About a week ago, Leana reported in the Weekly News Recap about new short-haul award zones in the U.S. with Avianca LifeMiles as mentioned in this post by LoyaltyLobby. This news really peaked my interest, and I decided to see if this new development is a reason for me to start collecting Avianca LifeMiles.
Why is this a big deal?
Avianca is a Colombian airline that is part of the Star Alliance. Therefore, you can use Avianca LifeMiles to book award flights on United since it is also part of the Star Alliance.
Recently, Avianca announced a change in its mileage requirements for Star Alliance partner awards. It split the U.S. (and Europe) into three zones, and travel within the same zone is only 7500 LifeMiles each way. You can see the zones here.
I live in Texas, which is in Zone 2. Other states in my zone include Minnesota, Tennessee, Florida and more. Wait, did somebody say FLORIDA? The wonderful state my family travels to at least once a year for the beach, Disney World or a Disney Cruise?!?!?!?! I’m in!
British Airways also has short-haul flights for 7500 Avios, but you have to fly direct to get that low-level mileage price. These short-haul flights on Avianca allow flights with layovers.
My husband and I are both over 5/24 and have no great options to stock up on Southwest points, other than ongoing spending on my husband’s Chase Sapphire Reserve and my Chase Ink. Using our AA miles is more expensive at 12,500 miles each way. So, another cheaper award route to Florida is very appealing!
Let’s do the math
The Avianca Vuela Visa card (direct link, not in our affiliate network) from Banco Popular de Puerto Rico offers 40,000 bonus LifeMiles after the first purchase. The card used to have a promo code you could enter for an additional 20,000 LifeMiles (so 60,000 total), but that code expired in the last few days. Bummer!
The card has an annual fee of $149 that is not waived the first year. While that is high, keep in mind that you don’t have to put a lot of spending on the card to get the bonus LifeMiles. You just need to make one purchase.
My family of five needs 75,000 Lifemiles for five round-trip tickets from Dallas to Orlando (7500 miles each way). So my husband and I would both need to apply for and be approved for the Avianca Vuela Visa card. The cost for two annual fees is $298.
Avianca charges a $25 booking fee per ticket, regardless of whether you book online or on the phone. So for my family that’s another $125 added to our cost, assuming we book round-trip tickets. We also have to add in the 9/11 fees of $5.60 per leg, so $56 round trip for my family.
So, the out-of-pocket cost of accumulating LifeMiles and using them for round-trip tickets to Florida is $298 + $125 + $56 = $479. Or, $95.80 per person. Not exactly free, but still a decent price.
What about the hassle?
First of all, using LifeMiles for tickets to Florida is not a guarantee. United has to have low-level award tickets available. In looking at next summer, it does appear that United has many days with low-level award availability:
However, United doesn’t have any direct flights between DFW and Orlando. We would have to connect, which increases the flight time from 2 ½ hours to at least 4 – 5 hours. That’s not a huge deal or a huge inconvenience.
However, Spirit, Southwest and American all fly direct from DFW to Orlando, And, in the past we have gotten round-trip tickets below $150. Of course, there is no guarantee that we can get that price again. But if we did, we’re not really saving that much by going through the process of getting those two cards and booking award seats with LifeMiles.
Lastly, I can’t forget about Leana’s woes about booking award tickets with LifeMIles (read her post here, it’s hilarious!)
I think I just talked myself out of getting this card. If the bonus was still 60,000 LifeMiles, I would be more easily swayed.
Perhaps my husband will apply for the Capital One Venture Rewards card instead. That would net us $500 to use towards tickets, not to mention it’s so much easier to deal with than Avianca LifeMIles.
Readers, do the new 7500 LifeMiles short-haul award tickets change your mind about getting the Avianca Vuela Visa card?
Click here to view various credit cards and available sign-up bonuses
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Given that it’s been a while since this was posted, I just wanted to follow up with my Avianca experiences:
1) Booking via the website is pretty painless. Lifemiles shows a good amount of the United availability that you find at united.com.
2) However, it chokes on more than 1 connection. Probably not a big deal for some, but flying from a little regional airport like I do, it hinders your options. I can therefore only fly places United offers non-stops from SFO or LAX, since those are the connecting hubs.
3) The $25 booking fee is annoying, but I can swallow it when a round-trip anywhere out of ACV is $300+, and often $500+.
This card is an awesome deal for anyone who flies United regional and tends to pay a lot for tickets.
@Ian Thanks for sharing your experience! I did wind up getting this card when the bonus increased and actually used all of my LifeMiles for tickets from New Zealand to the U.S. I’ll have a post on it soon.
You talked me out of it too 🙂
Ha Ha, HML! If only Avianca didn’t have that darn $25 booking fee…
I would be tempted if I was in Zones 1 or 2, but unfortunately, it’s not worth it for Zone 3. Trying to figure out our next plan of action as well.
@Stephanie I wish the bonus was still at the higher level and I could get more tickets out of it. 7500 miles is a great deal, I just can’t get the math to work for me.
I don’t think I would bother with this offer just for flights to Florida. Too many caveats. United award availability may not be there, plus having to make a connection=weak sauce. And like you said, $98 roundtrip ticket is not exactly a bargain, especially with all the sales going on right now. You will be better off looking into Spirit credit card and their off-peak redemptions. I believe Spirit flies non-stop to Orlando from Dallas, but I’m not 100% positive.
@Leana Unfortunately, we won’t be able to tap into Spirit’s off-peak point redemptions due to our school schedule. If Avianca didn’t have the $25 booking fee per ticket and if the higher bonus was still available, I’d be more tempted with this program.