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The LifeMiles Visa Signature Card from US Bank now offers 35,000 bonus Avianca LifeMiles after $2,500 in purchases within the first 90 days of account opening. This increased offer expires December 31, 2015.

The normal bonus on the card is 20,000 miles, though we saw a 40,000 mile bonus in 2014.

 

Quick Facts

  • Sign Up Bonus: 20,000 LifeMiles after first use, 15,000 more after spending $2,500 in the first 90 days
  • Category Bonuses: 2x on Avianca purchases
  • Value of LifeMiles: Worth 1.5 cents each to me
  • Global Acceptance: 3% foreign transaction fee
  • Annual Fee: $0 for the first 12 months, $75 per year afterwards
  • U.S. Bank Caveats: You may be approved for a lower bonus card without your consent. U.S. Bank is tough on approvals.

Sign Up Bonus

The LifeMiles Visa Signature Card from US Bank now offers 35,000 bonus Avianca LifeMiles after $2,500 in purchases within the first 90 days of account opening. This increased offer expires December 31, 2015.

LifeMiles are awesome because you can redeem them on any Star Alliance airline on lifemiles.com with no fuel surcharges on a pretty reasonable award chart.

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There are major drawbacks though:

  1. You can only have layovers of up to 8 hours instead of the standard 24.
  2. You cannot mix cabins on an award! This is insane. You cannot have one segment in economy and one in Business or one in Business and one in First. (The only exception is that domestic First = international Business, so you can combine those two.)
  3. LifeMiles call centers are bad if you can’t book online.

 

Category Bonuses

The LifeMiles Visa Signature Card from US Bank offers 2x on Avianca purchases. Avianca processes the sale of LifeMiles, so the card offers 2x there, though of course the Citi ThankYou® Premier Card and Citi Prestige® Card offer 3x on those purchases.

Fees

The LifeMiles Visa Signature Card from US Bank has a 3% foreign transaction fee. Don’t use it abroad and don’t even use it for dollar-denominated purchases online that might be processed abroad.

The card has no annual fee for the first 12 months and $75 thereafter. You do get 6,000 LifeMiles every year on renewal, which to me exactly offset the $75 annual fee.

U.S. Bank Caveats

  1. There are three products you might be approved for when you apply for the LifeMiles Visa Signature Card from US Bank, based on your creditworthiness. It sure would stink to get approved for the LifeMiles Visa (not Signature) with only 25,000 total bonus miles or LifeMiles Secured Visa with only 5,000 total bonus miles.
  2. U.S. Bank is tough on approvals. Lots of credit card applications in the last year or two, even with other banks can disqualify your application.

Bottom Line

This card is interesting because it is the only way to earn valuable LifeMiles other than purchasing them. It’s also great because it comes from a bank other than American Express, Barclaycard, Chase, and Citi where you may have made many more applications.

The problem is that the bonus isn’t humungous–it’s nowhere near my Top Ten List of Offers–U.S. Bank may approve you for an even worse offer, and may not approve you at all because it can be tougher than the other banks.

 

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

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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