New Avianca LifeMiles Credit Cards – Issued By Banco Popular – Full Reviews & Up To 60,000 Miles

Update: Bonus is back to 40,000/60,000.

There looks to be two new Avianca credit cards available, big thanks to Amol at Travel Codex for providing me with the application link:

• Avianca Vida Visa Card
• Avianca Vuela Visa Card

Both of these cards are issued by Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, they normally trade under the name Popular Community Bank in the United States. I’m not exactly sure if you can sign up for these new cards yet or not, as there was supposed to be a 60,000 mile offer initially (although maybe they meant you could get 60,000 miles by applying for both cards?) and the e-mail that contained the link to these cards still said coming soon. There was also a generic promotional code of AVSPWE given in the e-mail and an area for that promo code to be added in (under financial information) – that e-mail also specifically references the Vuela card so I imagine that bonus is only available on that card.  Reader @TProphet applied and was approved, so I imagine the links are live now. But who knows if the 60,000 bonus with the promo code will work or not.

Let’s take a look at both card’s in a bit more detail.

Avianca Vida Visa Card Review

• Sign up bonus of 20,000 Avianca LifeMiles after first purchase within 90 days of account opening
• Annual fee of $59 is not waived first year
• Card earns at the following rates:
  • 2x LifeMiles per $1 spent on Avianca purchases
  • 1x LifeMiles per $1 spent on all other purchases
• 15% discount on purchases of miles with Multiply Your Miles

Fine print for Multiply Your Miles can be found here.

Avianca Vuela Visa Card Review

• Sign up bonus of 40,000 Avianca LifeMiles after first purchase within 90 days of account opening (possibly 60,000 miles by using promo code AVSPWE. Enter this under financial information on the application form)
• Annual fee of $149 is not waived first year
• Card earns at the following rates:
  • 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
• Free additional piece of baggage for travel between the United States & Central America
• A 50% discount on an award ticket redeemed for travel to Central America or Colombia from the United States after $12,000 spent each year
• An additional 50% discount on an award ticket redeemed for travel to Central America or Colombia from the United States after $12,000 spent each year
• 15% discount on purchases of miles with Multiply Your Miles
• 0% Introductory APR on balance transfers from the date you transfer (2% fee with a maximum of $10 being applied)

The fine print of the award ticket states that travel must be booked in X class (economy). Award flights from North America to Central America (Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador) cost as follows (one way, so double for return):

• Economy: 18,000 miles
• Business: 36,000 miles
• First: 46,000 miles

Flights from North America to Colombia cost:

• Economy: 20,000 miles
• Business: 40,000 miles
• First: 50,000 miles

When I read the fine print, it looks like multiple tickets can be booked at once to receive this discount. Depending on how all of this works at practice, spending $12,000/$24,000 on this card might make sense for some people. If it’s only for a single ticket then you’ll be saving 20,000 miles, that’s basically an extra 1.67x miles per one dollar spent. If it’s for multiple tickets then it would be an extra 1.67x per dollar spent multiplied by how many tickets you’re redeeming for.

Retention Offer

After the first year, reader Joshua was able to call in and get the annual fee waived as part of a retention offer.

Redeeming Miles

Full award chart can be found here. Keep in mind they do not charge fuel surcharges.

Our Verdict

Personally I see people getting these cards for the sign up bonus and not much more, but that’s also the case with the majority of airline cards I find. There could be some good value here depending on how the 50% discount exactly works. The fact that these bonuses only require a single purchase is also great for people that struggle to meet minimum spend requirements.

If anybody applies for both cards, let us know if combine inquiries or not. As I said previously, thanks to Amol at Travel Codex, you can read his view on these cards here.

Update: Reconsideration number is (844-343-1010). Tips for reconsideration calls can be found here.

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