Aayzed Tanweer Siddiqi

Hotel trick did work for me - expiration extended by a year till 2024 January.

datexan

Just purchased a night in Thailand for 3400 LM and paid $6.77 USD - my accoun immediately got a deduction of 3400 points and an addition of 700 points and an extention of expiry to 29 FEB 2024
* I havent cancelled yet - but I expect the deal is done - happy ( for a change)
Note I did try to book a hotel with points only and cancel a while ago and nothing happened - so you do have to commit a bit of cash ( go a very cheap Asian hotel)

AxelJF

Booking a refundable hotel with miles and cancelling it a couple of days later did the job. Expiration date has been pushed back accordingly and miles were reimbursed instantly. Great tip!

sherkhan

So what happened? Were you able to reinstate the 80k+ miles? I'm having similar trouble with them because they are refusing to credit one of my United flights over some nonsensical technicality about middle name on the booking and I ended up losing 50k+ miles because of it. wpcoe

wpcoe

Nothing happened after the miles expired. I figured with Avianca's stellar customer service reputation, I wouldn't waste my time.

MrMMM

Just a data point - this worked for me. Booked a cheap hotel with "points+cash" option. The miles got extended for a year a couple of days after booking (even before cancelling) since the "+cash" option actually deposits miles to your account before deducting them.

demue

As a data point, I recently made a hotel booking (fully flexible / cancellable) using Lifemiles hotel offering (price in miles was actually good and also intended to reduce the running mileage balance and get at least some value from it), but had to cancel the other day as trip not needed any longer.

As previously reported, at least in my case, the redemption part did not extend the miles, but the redeposit of the miles post hotel booking cancellation did extend the miles expiry by another year. So this still works which is amazing considering not much on the website works reliably well. So just take a country with cheap hotels (hence cheap miles rates as well) and book a fully cancellable rate further out in the future and then cancel it. Wait 1-2 days and mileage expiration date is extended. Done, no need to buy extra miles or so. I assume a flight booking and subsequent cancellation with miles redeposit may do the same, but obviously why potentially waste 200 USD cancellation fee (then better buy miles for that money). YMMV.

MarkP24

Does transferring miles from a credit card program (AMEX, Citi...) extend the validity of the miles?

danpeake

Yes.

MarkP24

Thanks!

belikethestars

Not a fan of Avianca as they're so difficult to work with, but appreciate the advice on the hotel trick!

jdecked

As of March 8, 2024 the hotel trick still works. Expiration extended ~12hrs from mileage purchase for hotel reservation. I'm happy to buy a few hundred miles at ~0.5 cents per mile to extend the expiration date. Better than parking MR there.

MarkP24

What's the hotel trick?

jdecked

Booking then cancelling a refundable hotel reservation made via LifeMiles extends the expiration date of your miles by a year (from the month in which you book then cancel).

MarkP24

Thanks.