Update 8/18/20: Deal available again until August 31, 2020.
The Offer
- Avianca’s LifeMiles program lets you transfer miles to a friend or family members account, but they charge a fee of $15 + taxes per 1,000 miles transferred. They frequently offer transfer bonuses and are currently offering a transfer bonus of 125%. This means that you can transfer 1,000 miles to a friend and they will receive a total of 2,250 miles and you pay $15 + taxes. You don’t have to pay taxes if you reside in the US
The Fine Print
- This promotion is valid from March 26 to April 3, 2019 (00: 00-23: 59 GMT -6, El Salvador), as the last transfer date.
- Transfer charge for each block of 1,000 LifeMiles: US $ 15.00 excluding applicable taxes and US $ 18.30 * including all applicable taxes depending on the country of correspondence registered in the LifeMiles database
- The 125% bonus is calculated on the amount of Miles transferred.
- Maximum of LifeMiles to be received per member per calendar year: LM 75,000 without including the additional bonus.
Our Verdict
Basically pay $15 for 1,250 bonus miles, this works out to be 1.2¢ per mile. This is cheaper than purchasing miles through the subscription service or when they offer a 145% bonus on purchasing miles. Personally I don’t ever purchase miles because I think it leads to some irrational decision making (e.g effectively purchasing business class flights for more than you’d be willing to pay in cash) but this can be a good deal for some people.
View Comments (8)
Transfer from Citi to your friend/spouse Lifemiles account to get 25% bonus(1000:1250), then transfer from their account to yours for 125% bonus)
If I transfer miles this way, will it extend expiration for the recipient?
Read the recent posts on Flyertalk lifemiles thread before buying anything. Lifemiles can be very temperamental, and you do not want to be stuck with a pile of miles you cannot redeem
It's also good to keep expiration in mind. Don't hoard miles if you don't have concrete plans to burn them
In general AV miles earned/acquired will expire after only 12 months; and redemption of miles does NOT extend that
"Any miles accrual transaction in a member's account in the Program extends the validity of the miles in the account of such member for a term of twelve (12) months from the date of such accrual of miles. Other transactions that may affect the balance of miles in a member's account, including redemption transactions, will have no effect on them and will not extend the validity of the miles in such account."
Several exceptions: only applies to miles acquired after Apr 15, 2018; high-tier members and CC holders =24 months; CAN be extended via MR/Citi TY points transfer.
lifemiles is one of program easy to extend expiration. you only need to buy 1 mile for 3.3 cents.
good to know!
Is it possible to do a transfer of the transferred points back to the original giver? I.e. I gift to a friend and the gift those points back to me and we both benefit.
historically - yes, but maybe check Flyertalk for any recent DP's