My first experience with redeeming Avianca miles was back in 2017, and it wasn’t a positive one (to put it mildly). I still chuckle when I think about it, especially the fact that my SIL kept calling it “Ivanka” without a hint of irony. I figured it was “one and done”, but we circled back to Lifemiles in 2019 with the idea of redeeming them on a 2020 trip to Japan. You can guess how that turned out. To Avianca’s credit, they refunded the miles without penalty, albeit kept the $25 per person fee.
Fast forward to 2023. I was sitting on a giant pile of Lifemiles and was looking to burn it on something, anything. Fortunately, since I was planning to visit my family in Europe anyway, so it was the perfect opportunity to get rid of them. This experience wasn’t without drama, as Lifemiles website stopped working for a few weeks, which made it impossible to book awards. Even calling was hit or miss.
I was hoping to fly from JFK to Geneva, but settled on Brussels when the award flight became available. The economy redemption on JFK-Geneva route is one of the best deals in Lifemiles program, and I’m seeing a good bit of availability for this summer. Get it while you can, as this is an amazing price, a “unicorn” redemption.
I’ve mentioned that I still had a small stash l needed to get rid of, and was hoping to use it for my SIL. She actually helped me pay for these miles, so it was only fair.
As it turned out, her husband was planning to go to Belgium for work this summer and wanted to coordinate with us, so we could spend a few nights in Bruges together. His job would pay for his flight, he just needed to cover my SIL’s ticket. So, naturally, we turned to Lifemiles. I was surprised to see that there was one award seat still available on our flight to Brussels. This was perfect, as my BIL didn’t like the idea of her flying alone. Plus, it will give her a chance to spend time with my kids whom she treats as her own.
Booking the flight
We needed 22k miles, but my husband only had 16k in his account. I had an option of purchasing the miles during booking, but decided to transfer 4k Amex points and 2k Capital One points. Both transfers posted instantly, a huge plus. I just needed to add my SIL as a travel companion in my husband’s profile, and this is where we hit a snag. The website wouldn’t allow me to add her for some reason. So, instead I went ahead and edited the info on one of his existing travel companions (my daughter in this case) and it worked.
I almost put my SIL’s maiden name, but fixed it at the last minute. Phew! I try to avoid calling Avianca at all costs, though I’ve heard their customer service has improved greatly in the last few years.
Aside from issues with adding my SIL’s info to the profile, everything else went smoothly. We paid 22k miles plus $49 in taxes. She will still need to cover the same day one-way ticket from Detroit to JFK, and I told her to make sure to buy travel insurance in the event something goes wrong. Avianca charges $200 per person in cancellation fees, so this isn’t a program for speculative bookings.
We are still looking at return options for her, but will figure out something. As of now, I have only 6,500 Lifemiles in my account, and if I lose them, so be it.
Keeping things in perspective
When it comes to frequent flyer award programs, an expression “pick your poison” comes to mind. If you want simplicity and free cancellation, your best Star Alliance option is United. But it will cost you. This same flight from JFK to Brussels runs at 44k United miles. No, you won’t pay the $25 booking fee, but who cares. Of course, the biggest advantage of using United miles is the ability to add the domestic leg at a relatively reasonable cost even when “saver” award isn’t available.
This is important for those of us who don’t live near a Star Alliance hub. That said, all the latest devaluations are making United program way less attractive. It’s still simple, yes. But the value is far less compelling. For example, in our case my kids wanted to visit NYC anyway. So, I’ve decided to add a one-way ticket from Sarasota to JFK for only 8k Jet Blue miles per person. We will spend one night in the city and do some sightseeing while we are at it. The combined cost is 30k miles per person, still considerably less than 44k United miles. And that’s assuming I could even add the leg to Newark at no extra cost.
With Turkish Airlines recent devaluation, Lifemiles is looking better and better. As long as you are willing to deal with nonsense, that is.
P.S. There are various ways of getting access to Lifemiles program, and we recommend Capital One Venture Rewards (our affiliate link) to beginners. You will get 75,000 Capital One miles after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months, $95 annual fee is not waived. As you can see from my example of JFK-Geneva redemption, the points can potentially go far if all goes well. But if not, you can just redeem them on travel purchases at 1 cent apiece. It’s a win-win scenario.
Author: Leana
Leana is the founder of Miles For Family. She enjoys beach vacations and visiting her family in Europe. Originally from Belarus, Leana resides in central Florida with her husband and two children.
@Ian Oh, I totally get it! You are in a great position to take advantage of Avianca program. The same goes for those who live near AA hub and love Avios.
Love the program. So much value when your closest airport is an expensive regional outpost that has primarily United flights. Can get to SFO for 6,500 LM nonstop, or anywhere in most of the west for 7,500 miles with a connection.
It has been worth the occasional pain (and even occasional cancellation fee – $50 domestically) for me.
@Boris I believe it’s one of the best deals at the moment. You can sometimes get lower mileage price via Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic, but those awards come with fuel surcharges.
@Russ It’s a challenging program. When things go right, it’s a beautiful thing. But then the website will stop working for weeks at a time. Not a program I would invest in speculatively, for sure.
@ GUWonder Yes, booking tickets last minute certainly helps, as at least you are certain you will take that particular flight. And no worrying that Lifemiles will cancel the ticket due to schedule change. I plan trips up to a year in advance, so flexibility matters. But not enough to pay double.
@Aleks Yes, when things go wrong, it can be a hassle to get everything refunded. You also have to watch your reservation like a hawk, as Lifemiles will sometimes cancel tickets due to schedule change. Lots of potential pitfalls.
@Jules Yes, this deal is only valid on JFK-GVA, not the other way around. Lifemiles program is full of mysteries!
Hi Leana, would you say that this 16.5K /miles OW is currently lowest way to get to Europe? Thank you
Regarding the JFK-Geneva route, I searched it the other way around and it prices at 30k in economy. Weird.
I’ve only had a couple of serious mess-ups for my own trips using Lifemiles, but beside that it has been smooth sailing for my mileage ticket space trips on AV tickets. Given my own travel and flight booking patterns, I am usually spared the hassle of having to deal with Avianca for rebooking for cancellations or rescheduling for flight delays and so that is also a factor in why I like Lifemiles despite the issues I know too well that it has and how those issues can hit.
I use Lifemiles a lot for same-day or next-day travel — much of which is in economy class and most of which is either intra-US, intra-Europe, US-Europe or Europe-Asia.
Basically, it’s been Lifemiles that has killed off much of my use for UA miles and is a major reason why I and still so far from UA MM status despite having flown a lot on UA planes.
I’ve avoided it based on stories like this.
It is a backup program for me, if I could not find any other Star Alliance availability. Don’t consider it main use because of high cancellation fees and per ticket fee. Although in 2020 Lifemiles refunded my miles and money (full amount) for award that was canceled due to COVID. It took several emails and weeks to receive it back, but eventually it happened (I’ve read contrary reports at the time of 2020-21 when people could not get back their money/miles for cancelled flights).
The good use could be for South America awards, and US to Europe as you mentioned.
@GUWonder I have a feeling we will end up circling back to Avianca at some point in the future.
Like you said, it can be frustrating to deal with, but it’s hard to argue with savings compared to other programs. United is becoming less and less competitive these days. We primarily fly in economy, and it’s hard to justify paying double for four people. I’d rather just say a quick prayer and take a chance on Avianca!
I am a heavy user of AV/Lifemiles-issued award tickets for over a decade now. While I had sort of reduced my use of them a bit for a period of time, I am back to heavily using AV miles since United miles became useless for mileage ticket space on SAS flights.
I have had some problems with Lifemiles tickets, but the substantial amounts of money and miles/points saved by buying and using Lifemiles has been worth it for me.
Unfortunately, AV has killed off the value of buying miles via the points+cash method, and so I have to go into more overdrive in paying up when they have promotional sales for buying or playing miles transfer ping pong.