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Through October 15, 2015, Avianca LifeMiles has discounted certain awards including intra-United States, United States to Europe, and United States to Brazil.

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Combined with the sale on LifeMiles through October 8, there are some great opportunities to purchase discounted Business Class flights.

We can combine these promotions to book one way Business Class tickets to Europe for $740 and to Brazil for $600. Read this post carefully and completely to understand that process and the caveats.

The discounted awards are all listed here. The unusual thing about this award sale is that it invents new regions for the LifeMiles award chart. Normally, the continental United States is one region and all of Europe is another region. For this sale, the continental United States is broken into three regions and Europe into three regions. (North, Central, and South Asia are also halved, but I won’t be talking about those awards.)

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As a side note, LifeMiles must have some very interesting maps that put the UK and Russia in the same region, but not Switzerland with Germany, France, or Italy.

Here are the deals from the United States. These are roundtrip prices, and you can book one way awards for half the roundtrip price.

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At 1.4 cents per mile, the cheapest you can buy LifeMiles during the current award sale, these are the prices to buy a one way trip in economy/Business:

  • Within US1, US2, or US3: $111/$216 all in
  • Within continental United States (including flat bed from Newark to California): $146/$286 all in
  • US1 to Europe1: $350/$735 + taxes
  • US1 to Europe2: $385/$805 + taxes
  • US2 to Brazil: $350/$595 + taxes
  • US3 to Brazil: $385/$665 + taxes

Taxes to Brazil are under $100 roundtrip. Taxes to Europe vary from $50 to $300 roundtrip depending on the city of departure and sometimes the cabin of departure.

The prices from the United States to Europe are absolute steals during the current mileage sale and award price sale! You can book a roundtrip from US1 to Europe1 in Business Class including all taxes for under $1,600.

From the United States to Brazil, the deals are even better. From US2 to Brazil is under $1,300 in Business Class roundtrip including all taxes.

I tested out a few bookings to test what travel dates are available, whether the standard More Miles/More Money options are available, and whether one ways can be booked for half the price of a roundtrip.

I found that as long as you book by October 15, you can book up to 11 months in advance, during booking you can buy miles you don’t have for 1.5 cents each, and you can book one ways for half the price of roundtrips.

Example Awards

Here is a roundtrip from Washington-Dulles to Stockholm for 105,000 miles roundtrip in Business Class.

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Or you can Buy Miles during the award booking for 1.5 cents each and pay with as little as 40% of the miles price.Screen Shot 2015-09-12 at 10.05.33 AM

LifeMiles awards, whether one way or roundtrip, have a $25 booking fee (though no close in ticketing fee), so this award is 105,000 miles + $100 or 44,000 miles + $1,015.
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You can book the award as a one way for half the price.Screen Shot 2015-09-12 at 10.06.51 AM Screen Shot 2015-09-12 at 10.07.33 AM

I also priced out a one way award from US2 to Brazil for June 2016 for 42,500 miles one way in Business Class without issue.Screen Shot 2015-09-12 at 10.15.57 AM

Caveats

There are a lot of caveats when using LifeMiles. Read these two posts before trying to get in on the deal in this post:

  1. How to Consistently Buy Business Class Tickets to Europe for about $1,000 lists the caveats
  2. Anatomy of an Award: Using LifeMiles to Buy Business Class Ticket Between US and Europe for $1,040 gives a complete example of booking a LifeMiles award with purchased miles to show the steps

If you understand the caveats and process and still want to get in on this deal, then go for it!

Bottom Line

This LifeMiles award sale for bookings made by October 15 for travel up to 11 months in the future sweetens the current LifeMiles Buy Miles deal. While I still generally prefer to get miles from credit card sign up bonuses, you can’t ignore these two promotions that combine to allow $572 roundtrips in flat beds between California and Newark, $1,600 roundtrips in Business Class to Europe, and $1,300 roundtrips in Business Class to Brazil.

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