130% Bonus on LifeMiles Purchases (Fly Lufthansa First Class for ~$2500 Round-Trip!)

by Enoch

As much as we talk about the amazing value you can get when redeeming miles and points for First or Business Class products, accruing large amount of miles enough for such a trip can be difficult. Once in a while, airlines will sell miles directly. Often these represent great opportunities to bulk up your account for an amazing trip.

Buy LifeMiles with a 130% Bonus

LifeMiles, the frequent flyer division of Avianca, is currently running a great promotion on miles. They usually sell miles at a rate of US$33 per 1,000 miles. It’s not uncommon to see them do a “2 for 1” promotion, but as an Early Bird Special, they are throwing in a 30% bonus.

You only get the bonus if you purchase at least 101,000 LifeMiles, which would cost $3333.00. At this rate, though, you will get 232,300 miles for 1.44 cents a piece.

Avianca is a Star Alliance member, and therefore you can redeem their miles on Star Alliance flights. They also have a pretty decent award chart, which you can check out hereThis promotion runs from today to September 10. 

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Fly Lufthansa First Class for $1250 One-Way

One of the recent improvement to the LifeMiles program is that they now itineraries that have mixed cabins. They now also allow access to Lufthansa First Class seats, which they previously blocked. This is one of my favorite ways to use LifeMiles.

Lufthansa First Class seat

Lufthansa First Class seat

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For example, I can redeem 87,000 LifeMiles for a First Class seat on Lufthansa’s flight from Frankfurt to Washington DC, which I can buy for ~$1250:

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If I were to pay cash directly, however, the flight costs a whopping $8696. Granted, this is a last-minute flight, and Lufthansa generally does not open award space until 2 weeks prior, but you can still see the value to be had with LifeMiles.

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Flexible Payment

One feature of LifeMiles redemption is “Flexible Payment.” This means that if you don’t have all the miles required to redeem an award, you can choose to pay cash for a portion of it. As long as you have 40% of the miles required for a ticket, you can “buy” the rest of the points for 1.56 cents apiece. 

Using the same Lufthsana flight as an example, the award costs 87,000 LifeMiles. However, I can choose to only use 35,000 miles, and “buy” the rest of the points for $811.52.

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Some Caveats…

LifeMiles’ customer service phone line is notoriously difficult to deal with. While theoretically you can change or cancel your itineraries, their phone line is such a nightmare that I essentially treat any LifeMiles redemption as “final sale.”

Additionally, LifeMiles does not have access to all Star Alliance seats. For example, Swiss restricts their First Class redemptions to Senator level elite members in their Miles & More program, and Singapore Airlines restricts their premium cabin redemptions to KrisFlyer members. These exceptions are certainly not unique to LifeMiles, but are worth mentioning.

Finally, you are only allowed to receive up to 345,000 miles (bonus included) in any promotion. If you have hit that limit already, you can still buy miles, but only at the usual 3.3 cents/mile rate. I would definitely NOT buy miles at that rate!

Should You Buy LifeMiles for 1.4 Cents Apiece?

I am going use the cop out answer and say “it depends.” Frankly, this is a rate at which I will buy points speculatively. Our family makes a few trips a year, and award tickets get expensive when you’re redeeming for four! As long as you are earning and burning, LifeMiles at this rate represents a great value.

However, ultimately it is up to you to decide whether you will have a use for these miles. Earn and burn—hoarding miles is never a good idea!

Which Card Should You Use?

Buying LifeMiles is somewhat special, in that the airline itself processes the payment. This means that the charge shows up as an airline charge on your credit card bill. I recommend using a credit card that has travel or airlines as a bonus category.

 

You can jump on this promo and buy LifeMiles here.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

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6 comments

Mike S. September 1, 2016 - 3:43 pm

They are blocking LH F

Reply
Enoch September 1, 2016 - 4:08 pm

They don’t have access more than 14 days out, just like any other Star Alliance partner. However, they haven’t blocked LH F as a rule since late 2015. The screenshot shown is for a flight on September 3, 2016 that I was just able to search and book.

Reply
Topgunner September 1, 2016 - 4:28 pm

They are definitely blocking LH F at some level. Check europe-Africa and some Asian routes, full availability in other programs but not LM. NA routes seem to be specific in availability. It might be they also have a requirement of more than 1 award seat to make it available. Also LM blocks SAA awards as well. The value of LM is much lower than 1.4c given the hurdles for redemption compared to earning UA via UR and the lack of starnet blocking

Reply
John Kardys September 5, 2016 - 2:54 pm

I’m not clear how I would book a (business) seat on a partner airline. For example, I would like to fly from Miami to Delhi using LifeMiles. Thanks.

Reply
Enoch September 5, 2016 - 6:52 pm

If you are LifeMiles’ website, just log in and under “Earn,” “Air Tickets,” you should be able to search for award tickets. Searching under the “Smart Search” option will show you Star Alliance flights. LifeMiles also partner with Aeromexico and Iberia. With LifeMiles, you can really only book awards that are bookable online, since their phone operation is quite dysfunctinoal. If you need help booking award tickets, visit us at JuicyMiles!

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LifeMiles Gets Even Better with New Europe and US Award Zones - United One-Way from 7,500 miles! - Point Me to the Plane October 11, 2017 - 7:34 am

[…] also be a pain to cancel, and has recently increased the cancellation fee. However, they frequently discount their miles, and you can often buy them for as little as 1.375 cents apiece. If you have at least 40% of the […]

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