Originally Posted by Seablock

The LifeMiles website has never been easy to use but until recently I was able to pay for the taxes etc. for redemption with no problem with U.S. credit card as late as March of 2020 booking a flight Washington-Bogota. Last month I tried to book a simple Cartagena-Bogota flight with miles and paying taxes of $31 with Amex, BOA and various other cards but no luck. Customer service was also unuseful as eventually after jumping through many hoops (enter your pin number) 3 or 4 credit cards were declined as well as my sister-in-law's Colombian credit card. A call to AMEX revealed what I had suspected,. AMEX never declined any transaction with LifeMiles.

Thinking that it might be a temporary glitch, today I tried to book an international flight on a Star Alliance to Europe and no surprise when I tried to book and it declined two american credit cards. Again an hour or so on the phone and my wife (who speaks fluent spanish) was sent to the wrong place to pay and the rude clerk sent her back to the beginning. Has anyone had any success in paying their taxes on a redemption? I had no problem paying online for a regular Avianca flight in April. Is it possible that Avianca, hurting for cash, has deliberately made the process of booking a ticket impossible while they still are heavily promoting sales of their Lifemiles? Of course that would be illegal to sell useless miles. Hmmm.