Update 8/18/20: Deal available again until August 31, 2020.
The Offer
- Avianca’s LifeMiles program lets you transfer miles to a friend or family members account, but they charge a fee of $15 + taxes per 1,000 miles transferred. They frequently offer transfer bonuses and are currently offering a transfer bonus of 125%. This means that you can transfer 1,000 miles to a friend and they will receive a total of 2,250 miles and you pay $15 + taxes. You don’t have to pay taxes if you reside in the US
The Fine Print
- This promotion is valid from March 26 to April 3, 2019 (00: 00-23: 59 GMT -6, El Salvador), as the last transfer date.
- Transfer charge for each block of 1,000 LifeMiles: US $ 15.00 excluding applicable taxes and US $ 18.30 * including all applicable taxes depending on the country of correspondence registered in the LifeMiles database
- The 125% bonus is calculated on the amount of Miles transferred.
- Maximum of LifeMiles to be received per member per calendar year: LM 75,000 without including the additional bonus.
Our Verdict
Basically pay $15 for 1,250 bonus miles, this works out to be 1.2¢ per mile. This is cheaper than purchasing miles through the subscription service or when they offer a 145% bonus on purchasing miles. Personally I don’t ever purchase miles because I think it leads to some irrational decision making (e.g effectively purchasing business class flights for more than you’d be willing to pay in cash) but this can be a good deal for some people.
