JohnnyColombia

If anyone has had enough of LANpass already, I emailed LifeMiles asking them if they would match my status.

They replied

Needless to say LANpass still has not upgraded my account, let alone sent me my premium silver card

By means of a quick comparison (from my perspective)

BOG LIM

• Lifemiles award 19,000 miles LANpass award from 26,000kms
• Lifemiles has more flights and slightly better schedules
• Avianca has a business class that is worth upgrading to, nice fat seats with AVOD, LANpass has Premium Economy.
• Flying LAN earns 25% on their economy base tix
• Flying TACA Avianca earns 50% on their promo and base tix

BOG MIA

• Both programmes have redemptions for about 30K miles/48K kms, for me at least, not really worth redeeming given it is far cheaper to fly than LIM
• AV has way more flights from BOG and also flies to FLL, LAN has 3 flights a week with an annoying 9am departure from MIA
• AV has the same business class as its LIM flights, LA has its marvellous Premium business and frequently upgrades me FOC
• LA is normally the cheapest and earns 100% kms flown, AV only awards 50%

BOG MAD

AV offers 50% miles to MAD in anything less than full fare economy, LAN offers 100% kms on the LIM MAD section if I can be bothered to go via LIM. Going with IB only accumulates 30% LANpass kms

BOG LHR via the USA on US carriers

LANpass only gives 100% on AA in flights not flown in O fare class, Lifemiles gives 100% on all United flights which go via IAH so is also a couple of thousand miles further than going via MIA.

DOMESTIC

LAN has not LAN-ified Aires yet but AV awards a minimum 500 Lifemiles per domestic segment even on promo fares, so fly to Manizales, about 100 miles from BOG and earn 1000 miles return trip. That's about 1600kms which is almost double what I earn flying LAN on a base fare to LIM. Peru domestic offers 25% unless you get gringo taxed up to a different fare class.

UPGRADES

So far as I can tell, LifeMiles is not as restrictive as LANpass when it comes to upgrading from deep discount, looks like it cannot be done domestically but for International promo fares, you can use your elite upgrade coupons.

OTHER EARNING

Lifemiles has a funky AAdvantage style shopping mall!
CO: My local supermarket Exito swaps their points plus a small co-pay for Lifemiles
PE: Wong swaps 1000 bonus points plus S/.90 for 3000 LANpass kms (works out a bit more expensive than buying them in a promo from LAN)
PE: BCP LANpass Visa and Interbank Lifemiles Amex are much of a muchness except for Lifemiles offers free Priority Pass membership
CO: Lifemiles Visa cards are available from BBVA, Davivienda and Citibank. The Citibank Lifemiles Visa offers a nice 15,000 free miles, 8 upgrade coupons and free Priority Pass membership. LANpass fell out with their banking partner in CO so there is no card.
US: LANpass and Lifemiles credit cards look to be pretty similar, Lifemiles potentially gives you more free miles.

ELITE LEVELS

• LAN Premium = 40,000kms, Lifemiles Silver = 20,000 miles (32,000kms)
• LAN Premium Silver = 60,000kms as a CO resident, Lifemiles = 40,000 miles (about the same)
• LAN Comodoro = 120,000 kms, Lifemiles Diamond = 75000 miles (also about the same)

Note if you do not live in CO or PE or another country with lower tier levels then Elite is easier to attain with LifeMiles.

ELITE BONUS MILES

25%/100%/100% both programmes
So far as I can tell, LifeMiles earns elite bonus miles for all partners, LANpass only offers bonus miles for LA and AA

LOUNGE ACCESS

• LANpass/OW Sapphire/emerald, is way better than Lifemiles for Lounges.
• Lifemiles Silver gets you unlimited space available upgrades and access to AV/TA lounges

If I think of anything else potentially useful I will add it.

Happy flying

MyTravels

I believe the AV/TA is joining *A, which may be another factor to include in the analysis.

JohnnyColombia

Good point, but I don't know how the Lifemiles elite levels will map onto *A Silver and Gold.

Do *A airlines' lowest tiers get lounge access?

AdamSouthFL

Thanks for posting about the status match. It's good to know they may consider it.

LifeMiles is certainly a superior program to the old AviancaPlus and the more I read into it, the more I like it. Yes, I do not like the 50% earning of miles on Promo fares, but I have also found some fare at the next level (Econo) for just $30 more so it's worth it to pay the slightly higher fee to get the 100%.

Within Colombia some of the business class fares are not much more than an Econo ticket, and a business fare would also earn an additional 150% miles. These miles also count towards elite status. So the math can really be interesting in requalifying for LifeMiles elite status.

But I love that I can have 40% miles required for a reward ticket with LifeMiles and still redeem them by adding cash to the reservation.

JohnnyColombia

It's swings and roundabouts for me. Almost all of my reward redemption is BOG LIM which always seems to cost silly money so gives best value for miles/kms. AviancaPlus used to consider BOG LIM a domestic reward (nobody told Avianca that LIM is in a different country) so you could get it for about 12,000 miles return