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Home » Avianca » No LifeMiles Bonuses? Is The Sky Falling?
Avianca

No LifeMiles Bonuses? Is The Sky Falling?

Kyle Stewart Posted onJune 21, 2020November 14, 2023 11 Comments
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For as long as I could remember, Avianca has offered a bonus to buy LifeMiles. But I haven’t seen one in a while, is the sky falling?


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Avianca LifeMiles Usual Bonuses

Avianca, the Colombian flag carrier, operates the LifeMiles loyalty program. Many carriers run promotions to move miles and put cash in the bank. Unlike the rest of the market, LifeMiles is the most aggressive in the business nearly continually offering bonuses for 100% or more, sometimes up to 150% bonuses once or twice annually.

This reduces the cost from $33/1,000 miles to $16.50/1,000 miles, or even $13.20/1,000 points. Why is that important? Because Avianca LifeMiles account holders have access to Star Alliance awards on great carriers for a dramatic discount.

Some have called Avianca LifeMiles the new Star Alliance consolidator.

a woman in a red hat and coat

COVID-19 to Blame?

The obvious first answer would be that COVID-19 is somehow to blame. Airline activities have been restricted, sales are dire and it’s unclear when travel will resume as normal.

The problem is that I can’t really see why Avianca wouldn’t sell LifeMiles at their best rates ever, or at least at the bonus levels they have done so in the past. Many other carriers are selling miles and even future vouchers at multiples to secure cash now for tickets flown/sold later.

It would seem that LifeMiles should be leading the charge to get cash in the door and passengers on planes in the future.

United Acquires Avianca

Is Bankruptcy Affecting Marketing?

LifeMiles was weathering a bankruptcy prior to the coronavirus crisis. In fact, in 2018 United Airlines guaranteed a loan from a wealthy businessman (Efromovich) with Avianca stock used as collateral. When he defaulted, United secured the shares. United, who offer purchase promotions on Mileage Plus miles but never to the level that Avianca offered, may put some pressure on the carrier to pull back the reins some.

Avianca sent out several emails when the bankruptcy process began, assuring guests that the company and LifeMiles program would continue on undisturbed as the company’s debt was re-organized. It’s possible that bankruptcy attorneys and trustees have restricted sales of miles, not fully understanding just how much the sale of LifeMiles was crucial to the program.

It’s also possible that caretakers of the business do not want to further injure the public should the company fail to restructure, opting to avoid adding obligations the company cannot deliver. But that wouldn’t explain why the carrier is permitted to sell travel with existing miles or for cash for flights well into the future.

Conclusion

It’s confusing to me that a company in dire straits (if legally permitted to do so) wouldn’t sell their miles at least as cheap as they have in the past. It’s not “sour grapes” that the carrier isn’t running a fire sale, I have plenty of LifeMiles and still haven’t chosen where and when to spend them. Rather, it’s surprising to me that with just about every other carrier and hotel chain offering incentives to bring cash in the door for future travel, that Avianca, usually the most voracious of them all, has sat this one out.

What do you think? Is the carrier unable to offer promotions on their miles due to bankruptcy? Is there some other reason I haven’t considered that explains the carrier’s pullback from normal marketing activity?

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About Author

Kyle Stewart

Kyle is a freelance travel writer with contributions to Time, the Washington Post, MSNBC, Yahoo!, Reuters, Huffington Post, MapHappy, Live And Lets Fly and many other media outlets. He is also co-founder of Scottandthomas.com, a travel agency that delivers "Travel Personalized." He focuses on using miles and points to provide a premium experience for his wife and daughter. Email: sherpa@thetripsherpa.com

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11 Comments

  1. Gene Reply
    June 21, 2020 at 1:32 pm

    @ Kyle –What moron would buy their miles right now?

  2. Christian Reply
    June 21, 2020 at 2:53 pm

    I’m pretty much with @Gene. Buying LifeMiles right now would be extremely risky.

  3. Al K Reply
    June 21, 2020 at 3:28 pm

    Every risk has a price. And people do more stupid things than purchasing miles at a heavy discount. Good article – wonder how they justify not offering miles with bonus buy still selling them.

    Perhaps new Matketing restrictions or something more important to adress first.

  4. Stuart Reply
    June 21, 2020 at 6:20 pm

    What Gene and Christian said. In fact, I ended up dumping my remaining for Amazon stuff. It was only around 50K but I just don’t believe that Avianca will survive – or that LifeMiles, even if surviving on its own, will be anything more than a greatly reduced and unattractive program in the future.

  5. Klavs Reply
    June 21, 2020 at 8:08 pm

    There is also a real chance that Avianca would love to sell miles but the other partner who owns part of LifeMiles does not. As if Avianca fails they would be on the hook to pay for the tickets with other star alliance airlines if there are problems with honoring them.

  6. mallthus Reply
    June 22, 2020 at 6:53 pm

    I’d say that the double whammy of bankruptcy uncertainty and the near complete collapse of international leisure travel demand for the foreseeable is making them think long and hard about this.

    I’ll certainly be keeping my eyes open for promotions moving into 2021 though, as I have a very specific plan for a big leisure trip in 2022 and I’ll need to book a bunch of seats on LH or UA that exceed even my fairly robust cache.

  7. Matt Vincett Reply
    June 22, 2020 at 10:21 pm

    My name is Matt Vincett. I am CEO of LifeMiles.
    LifeMiles is a separate company from AVIANCA and NOT part of the Chapter 11 filing. As such, customers can feel very confident in buying LifeMiles now and in the future.
    In response to the author, we have been waiting for the right time to start selling miles again. Watch for a flash promo tomorrow with very good deals!

    • Ryan Reply
      September 3, 2020 at 10:04 pm

      Matt, can you comment on why Turkish Airlines flights are unable to be booked with Lifemiles, and when that ability might resume? Thank You

      • Matthew Klint Reply
        September 4, 2020 at 12:07 am

        I’ll reach out to my media contact and ask.

  8. Peter Pett Reply
    June 23, 2020 at 4:26 am

    And here we go, promo is out 🙂

  9. Pingback: LifeMiles Offers 150% Bonus On Purchased Miles. Is This Safe? - View from the Wing

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