Some readers have the the Avianca LifeMiles credit card, there are two versions of the card one with a $59 annual fee and the other with a $149 annual fee. Most readers have the version with a higher annual fee as it usually has a better sign up bonus and the fee is waived first year. I’ve never seen retention offers on this card but reddit user keyjey was offered two retention offers when calling in to cancel the card:
- Waived annual fee
- Earn an additional 8x miles per $1 spent until next card renewal
Card normally earns:
- 3x LifeMiles per $1 spent on Avianca purchases
- 2x LifeMiles per $1 spent on gas stations and grocery stores
- 1x LifeMiles per $1 spent on all other purchases
So this is 9x on all purchases and 10x on gas/grocery and 11x on Avianca purchases.
8/25/2021 – annual fee billed this month, agent and supervisor refused to waive fee (was waived in 2020), no retention offer, refused to refund upon account closure. Supervisor filed a CFPB complaint on my behalf, she says. Agent had said supervisors recently told them no annual fee waivers/refund under any circumstances.
I acquired this card in 2019, and received a fee waiver in 2020 as well. Annual fee will bill at end of September. Did you receive a retention offer of some sort outside of an AF waiver?
If the answer is no, it sounds like one should cancel the card instead of dealing with the non-sense of not receiving a refund!
Was there any other retention offer provided? Sounds like it makes the most sense to cancel before AF is billed.
just called on 2/18 to attempt to cancel my card. was offered waived AF and no other options. took the offer so tis still valid as of now fyi.
Called a couple of days ago – waived $149 annual fee, no mention of additional 8x miles
Has anyone able to replicate this offer? I have yet to see any positive dp
“Earn an additional 8x miles per $1 spent until next card renewal”
Yeah, right…
do yall rec to call after the AF hits or before? mine will hit in like a week or so. wanted to call earlier to get rid of it so i dont have to deal with AF but now i’m considering waiting till i get charge on cc to call in.
They will not waive fee until it has posted.
thanks for the info. will wait and call as soon as i see the charge!
Just called 12-22-20. Offered 5.5% balance transfer for 12mon. That’s it. Closed the card. Which is fine by me. The world is just a “different place” than when I opened the card. No hard feelings.
Pretend currency in a bankrupt Colombian airline. Perhaps reflect a bit before proceeding.
Someone will buy them up and merge currencies.
chapter 11 which is for debt reorg, and all currency is pretend
Got a second AF waived on the $149 card a few weeks ago. Never heard anything about 8x points and specifically asked about any bonus offers of the sort.
Two warnings on this card:
1) For me it was difficult to cancel. At first I had a hard time contacting someone who was able to cancel it. When I finally succeeded in contacting it turned out not being canceled at all. I had to call in a second time to cancel it.
2) LifeMiles expire after 12 months if no accumulation of miles. Usage does not reset. No problem if you have a system to stay on top and have MR or TY points to transfer (or even buy a smidge). But I hate 12 month expirations.
Just my feedback. Others will have different experiences.
Do you mean they wouldn’t cancel it, or they wouldn’t waive the AF?
Of the 40+ cards I’ve had in the last few years, this was the hardest I had to fight to get the AF waived after cancelling – which is rare I ever had to do it at all. Spoke to several agents who claimed they had no power to do this. Tons of calls, emails, even snail mail with no success, until finally I think it was a fax that did it and I got $150 credit back 4 weeks later.
This offer would have been nice, but both my application and cancellation were such a mess and really turned me off to that bank, so I’m still glad I’m gone for good.
Drew, I’m with you. My experiences turned me off to them too.
They actually told me they cancelled the card the first time but then I got another bill with the annual fee. I had to spend much time on the second call to not only cancel but get the fee taken off.
Our experiences were similar. I will never fall for another SUB from Unpopular Banco Crapo again.
My last miles activity was in Jan 2020 and I see my miles are good until Jan 31, 2022. So not sure if having a credit card changed the expiration date.
Ven, very good point. I just read an old blog on OMAAT. He states those with cc’s will not expire for 24 months. So good reason to keep the card if you already have it and can get the fee waived. Thanks for bringing this up and educating me.
I am also having trouble with getting them to refund the annual fee. They waived it in Dec 2019. A new annual fee was assessed in Dec 2020, and I cancelled the card three days after that. CS put in a ticket to waive the fee again, but it was denied. I called and had a second ticket put in and I am also filing a complaint with the CFPB. No idea where this is going to land
Same situation here. Cancelled the card within 30 days after the AF was posted. Refund to waive the fee even after the card was closed. Filed a CFPB. Will stay away from this shit bank in the future.
Update: Avianca refused to refund the $150 annual fee, even though I cancelled the card three days after the fee appeared on my account. I couldn’t find the language in their terms and conditions, but it looks like this is their policy.
I was finally able to get the fee refunded by filing a complaint with the CFPB, so you can potentially go that route if you end up in the same situation. The easiest way around this is cancelling before the fee is assessed on your anniversary date though.