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TACA/Avianca LifeMiles are being sold for 1.5 cents until December 30, 2013. The normal price is 3 cents per mile, but LifeMiles is running one of its frequent 2 x 1 sales.

Screen Shot 2013-12-04 at 9.28.46 PM Your LifeMiles account must have already been open on December 3, 2013 to enjoy this promotion. Since these sales happen every few months, sign up now to be eligible for the next sale if you aren’t eligible for this one.

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What are TACA/Avianca LifeMiles? What are their best uses? Should you participate in this promo?

LifeMiles Rundown:

  • TACA/Avianca is a Star Alliance carrier, based in Colmbia and Central America.
  • It has a competitive chart, though not quite as good as US Airways’. You can see the LifeMiles Star Alliance Chart by clicking the link here.
  • One way tickets are bookable at half the roundtrip price.
  • During this promotion, you can buy up to 150k LifeMiles for $2,250.

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Miles purchases are processed by TACA/Avianca, so this should count as an airfare purchase and earn 3x points if you use The Enhanced Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN or American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card. However the transaction will probably also code as a foreign transaction with a foreign transaction fee, so I recommend using a fee-free card.

The Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® has no foreign transaction fees, and you should be able to redeem Arrival miles for the purchase price of the LifeMiles, since it will look like an airfare purchase on your credit card statement.

Outright buying of miles during this promotion can lead to some very low prices for tickets.

  • Business class to Europe for $1,575 + tax roundtrip.
  • Business class to Australia for $2,025 + tax roundtrip.

Booking LifeMiles Awards

LifeMiles has a very strange rule that you cannot mix cabins on an award ticket. That means no domestic economy to connect to an international business flight.

LifeMiles.com has a solid booking engine for award tickets. Search united.com first, find the space you want, and try to recreate it on LifeMiles.com.

If you can’t book online, you can book by phone by calling 800-284-2622, and entering the following menu choices: 2-3-1-2-1

Further Reading

Here is a post about using the 2 x 1 LifeMiles promotion to get a roundtrip award to Europe for only $1,575 + tax. It also includes an FAQ about the TACA 100% buy miles promotion.

Link

LifeMiles 2 x 1 miles promo

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

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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 Portal 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!


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