The Offer
- Citi are offering a 25% transfer bonus when you transfer your Citi ThankYou points to Avianca LifeMiles program. Normally you can transfer 1,000 Citi ThankYou points and receive 1,000 Lifemiles and with this transfer bonus that changes to 1,250 LifeMiles.
The Fine Print
- Valid until September 18th, 2020
Our Verdict
In previous years Citi & Avianca have offered the same transfer bonus a little later in the year (2019 and 2018). You can view a full list of previous Citi transfer bonuses by clicking here. It’s worth remembering that Avianca frequently sells miles at a deep discount, they offer frequent award sales and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy recently. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t transfer miles, but I wouldn’t be transferring them speculatively.
Hat tip to Dans Deals
This promo is not shown on Citi Thank you’s site. I contacted them and they said the transfer is still 1-1.
I think this bonus is through Avianca and that’s why
You mean it could be initiated from their side (and not as normally from Thank you network?)
Yes, it seems like it might actually be an Avianca transfer bonus rather than a Citi one.
Myoclonic jerks of the dying point program.
I’ve never really been into Avianca LifeMiles, but have been fantasizing lately about post-pandemic trips to South America. So a couple dumb questions…
What’s the expiration policy for LifeMiles? (That’s always worth noting before speculatively transferring points, but especially so these days since responsible people won’t be taking non-essential flights for a long time.)
What other points/miles transfer to Avianca LifeMiles (even without the current bonus)? (Because I have some TYPoints but have more Chase and Amex points, so I’d rather not use my relatively limited TYP if I have other/better options.)
Thanks.
Lifemiles expire in a year after the most recent accrual. I’m not sure if they’ve been extending this due to covid.
Amex and Capitol One are other transfer partners. Most people use Lifemiles to book Star Alliance flights and not necessarily travel to South America. Right now with Avianca filing for bankruptcy, a lot of people are worried about the future of Lifemiles and their award flights although Lifemiles has reassured that members will not be affected.
Given that my Lifemiles expire in January 2022, it’s clear that the expiration was extended due to COVID.
Amex, Citi, Marriott, and CapOne can all transfer to Avianca. You should hold onto the points until you’re certain you have a flight you want with availability, then transfer and use immediately.
In my experience through the last year, I hit an Avianca bonus in order to book a Star Alliance flight back from JRO, but I found availability was very inconsistent with what other Star Alliance members listed, in both availability and price. In addition to the bankruptcy part of their story, it’s really not worth transferring ahead of time and banking on getting a flight if you don’t have to create that risk for yourself. Long story short I was never able to redeem the miles, even after finding availability for multiple Star Alliance flights I assumed were bookable with them. But take that for what it’s worth, especially considering the size and regular availability of an airport like JRO. You’ll probably have less issues flying them in South America.
That being said, if you do find yourself in a situation with unredeemable miles or the company hits the fan, you can at least utilize a backup plan to redeem them for Amazon purchases at $.55/mile. Not great, but it still manages to make a SOL situation into something halfway salvageable.
The way I look at these things…
Chase is for Hyatt and UA predominantly. As an aside you can also use it for Singapore if you have a good use, but that’s not specific to UR.
Amex is for Delta and ANA depending on how classy you’re going and your planned destination.
Citi can be nice for Avianca and Turkish domestic (both are star alliance).
This is really general and not all encompassing, but that’s sorta where I look at this. Citi has fewer SUBs but the DC is a nice earner of TYP if you have a premier to go with it. Avianca has an annoying fee you have to pay for all award redemptions, even if you do it online. But it can have cheap awards. Their covid change fee is reasonable, but their cancellation fee is not so flexible. I wouldn’t transfer unless you have a plan. I had miles I was going to use to go to Peru. That was cancelled because of Covid and I used it to book Asiana from ICN to LAX instead. I still want to go to Peru but until I have dates, I won’t give them any more miles because they’re customer support is pretty lacking and the bankruptcy thing is a real scare.