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Avianca/TACA LifeMiles, a member of the Star Alliance, is offering a 100% bonus on miles transferred between accounts through March 17, 2014.
During the promotion, the cost to transfer each mile is 1.5 cents. For every mile taken out of your account, the transferee receives 2 miles.
Example:
- I pay $150 to transfer 10k miles to my friend.
- My account loses 10k miles. His account gains 20k miles.
- The net gain of 10k miles cost $150 or 1.5 cents per mile.
Is it a good deal? Should you transfer LifeMiles? Why should everyone pay attention to LifeMiles?
Transfers must be made in 1k mile increments between 1k and 50k miles. Fifty thousand miles is also the yearly limit to transfer.
LifeMiles runs a 100% bonus on purchased miles about every other month, which also results in the chance to buy miles for 1.5 cents.
LifeMiles awards never have any fuel surcharges, one way awards cost half the price of roundtrips, and they have access to all the same Star Alliance award space that United does.
LifeMiles also has mis-coded a few airports, so that it prices them as being in the wrong region. I wrote about one such mistake in $200 Flight to Japan with Hidden City Ticketing on LifeMiles Awards. Guam (GUM) prices as if it were part of the mainland US, which makes a ton of awards available for cheap.
The big problem with LifeMiles is the inability to redeem for mixed cabin awards, so you can’t combine domestic economy with international business.
As with most mileage purchase opportunities, my advice is do not buy LifeMiles speculatively. If you have an award that you are ready to book and award space appears at lifemiles.com, buy the miles. Otherwise wait. There are plenty of options to buy LifeMiles for 1.5 cents, and the LifeMiles program has a history of no-notice devaluations.
PS– One other option to get LifeMiles? LifeMiles Visa Signature Offers 40,000 Mile Signup Bonus
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
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I am back in the US after enjoying Guam for a week for 25,000 Lifemiles from Miami, with a 9 hour stopover in Narita, Japan, on the way back to Houston. We had a great time and it wouldn´t had been possilbe without reading your article. Thanks a lot!
Excellent! Glad you enjoyed!