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 frequent flyer programme to programme. From the Star Alliance pack, Avianca’s LifeMiles can offer amazing value on bookings, largely 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 LifeMiles Purchase Bonus.
LifeMiles members, under a currently ongoing sale, can receive up to 125% bonus on purchased miles between May 7 and June 5, 2019. However, a couple of weeks ago, I had written about a special 15% bonus on top which you can receive as a LiveFromALounge reader. Today is the last day to avail of this bonus.
Register for LiveFromALounge’s 140% bonus here
Here is how the buying bonus will look like for people who register for the promotion above.
- Buy 1,000-50,000 LifeMiles, get 115% bonus LifeMiles (total 2.15 LifeMiles for price of one)
- Buy 51,000-100,000 LifeMiles, get 130% bonus LifeMiles (total 2.30 LifeMiles for price of one)
- Buy 101,000-200,000 LifeMiles, get 140% bonus LifeMiles (total 2.40 LifeMiles for price of one)
This brings the cost to INR 0.96 (1.375 US cents) per mile, which is one of the lowest prices I’ve ever seen. 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 140% bonus. So you can buy 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 right now and today is the last day to register for 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.
Why you should 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 1/Mile. For 96,000 LifeMiles, you can fly to Tokyo from Mumbai on All Nippon Airways. If you were paying cash, the same flight would’ve cost you close to INR 2,00,000 (USD 2,759). That’s a 50% saving right there.
Mumbai to Tokyo on ANA Business Class for 48,000 LifeMiles
Mumbai – Newark return on United Polaris for 156K LifeMiles
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 do the same trip for less than 1/3rd the price if you go the LifeMiles way.
Mumbai to Newark 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. One of the vital caveat with LifeMiles that your Star Alliance partner redemptions have to be on direct flights. And not a lot of members fly their First Class equipped metal to India. But that doesn’t stop you from redeeming miles on other flights around the globe.
- 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 480,000 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. Diners Black won’t get the 10X here because terms state it needs to be a swipe. 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! The promotion is open till 23:59 El Salvador time, which is 5:59 AM India time on June 6.
PS: LifeMiles has kindly extended this promotion for LiveFromALounge readers, and there is no other commercial relationship between the two entities.
Have bought the same. But observed that most of the time, it’s not available or if available only one or max two seats available. Pls note it’s for direct flights only using Star alliance partners.