and if the sponsoring airline ceases to exist, then the ability to book mileage tickets would also go away.
Other airlines don’t get paid for partner booked award tickets until the flights are flown, so when an airline goes belly up the partner airline may not honor your booked tickets. That may be different in this case where the mileage program is a separate entity and still honors its debts…but things are complicated.
Ending today, Avianca is offering 49% off award tickets with some great deals here.
One-way flights start at just 4K miles in coach, 11.5K miles in business class, and 63K miles in first class.
However since at least yesterday, the ability to transfer AMEX points to Avianca is down. AMEX says that’s because Avianca was rejecting their mileage transfers and they’re trying to figure out why.
You should be able to instantly transfer Capital One or Citi miles to Lifemiles.
You can buy miles from Avianca with a bonus, but you would have to be crazy to buy miles from an airline in bankruptcy court unless it’s for a partner airline flight in the very near future.
But if already have Lifemiles, it can be worthwhile to use them with a discount.
Will you book any award travel on sale with Lifemiles?
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5 Comments On "Lifemiles Transfers From AMEX Are Down; Save Up To 49% On Award Tickets Today, With A Caveat"
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Booked last night for tomorrow morning, CLE to EWR, for 4K!
I’d say that’s close enough in 😀
Just wondering, Dan, was the CLE-EWR deal added just for you?
It’s UP TO 49% OFF;( ..most of the routes are much less
I flew Avianca from LAX to MAD a few years ago — late flights in both directions, difficult to connnect in BOG, but the price was right. Avianca is proud of its heritage as one of the oldest airlines in the Americas. It wasn’t until recently that I learned its true history — it was started by Germans who became dual citizens to satisfy Colombian law. In the late 30s, it had close connections to the Nazi government, which concerned the American military because of their proximity to the Panama Canal. Most of the shares by then were owned by Pan Am, but management was still with the Germans. Our State Department eventually helped Pan Am take over the company, providing taxpayer funds to make the termination payments to the departing Germans.