Should I move over to Avianca (Life Miles)?
 

Hi all,

So I was out of the air miles game last 3 years, however, due to my situation, I will be travelling a little more next 2 years. I was wondering if it is worth collecting miles with Life Miles.

I am based in SFO and will do a couple of round trips to NYC in paid first with United (as they are cheap).

I will go to London once (maybe twice) but was going to do Premium Economy with Virgin however, I could go Premium with Air New Zealand from LAX.

I am not really interested in status, but more redemption's. What I like about Life Miles is you do not have to pay silly fees to use the miles for rewards. I remember that they used to have really low redemption of miles however a quick check and that seems to have changed.

I note that if I take out their credit card that gives 20,000 miles which is nice. I spend around $50k on credit cards a year as well.

What do people think? Is it worth it?

Lastly, there may be a chance I will be moving to the Caribbean. I noticed that paid J on Avianca is really cheap, so that might help build status if it happens, but like I said, status is not key for me.

I won't be able to tell you if it is worth it to credit your flying to AV but will add: 1/ you need 15k miles on AV metal to qualify for their top tier.
2/ If you plan on using your miles to fly AV: go for it, if not I'm not so sure I'd do it.
3/ With LifeMiles you can always buy miles and sometimes thats a more interesting strategy.
4/(the most important to me) If you plan on flying regularly on AV metal being silver, gold or diamond gives you unlimited space based upgrades on all but flights to Europe, thats the perk that makes the whole thing worth it for me (as a diamond I rarely ever fly Y on AV).

I am crediting all my United flights to Life Miles, since I will not reach the $ requirement for status and I will accrue more miles on Life Miles.

Don't forget to consider the new ConnectMiles with Copa from Panama which would probably serve you better in the Caribbean than Avianca.

Where were you crediting miles before? Did that program work for you?

I'm not sure I would spend all the money on premium airfares to save a few dollars in redemption fees by throwing the miles to LM.

Thanks for coming back guys. So good food for thought.

Just a couple of replies:

Although I maybe living in the Caribbean I will be flying to London (UK) at least once or twice a year and Avianca has very cheap J class fares compared to American and United.

I can't deal with regular economy hence paying for domestic first or premium economy when flying back to Europe.

Cheers for everything ^