One of the ways to use your air miles is to burn them for premium cabin award redemptions. However, where your miles can get you to differ from one frequent flyer programme to programme. From the Star Alliance pack, Avianca’s LifeMiles can offer fantastic value on bookings, mainly because of their policy not to charge fuel surcharge and booking tickets almost all of them online. You can either earn miles by flying or buy miles outright. Now, read on to discover an exclusive new LifeMiles buy miles promo.
Now, through October 2, 2019, LifeMiles is offering BoardingArea and LiveFromALounge readers an exclusive 20% bonus on top of their usual sale, which means you can receive up to 145% bonus on purchased miles up to October 2, 2019. This is their best deal so far, given they have usually given out up to 120% bonus on purchased miles.
Register for LiveFromALounge’s 145% bonus here
Here is how the buying bonus will look like for people who register for the promotion above.
- Buy 1,000-10,000 LifeMiles, get 105% bonus LifeMiles (total 2.05)
- Buy 11,000-50,000 LifeMiles, get 115% bonus LifeMiles (total 2.15)
- Buy 51,000-100,000 LifeMiles, get 135% bonus LifeMiles (total 2.35)
- Buy 101,000-200,000 LifeMiles, get 145% bonus LifeMiles (total 2.45)
This brings the cost to INR 0.95 (1.35 US cents) per mile, which is one of the lowest prices I’ve ever seen factoring for forex movement when you buy at the top end of the promotion (over 101,000 LifeMiles). The price quoted is ex-taxes since taxes vary per country. No taxes in India, for instance.
The minimum purchase for this promotion is 1,000 miles, while you need to buy at least 101K miles to get the 145% bonus. So you can purchase the miles for future redemption, or you can use them to top up your account if you are a few thousand miles shy.
Registration for the promotion is open from now through the end of the promotion. You will be able to make a purchase immediately after registration. So head to this page and enter your LifeMiles number. Make sure to into your account and see the increased bonus on your account when you buy miles.
I’d highly recommend registering now, and then you can decide if you want to take advantage of the promotion.
Why should you look at buying LifeMiles?
And with all those miles will get you some fantastic award flights.
Mumbai – Tokyo return in ANA Business Class for 96,000 LifeMiles
If you max out the bonus, you are effectively paying close to INR 0.95/Mile. For 96,000 LifeMiles (INR 91,200), you can fly to Tokyo from Mumbai on All Nippon Airways roundtrip. If you were paying cash, the same flight would’ve cost you close to INR 2,00,000 (USD 2,759). That’s more than 50% saving right there.
Mumbai to Tokyo on ANA Business Class for 48,000 LifeMiles one way
Mumbai – Newark return on United Polaris for 156K LifeMiles
![a screenshot of a ticket](https://livefromalounge.boardingarea.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-10-at-1.24.06-PM.png)
United’s Polaris is one of the better business class products out there if you want to fly direct to the US from India. A round trip in peak season would set you back by INR 5,00,000 or USD 7,059. But you could make the same trip for less than 1/3rd the price if you go the LifeMiles way.
Newark to Mumbai on United Airlines Business Class for 78,000 LifeMiles
Some of the best value that you can unlock using LifeMiles is when you fly First Class and premium cabins.
- India to United States Business Class for 78,000 LifeMiles oneway
- India to Europe Business Class for 45,000 LifeMiles oneway
- India to Japan/S. Korea Business Class for 48,000 LifeMiles oneway
- The United States to Europe Business Class for 63,000 LifeMiles oneway
- The United States to Japan/North Asia First Class for 90,000 miles
You can find the full LifeMiles Star Alliance award chart here, updated as of May 2019. And the best part about Avianca LifeMiles redemptions is that there is no extra fuel surcharge or taxes.
Remember, you can purchase a maximum of 200,000 LifeMiles before bonuses every calendar year. Which means if you haven’t bought at all this year, you get to stockpile on 490,000 LifeMiles when you buy 200K. The full T&C of the promotion is here.
You could use the Citi Prestige or the American Express Platinum Charge Card which now offers 3X Membership Rewards on spends abroad. LifeMiles purchases are coded as an airline purchase, so you can also use your Citi PremierMiles to get 10X rewards.
Conclusion
Remember, when using LifeMiles, you won’t be able to access Singapore Airlines premium award space. Also, LifeMiles expire within 12 months unless you keep any activity in your account. In my case, I credit all my Air India flights to LifeMiles.
So, what are you waiting for, Sign up and Buy if you please!
PS: LifeMiles has kindly extended this promotion for LiveFromALounge readers, and there is no other commercial relationship between the two entities.
Hi Ajay – Thanks for sharing this post. I just realized that with 20,000 Avios points, one can take a one way flight from Europe to Rio De Janerio (taxes extra). Hence that is the most cost effective way to reach there since a Mumbai – London round trip can come in 30 k + 20,000 Avios points + 20000 taxes. Else a Mumbai – Rio round trip will cost atleast 80 k +.
Thank you @ajay for replying to my request, but as a frequent visitor and avid reader I’d like to mention that I did not enjoy reading this article at all.
Please do not mistake this as a hate reply as i really appreciate the work and effort you’re putting in as well as the information that is being made available to us. But at the same time, your July article and this one on LifeMiles seem like the same which got boring.
Also Avianca is offering 130% bonus on purchasing directly and your 20 should make it 150% bonus.. right? so why 145? is there a cap to the bonus, thats my only thought. So if you could correct/ inform on that as well.
Even I searched for award tickets but can’t find available dates from Mumbai to Houston in November… I am wondering whether it’s worth buying these miles
One needs to be sure of this
https://onemileatatime.com/avianca-bankruptcy-lifemiles/
avianca brazil which is currently undergoing liquidation is different from avianca (Life Miles)? is it safe to buy life miles ?
How is the availability according to you on LifeMiles ? Tried a few dates in March / April next year from Bombay / Delhi to the US and found no availability what so ever .
I can’t get this last line “In my case, I credit all my Air India flights to LifeMiles.”
So you are saying if we fly Air India insted of Flying returns we would get Life Miles?
How do you do that Bhai?
Dear Ajay,
Well I cannot signup using your link nor can I understand the Spanish language. the English option is just for registering the number which I dnt have. can you please guide me further
@naulik, the promotion page is published in English. As for the regular website, first go to the website, on the top right corner change the language to English from Spanish, and then you will be able to sign up for a new LifeMiles account first. Use that to register on our link
Would like to clarify as to how. Much finally does it cost for buying 85000 miles in total. I mean how much would a India to US round-trip cost
Thanks Sir, This one great insight
Frequent flyer will not able to make it apart Credit Card spend millage.
Hi Ajay – Thanks for sharing this post. As per the chart, India (South Asia) to Others (Australia, NZ) is 22,500 miles one way. Is my understanding correct ? A one way ticket would come to INR 20 k (as an example Mumbai – Christchurch) via this approach if my reading is correct.