Avianca LifeMiles members, listen up: The airline is currently offering two limited-time deals on award flights to South and Central America and Europe — but you must book this deal by July 4.
LifeMiles is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Wells Fargo Rewards, so now may be a great time to transfer your hard-earned points to your LifeMiles account to redeem for an epic vacation this fall.
Two-for-one awards flights to South and Central America Bogota, Colombia. CLINT HENDERSON/THE POINTS GUY
From now through July 4, you can get a buy-one-get-one-free rebate deal on award flights to select South and Central American destinations. That means for every two tickets you book, LifeMiles will refund the miles for one of them.
Here are all the details:
Applies only to LifeMiles members who reside in the U.S.
You must book by 11:59 p.m. GMT on July 4.
Flights must take place between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31.
Flights may include connections and may be either one-way or round-trip, but no stopovers are allowed.
Flights must be booked directly through the Avianca website. (You can also book through the call center or a sales office, but you’ll be charged a fee of $25 to $80.)
The sale includes routes from select major cities in the U.S. and Canada: Miami, Orlando, New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas and Ontario. Destinations include several cities in Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala. You can see the full list of applicable routes on Avianca’s website.
Award flights on these routes start at 5,550 miles one-way, so you could technically pay as little as 2,775 miles per person to reach your destination with this rebate mileage deal. You’ll still have to pay taxes and fees, so be sure to use a credit card that earns bonus rewards on airline purchases.
The Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. LAYNE KENNEDY/GETTY IMAGES
Keep in mind that this deal comes in the form of a rebate rather than a discount. That means you must have enough LifeMiles in your account to book all your tickets (you can purchase miles if you need more), and the airline will return the miles you paid for every second ticket after you fly.
So if you book two tickets, you’ll get the miles back for one of them; if you book four, you’ll get the miles back for two. If you book three tickets, you’ll only get the miles back for one. The tickets must be on the same reservation in order to get the rebate.
Related: The best Latin American cities to use your points and miles
20% off LifeMiles award flights to Europe ALEXANDER SPATARI/GETTY IMAGES
LifeMiles is also offering a 20% rebate on award flights from Miami and Los Angeles to Paris, London, Madrid and Barcelona. Again, you’ll have to pay the full price of your ticket, and 20% of the miles paid will be refunded after you fly.
Here’s the fine print:
Applies to all LifeMiles members (not just those residing in the U.S.).
You must book by 11:59 p.m. GMT on July 4.
Flights must take place between Sept. 16 and Nov. 10.
Flights may include connections and may be either one-way or round-trip, but no stopovers are allowed.
Flights must be booked directly through the Avianca website. (You can also book through the call center or a sales office, but you’ll be charged a fee of $25 to $80.)
This deal isn’t quite as attractive as the BOGO one mentioned above, but it’s worth looking into if you’re considering a fall trip to Europe. Award flights on the sale routes start at 44,000 LifeMiles one-way, so you’d save at least 8,800 miles per ticket.
Related: European cities that are best experienced in the fall
However, if you hold an Amex card — such as The Platinum Card® from American Express or the American Express® Gold Card, which earn transferable Membership Rewards points — from now until June 30, you can get a 15% bonus when you transfer your Amex points to Avianca LifeMiles. Therefore, 1,000 Membership Rewards points are worth 1,150 LifeMiles, meaning you can transfer 39,000 Amex points to snag 44,850 LifeMiles. Then, if you book a flight from Miami to London for 44,000 miles, you’ll receive a mileage rebate of 8,800 miles for the one-way ticket.
Note that this transfer bonus is through Avianca, so it won’t be reflected in your American Express account. You should see the bonus reflected in your LifeMiles account within 24 hours of transferring points. Again, this transfer bonus ends on June 30.
Overall, if you want to take advantage of either of these LifeMiles deals, act fast — they disappear on July 4.
Related reading:
Here are the best current credit card welcome offers
Current credit card transfer bonuses
11 strategies to find cheap airfare
Is an Avianca LifeMiles+ subscription worth it?