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Avianca LifeMiles is a favorite airline loyalty program for booking Star Alliance award flights without fuel surcharges. Further, this includes airlines like Lufthansa and Swiss Air. So, can you get Avianca LifeMiles without flying Avianca? If so, how do you do it?
As you will see below, there are a number of ways to get LifeMiles. While there are obvious ways like flying, you may be surprised at the various options available.
The obvious way to get Avianca LifeMiles in large swaths is by flying Avianca. Certainly, this isn't an issue if you fly to Latin America.
Here are the current accumulation rates depending on your fare class:
Having Avianca LifeMiles elite status means you can earn an additional 25%, 50%, or 75% mileage bonus on each fare.
If you can prefer to earn LifeMiles instead of hotel loyalty points or rental car rewards, you can book lodging and rental cars through Avianca. It's possible to get Avianca LifeMiles at the world's largest hotel brands including Marriott Bonvoy, IHG, Hilton Honors, and Best Western.
Avianca also partners with hotel search engines like Hotels.com, Kaligo, and RocketMiles. For example, you can earn up to 10,000 LifeMiles per night at select hotels using RocketMiles.
Car rentals through Avianca will earn at least 2 LifeMiles per $1. You won't have a problem finding a rental car partner as LifeMile partners include Hertz, Avis, Budget, National, and others.
You can get LifeMiles once you arrive at your destination by booking travel experiences. The selection may not be as wide as the Airbnb experiences, yet there are still plenty of options.
In Orlando, your options include Everglades tours, bass fishing, and private VIP tours of theme parks. You earn between 2 and 3 LifeMiles per $1 spent on experiences. These small purchases help build your LifeMiles balance for award bookings.
Like other airline loyalty programs, you can earn miles by dining at local restaurants or patronizing select stores. Dining purchases can earn up to 3 LifeMiles per $1 spent. You can earn up to 5 LifeMiles per $1 on in-store purchases and online shopping.
The only "catch" is that you need to be in one of these nations to find a participating merchant:
However, each partner has their own terms and conditions for how you can earn miles. On the other hand, it's possible to stack your mileage earnings if you also have an Avianca credit card.
Related: Best Dining Rewards ProgramsThere are two different co-brand Avianca LifeMiles credit cards. To clarify, this is the most effortless way to get Avianca LifeMiles on every purchase.
Let's take a quick glance at both of the LifeMiles card options.
The Avianca Vida Visa® Card earns 2x LifeMiles on Avianca purchases and 1x LifeMiles for everything else. You can also get 15% off LifeMiles purchases with Avianca's Multiply Your Miles tool. You get 20,000 bonus LifeMiles after your first card purchase.
The annual fee for this card is $59 but there is a foreign transaction fee. While this foreign transaction fee isn't excessive, it cancels out the LifeMiles you earn from foreign non-Avianca purchases.
The Avianca Vuela Visa® Card makes it easier to maximize your daily spending and international purchases. Avianca purchases earn 3x LifeMiles. Purchases at gas stations and grocery stores earn 2x LifeMiles. All remaining purchases earn 1 LifeMile per $1.
In addition, the new cardmember signup bonus is 40,000 LifeMiles after your first card purchase. This is roughly half the miles you need to book a one-way first-class award seat to Europe on Lufthansa.
Other Aviance loyalty benefits include:
The annual fee is $149 and there isn't a foreign transaction fee.
Most people may be familiar with Avianca LifeMiles because they are a transfer partner for several leading credit card rewards programs. As a result, most programs let you transfer credit card points at a 1:1 ratio in 1,000-point increments.
Therefore, if you're not loyal to one airline, flexible travel credit cards are a good way to book award flights on different airline alliances.
Avianca LifeMiles is one of many 1:1 American Express Membership Rewards transfer partners. You have several different card options with different annual fees and benefits. Other partner airlines include Delta, Emirates, FlyingBlue, and Singapore Airlines.
One of your best options for earning Membership Rewards is the Platinum Card® from American Express. You earn 5 points per $1 on flights booked directly from the airline or on AmexTravel.com. This is one of the fastest ways to earn credit card points on plane tickets when most cards earn 2 (or 3 points) at best.
These cards also earn Membership Rewards points:
Related: Best American Express Credit Cards for TravelEven though United Airlines is a Chase Ultimate Rewards 1:1 transfer partner, LifeMiles can still require fewer miles on Star Alliance flights. You can transfer points in 1,000-point increments.
Although several cards earn Chase Ultimate Rewards, only these three cards offer point transfers:
With the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you earn 2 Ultimate Rewards points per $1 on travel and dining. Your points are worth 1.25 cents each when booking award travel on the Chase travel portal. In addition, each Ultimate Reward point can be worth more by transferring to LifeMiles and redeeming for award flights.
Citi ThankYou also offers 1:1 point transfers in 1,000-point increments to Avianca LifeMiles.
Similarly to the Chase Ultimate Rewards program, only a handful of the cards that earn ThankYou points support point transfers. Below are your two options:
The Citi Premier makes it easy to earn ThankYou points on daily spending. You get 3x points on travel and gas stations. Restaurants and entertainment include 2 points. Everything earns 1 point per $1.
A few Capital One credit cards let you transfer points to get Avianca LifeMiles. However, the transfer ratio is only 2:1.5 meaning 2,000 Capital One Miles become 1,500 LifeMiles.
You will need to pick one of Capital One's travel rewards credit cards to have mile transfer capability:
There are also these Capital One business cards:
Related: Capital One Venture vs Capital One VentureOneThe co-brand Marriott Bonvoy credit cards also feature point transfers to airlines at a somewhat dismal 3:1 ratio. This diluted transfer ratio gets better as you get 5,000 bonus miles when you transfer 60,000 Bonvoy points at once.
Chase and American Express offer these Marriott credit cards:
Related: Best Marriott Credit CardsIn conclusion, there are plenty of ways to get Avianca LifeMiles without flying Aviance. You can support the LifeMiles shopping and travel partners. Another convenient way is carrying a travel credit card that lets you transfer points to the best airline for your next destination.
You can redeem Avianca LifeMiles for flights or upgrades for Avianca and Star Alliance partners. For example, United Airlines and Lufthansa are popular options to redeem LifeMiles. Before transferring you should make sure award space is available. However, one downside of LifeMiles is that award space is limited for the most valuable award flights.
Avianca is currently in the Star Alliance airline network.
Therefore, some of the other partner airlines include:
Yes, Avianca LifeMiles currently expire after 24 months. Therefore, you will need to earn more or redeem LifeMiles within that 24-month period to renew your balance.
To clarify, transferring miles from a credit card partner like American Express, Chase, Citi, or Capital One won't renew your miles. But, earning miles from a co-brand Avianca LifeMiles credit card or shopping through the LifeMiles member portal can renew your miles balance.
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