LifeMiles Mixed Cabin Redemptions Now Possible

In a surprising move that suddenly makes Avianca LifeMiles much more valuable, mixed cabin awards are now bookable! First, business, and economy class can now be mixed on a single itinerary, with the highest cabin establishing the price of the award.

Up until now if you booked a first class award, all segments had to be in first class. Similarly, if you booked a business class award all segments had to be in business class. Understandably, that often created difficulties. Say you were flying from Chicago to Hannover and wanted to fly first class on the transatlantic flight. It would have been impossible to book everything on a single-award ticket because the flight from Frankfurt or Munich to Hannover would only have been available in business or economy. In other words, even though first class was not even offered, because both flights were not in first class the ticket could not be booked as a single award.

Now, mixed cabin itineraries readily show up and my example above is no longer an impossibility–

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Think about it — this adds tremendous value to a program that often sells miles for very cheap because it will reduce out-of-pocket expenses that up to this point have been routinely necessary to secure domestic or shorthaul connections in lower cabins.

As a reminder, the LifeMiles award chart has a handful of sweet spots, considering there are no fuel surcharges or close-in processing fees:

North America to Europe / Business Class / 63,000 miles / one-way
North America to Europe / First Class / 87,000 miles / one-way
North America to Central & South Asia / Business Class / 87,000 miles / one-way
North America to North Asia / First Class / 90,000 miles / one-way

LifeMiles has also stopped blocking Lufthansa First Class award space.

One thing to watch out for is that LifeMiles will now sell you “business” or “first class” itineraries in which the longest leg is in economy class and only the short leg is in a premium cabin. Watch out for those because they will price the same as if the whole award had been in a premium cabin–

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