Banco Popular & Avianca LifeMiles Partnership Ends, Cards To Be Closed

Banco Popular has sent out a letter out to existing Avianca cardholders informing them that the partnership between Banco Popular of Puerto Rico (BPPR) and LifeMiles has ended. Cards will be closed on March 31, 2022.

It’s unclear at this stage if Avianca has formed a partnership with another financial institution, but if they have cards will not transfer over.

Hat tip to reader GS

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Gerald
Gerald (@guest_1465230)
October 14, 2022 11:05

I just got a notice from Chase Credit Journey of “potential negative activity.” Apparently BPPR submitted a notice of settlement to one or more of the credit bureaus. Normally this means that the consumer and the bank agreed on partial payment of an outstanding debt. They “settled” for $0, which is exactly what I owed them. Will this negatively affect my credit rating?

Bernard
Bernard (@guest_1467143)
October 17, 2022 07:59

I got the same notice. I’m wondering the same.

Matt
Matt (@guest_1473985)
October 27, 2022 11:47

Did you get any help or answers on this? I have the exact same scenario.

shtuot@gmail.com
[email protected] (@guest_1350572)
March 20, 2022 16:47

chuck I have been a silent and infrequent lurker for years.

I love your posts and data points and we are looking for some advice as we have a situation with Lifemiles.

I and my wife had applied for Avianca credit cards for sign up bonuses at end of Dec 2019. Our individual credit card signups included our respective lifemiles accounts. Turns out that Avianca created new lifemiles accounts separately for both my wife and I without notifying us by text, email, phone or snail mail.

In Dec 2021 we both received notices that our miles would be expiring which didnt make sense a a separate lifemiles account that AVianca had created for us.

After much going back and forth with Lifemiles and also having a week to 3 week delay in answering our emails (phone is impossible ), they finally merged the acccounts but are now claiming that the miles in my original account expired since the merge was only requested after the expiration.

Bizarre on so many levels.

I also realized that this is not a rare occurrence as it happened to both my wife and I.

What would you recommend the steps we take to fix this situation and to have had the miles apply to our account in 2020 as we should have had.

(and yes, it would ahve been all avoided had I been on top of our lifemiles accounts in early 2020. Alas, we were busy with covid stuff and this flew under the radar)

James Bond
James Bond (@guest_1333149)
February 16, 2022 17:25

Hopefully a new bank picks up the Lifemiles account and offers new generous pomos. I have seen Lifemile redemption availability go down in the last 6 months for my usual travel routes. Anyone else?

Churny McChurn
Churny McChurn (@guest_1332453)
February 15, 2022 15:17

How is everyone getting a banco popular card? (Assuming you aren’t all residents of PR.)

Aaron
Aaron (@guest_1332552)
February 15, 2022 17:47

PR is part of the US, so US residents are eligible. But in any case, Banco Popular has branches in mainland US as well.

Parts Unknown
Parts Unknown (@guest_1332562)
February 15, 2022 17:52

You mean you don’t have the ever elusive Puerto Rican passport? /s

Ven
Ven (@guest_1332428)
February 15, 2022 14:44

I was surprised to see a credit on Feb 3 for my AF, after they said no for AF waiver when I called them in January.
Good that it is going to close. I did some transactions to offset the -ve balance.

scott
scott (@guest_1332291)
February 15, 2022 11:10

This works out great for me. I have the card but haven’t used it since I signed up 2 years ago. I kept meaning to close but never got around to it. I was worrying the AF would post and I might get hit with late fees on that.

Gerald
Gerald (@guest_1332325)
February 15, 2022 12:15

They were very willing to waive the annual fee.

scott
scott (@guest_1332405)
February 15, 2022 14:01

They waived the fee for me last year. But I haven’t been paying attention to my statements for a while since I don’t use the card. I was concerned the fee would hit, I wouldn’t see it and then get hit with late fees.

mjs
mjs (@guest_1332434)
February 15, 2022 14:49

I think you still want to proactively cancel it. If they report it as “closed by issuer” rather than denoting you chose to close, some banks see that as a red flag that indicates you likely may have done something bad. Easier to just call and do it yourself than fond yourself dinged in the future for another card you want or have to explain it to a loan application

Bbqman
Bbqman (@guest_1332272)
February 15, 2022 10:38

Good riddance to a sh$t bank. Maybe avianca will get a better banking partner.

sam pam
sam pam (@guest_1332257)
February 15, 2022 10:12

Do we still earn miles until 3/31?

Parts Unknown
Parts Unknown (@guest_1332254)
February 15, 2022 10:11

Not so Popular now

TB
TB (@guest_1332293)
February 15, 2022 11:18

You don’t even have any of these cards

sam pam
sam pam (@guest_1332253)
February 15, 2022 10:10

I paid renewal fee in September and asked for refund after posted. But they said no.
Now I see fee of $149 automatically refunded for both me and P2 2 days ago.
Did not receive the letter yet.