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Avianca LifeMiles sell for 3 cents each, but frequent 100% bonuses on purchasing miles have made the effective cost 1.5 cents each for most of us.
LifeMiles have a number of strategic uses like Lufthansa First Class between the United States and Europe for 72,500 miles (instead of 110,000 United miles) or hidden city tickets that get you from the United States to Japan for 12,500 miles.
LifeMiles are valuable enough that I’ve suggested converting Arrival miles to LifeMiles. By purchasing LifeMiles with Arrival miles, you can effectively get 1.52 LifeMiles per dollar on all purchases.
Unfortunately LifeMiles has announced that the cost of purchased miles will increase to 3.3 cents on October 1, 2014:
Until September 30th, 2014, the price of the block of 1,000 miles will continue to be at USD30 plus taxes. From October 1st, 2014, such price will increase to USD33 plus taxes1.
Remember that you may use the miles you purchase to fly to more than 1,300 destinations on routes operated by Avianca, partner airlines or Star Alliance member airlines. Also, use your LifeMiles with our vast partner network that includes hotels, car rentals, restaurants, stores certificates, health and beauty, among others.
That’s a 10% increase. If the frequent 100% bonuses on purchased LifeMiles continue after October 1, the price will be 1.65 cents per mile.
And the price increase means that instead of 1.52 LifeMiles per dollar on all purchases, you’d only earn 1.38 LifeMiles per dollar with the Arrival Plus trick.
Hopefully we’ll see one or two more 100% bonus sales at the current price of 3 cents per LifeMiles before the price increase on October 1, 2014.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
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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My prediction is that we might only see one more bonus sale, and one transfer promotion before October. However, the way I see it, why would anyone need any more than one promotion of each type? I already maxed myself out for the year during the May promotion, so even if there is only one more transfer promotion for the rest of the year, it is all I will need to max myself out on that too.
The Magic Ball says, “Great fortune comes with bonus offers, but beware, the hand that giveth, devalues aways”
How do you get a $190 ticket to us from japan one way?
https://milevalu.wpengine.com/hidden-city-ticketing-lifemiles-awards/