Upgrade option with miles?
Oct 8, 2019, 10:40 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 140
Upgrade option with miles?
I was too much of a cheapo on my NYC-BOG RT award redemption and used my LM to book economy class when i should have splurged a little on the business class seats. Does anyone know if LM will give you an option to upgrade using miles? I saw the option to upgrade using cash, but it was like $400 minimum each way so hard pass there. Thanks!
Oct 8, 2019, 8:14 pm
#2
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: YYZ/MGA
Programs: AA 1MM Lifetime Gold, AA Platinum, WS Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 7,607
Money not points. They don't even do the upgrades themselves it seems. it's been outsourced to a company. Since no airline with an ounce of sense will allow this for less than the usual cost in miles of a business class ticket (e.g. they won't encourage passengers to use the sum of economy miles + upgrade miles that adds up to less than the regular cost in miles), for other than highest level elites, with Avianca you are barking up the wrong tree.
Call them and put the economy award back if they will reissue for more miles in business class. BTW $400 each way is not terrible and beats sitting in economy for any distance.
Call them and put the economy award back if they will reissue for more miles in business class. BTW $400 each way is not terrible and beats sitting in economy for any distance.
Oct 9, 2019, 10:36 am
#3
Join Date: Jul 2018
Programs: Lifemiles, AAdvantage
Posts: 181
However, since the ticket was purchased with miles, he has to contact LIFEMILES , and then either try to get the upgrade for $$, or get a refund in miles, then repurchase the biz ticket with the miles (this second step h
Oct 9, 2019, 7:01 pm
#4
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: YYZ/MGA
Programs: AA 1MM Lifetime Gold, AA Platinum, WS Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 7,607
What do you mean? Avianca is the one in charge of upgrades.
However, since the ticket was purchased with miles, he has to contact LIFEMILES , and then either try to get the upgrade for $$, or get a refund in miles, then repurchase the biz ticket with the miles (this second step h
However, since the ticket was purchased with miles, he has to contact LIFEMILES , and then either try to get the upgrade for $$, or get a refund in miles, then repurchase the biz ticket with the miles (this second step h
From Avianca: The offer and assignment of upgrades is handled through our Plusgrade provider with whom we have a current agreement. At the time of making an offer, our passengers know and accept that their information, including personal data supplied in the booking, will be shared with Plusgrade.
Oct 14, 2019, 12:24 am
#6
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: YYZ/MGA
Programs: AA 1MM Lifetime Gold, AA Platinum, WS Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 7,607
Well the site has it under upgrades period. Not that it matters to me. I fly AV to CA if they are a better price than Copa (which have to be much better due to AV's love of 6 a.m. departures to SAL with an hour to connect through their redo security scrum), I buy refundable J tickets and don't fool around with this mooching for upgrades.
The OP had and maybe has an opportunity to upgrade with a proper reservation and hopefully can and will do that.
Due to the general weirdness of the Lifemiles program from day one I accrue to United Mileage Plus. Ditto with Copa, equally or maybe more awful.
The OP had and maybe has an opportunity to upgrade with a proper reservation and hopefully can and will do that.
Due to the general weirdness of the Lifemiles program from day one I accrue to United Mileage Plus. Ditto with Copa, equally or maybe more awful.
Oct 16, 2019, 2:20 pm
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 140
they told me that I wasn't able to upgrade my ticket using miles since it was an award ticket. However, I could pay $100 fee to redeposit my miles and then rebook the same itinerary. I'll likely do this if the seats pop up again.
Oct 17, 2019, 5:29 pm
#8
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: YYZ/MGA
Programs: AA 1MM Lifetime Gold, AA Platinum, WS Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 7,607
You can be sure since Avianca probably understands arithmetic, that if they allowed an award flight booked with miles to be upgraded with even more miles that the total cost in miles of award+upgrade would be much more than the cost of the award purchased in the desired class in the first place. They don't really have an interest in encouraging amateur award arbitrage.