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Lifemiles serious booking problems - Beware (from January 2022 onwards)

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Old Jan 17, 2022, 5:12 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: italdesign
Please do your homework before buying Lifemiles. It is what it is... for some that's useful, for others it's not.

Biggest complaints are about
- mixed class bookings are available but now many of the suitable connections dont show
- not being able to book anything that isn't available online (there are work-arounds, see screenshot method below)
- the quality of the call center (English speaking agents are scarce, you might get thrown in a loop with call transfers within their call center)
- no stopovers (>24H) or open jaws, but you can book one way awards
- no reservations on Certain subsidiaries of Star Alliance carriers (Lufthansa Cityline, Germanwings)
- no availability showing at all on the website (try logging out and logging back in)

Problems with ticketing / lack of confirmation screen or email
- write down the confirmation number shown on the screen after confirming your purchase.
check here: http://serviciosenlinea.avianca.com/...doReserva.aspx

Sometimes, even if you cannot see the PNR, the record may have been created, so better to call them and give them flight details you were trying to book. They can find the PNR from those details.
- ticketing usually takes place within 10-15 min of booking
- but it may also take up to 2 days
- if miles have been deducted from your account and a temporary authorization has been placed on your CC, you're probably fine even if you did not see a confirmation screen
- if no e-ticket number is visible on checkmytrip.com after two days, you should contact LifeMiles. You can expedite the ticketing by emailing with your booking reference to: [email protected] after you have booked, especially if you have booked last minute flights, and need ticketing straight away

Screenshot method.
So, on a date you are looking for in the future, there is availability for LAX-NRT and NRT-BKK. But not LAX-NRT-BKK.
It may be a case of the LM system not offering the through connection.

Take three screen shots - two 'available' screen shots for LAX-NRT and NRT-BKK and the 'not available' screen for LAX-BKK.
Send them all off with a scan of your passport page (PDF) and LM will make the booking manually for you.

You need to have 40% of the miles in your account for them to make the booking. On some occasions, credit card points do not transfer over immediately. In such cases also send screenshots of the points being debited from your credit card. In some cases the LM account will immediately show the points transferred in the account activity section. Send a screenshot of that as well.

After a day or two, you will get a reply via email saying the matter has been escalated to an internal area. The next day someone will call you from 305 447 2819 and will process the payment over the phone. You will need to set a PIN which you can do in your online LM account (under the account access section of your online profile).

Send to these two email addresses, and CC yourself (just for your records)
[email protected] (invalid as of July 2022)
[email protected]

Sample email:
====
Email topic: Urgent request for booking Lifemiles Award
====
Dear Sirs,

I have tried several times, over several days, but the following itinerary does not show on the website.
Please see the attached screenshots I took just now.
Please do the manual booking First Class/Business class for xx,000 miles. (*Know how many miles the whole award should cost-here, to avoid surprises once ticketed)

The availability is only 1 seat for this date, so please process this request urgently before it is gone.

Los Angeles (LAX) - Bangkok (BKK)
Saturday August 11th 2018
NH 175 connecting to NH 807
(*Provide the specific flight numbers you want, to avoid surprises once ticketed)

My passport copy (Number xxxx, expiry 20xx/xx/xx, Nationality xxx) is attached in this email.

LifeMiles Number: xxx
First Name: xxx
Last name: xxx
Date of Birth: Month, date, year
Gender: Male/Female
Email: xxxx
Phone Number: +1-xxxx

Regards,
XXX
========



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Lifemiles serious booking problems - Beware (from January 2022 onwards)

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Old Feb 24, 2026 | 1:08 am
  #1141  
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Did someone mention 2.1 error appears when you force airline search and fine if Star alliance/Smart search? I swear I remember someone posting something about this... damn TG again won't checkout. Both segments check out separately and error out if paired via airline search (they dont appear on smart/star search).
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Old Feb 26, 2026 | 5:05 am
  #1142  
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Originally Posted by mlqsko
Did someone mention 2.1 error appears when you force airline search and fine if Star alliance/Smart search? I swear I remember someone posting something about this... damn TG again won't checkout. Both segments check out separately and error out if paired via airline search (they dont appear on smart/star search).
What's the connection time between the options shown on airline specific search?

If over ~4hrs or so, even if the segments have availability, it'll error out. My experience and suspicion is that longer connection times cause the problems and that they get filtered out via Smartsearch. A working theory, but it has proven correct (for TG at least) every time I tried meaning when I chose a shorter (if available) connection it worked and no E2.1. it's silly, but it's LM after all. YMMV
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Old Feb 26, 2026 | 4:27 pm
  #1143  
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Originally Posted by demue
What's the connection time between the options shown on airline specific search?

If over ~4hrs or so, even if the segments have availability, it'll error out. My experience and suspicion is that longer connection times cause the problems and that they get filtered out via Smartsearch. A working theory, but it has proven correct (for TG at least) every time I tried meaning when I chose a shorter (if available) connection it worked and no E2.1. it's silly, but it's LM after all. YMMV
I just booked a 7h+ layover on LH... but for some reason TG are stingy with long-ish connections
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Old Feb 27, 2026 | 10:22 pm
  #1144  
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Originally Posted by mlqsko
I just booked a 7h+ layover on LH... but for some reason TG are stingy with long-ish connections
That's great, but what was the connecting time between your preferred two TG flights if you don't mind sharing to test the theory?

In my mind, it's not TG I'd say, I booked long connections for TG to TG via LH M&M (under the old non-dynamic chart, now it's too expensive) and no issues. Only with LM trying to book TG do I encounter this so I think this is LMs doing, knowingly or unbeknownst. All around competence isn't their strong suit.
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Old Mar 3, 2026 | 10:10 am
  #1145  
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Anyone else also unable to login?

EDIT: seems to be fixed now

Last edited by iluvdoco; Mar 3, 2026 at 3:16 pm
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Old Mar 3, 2026 | 8:45 pm
  #1146  
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Has anyone experienced this error? Also tried 3 different cards with 3 different banks to same result. The transaction attempts don't even reach the bank(s).
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Old Mar 4, 2026 | 6:53 pm
  #1147  
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Originally Posted by mlqsko
Has anyone experienced this error? Also tried 3 different cards with 3 different banks to same result. The transaction attempts don't even reach the bank(s).
Had this happen to friends. LifeMiles locked their accounts from purchases but failed to notify them they did it. Same symptom as yours - try to book a flight and it fails on the payment every time no matter which card is used. After calling they were informed they had been locked out for suspicious activity on the account - without saying what the suspicious activity was. The phone agent forwarded their case to the account security department who emailed them a couple of days later with a request to send a photocopy of their ID to confirm they were the owner named on the account. At some point later their account was released for purchases again.
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Old Mar 5, 2026 | 12:35 am
  #1148  
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Originally Posted by skimthetrees
Had this happen to friends. LifeMiles locked their accounts from purchases but failed to notify them they did it. Same symptom as yours - try to book a flight and it fails on the payment every time no matter which card is used. After calling they were informed they had been locked out for suspicious activity on the account - without saying what the suspicious activity was. The phone agent forwarded their case to the account security department who emailed them a couple of days later with a request to send a photocopy of their ID to confirm they were the owner named on the account. At some point later their account was released for purchases again.
Thanks.
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Old Mar 6, 2026 | 7:21 am
  #1149  
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Originally Posted by skimthetrees
Had this happen to friends. LifeMiles locked their accounts from purchases but failed to notify them they did it. Same symptom as yours - try to book a flight and it fails on the payment every time no matter which card is used. After calling they were informed they had been locked out for suspicious activity on the account - without saying what the suspicious activity was. The phone agent forwarded their case to the account security department who emailed them a couple of days later with a request to send a photocopy of their ID to confirm they were the owner named on the account. At some point later their account was released for purchases again.
I had a similar experience.

My story is as follows: Had a bunch of Avianca flights planned from 2024-2025, so I figured I would upgrade to LifeMiles Basic from Lite to get the refund-ability (I get Lite free with the Cardless Avianca Elite credit card). I put the charge on my Avianca credit card.
2024-Nov: elected upgrade, charged $30. Status didn't change, though. Called LifeMiles and they said to wait 30 days to reflect in the system before opening a case.
2024-Dec: Status didn't change.
2025-Jan: Opened a case with LifeMiles. Was told there was a huge backlog of cases, it may take months to hear a resolution.
It was around this time that I couldn't charge anymore with my credit card on my account - I had to make all redemptions by calling them.
2025-Mar: Opened a dispute with Cardless for the $30 for status not received.
2025-Mar: After 2 weeks, Cardless ruled in my favor and gave me a $30 refund.
2025-Jul: I tried re-engaging again to get the card charging issue resolved. In their infinite brilliance, LifeMiles resets my account and wipes out my Silver status (Silver status comes for free with the Cardless Avianca Elite card). So I open ANOTHER ticket with LifeMiles to get this fixed.
2025-Aug: LifeMiles finally gets back to me about the LM+ upgrade case, and confirms that I did not properly receive the status. They give me 3,000 bonus miles.
2025-Aug: Big back and forth between LifeMiles and Cardless to get my silver status (LifeMiles says Cardless has to do it, Cardless says LifeMiles has to do it). Eventually Cardless takes over and works with LifeMiles behinds the scenes and it gets resolved.
2025-Nov: Tried buying a ticket for my mother-in-law, whose LifeMiles info has been in my saved list of passengers for many years. Still fails.
2026-Feb: Tried buying a ticket for my mother-in-law, still fails. Decide to re-engage with LifeMiles again because now LifeMiles won't let me see 10% discount on Star Alliance partner flights saying my LM+ subscription doesn't have a payment method setup. Try adding card but can't save cards to my account (this has been part of the issue since Jan 2025 as well as being unable to complete charges).
2026-Feb: Fiiiinally get someone competent who says my account was restricted for 5x attempts at buying miles in November 2025 and if I don't reply within 72 hours my account would be "temporarily suspended". I respond saying that I have never bought miles in my account. He clarifies saying I did 3x failed attempts for the ticket for my mother-in-law, which I did confirm. He asks for my personal info and a picture of my photo ID which I send. A day later he confirms my identity and unlocks my account. Now, I can save a credit card to my account. I have to assume with this new ability to add saved cards to my account that I can buy tickets again (I have not yet attempted any purchases).
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Old Mar 6, 2026 | 11:22 pm
  #1150  
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Originally Posted by mlqsko
Has anyone experienced this error? Also tried 3 different cards with 3 different banks to same result. The transaction attempts don't even reach the bank(s).
Not sure if it's the same situation, but I booked an award trip several days ago and the charges are still pending on my credit card. Keep us updated please.

EDIT: my credit card charges finally went through, after 3-4 days of being pending.

Last edited by iluvdoco; Mar 7, 2026 at 11:10 pm
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Old Mar 9, 2026 | 3:37 am
  #1151  
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Originally Posted by iluvdoco
Not sure if it's the same situation, but I booked an award trip several days ago and the charges are still pending on my credit card. Keep us updated please.

EDIT: my credit card charges finally went through, after 3-4 days of being pending.
All good, still no response to my support ticket but was able to make a redemption today (this was on wife's account). Maybe it was something with the payment system temporary affecting redemptions as I couldn't book from my own account.

I wouldn't worry about pending charges and miles not being debited. If you got #confirmation and etickets you're good to go.
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Old Mar 11, 2026 | 4:36 pm
  #1152  
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Originally Posted by mlqsko
Did someone mention 2.1 error appears when you force airline search and fine if Star alliance/Smart search? I swear I remember someone posting something about this... damn TG again won't checkout. Both segments check out separately and error out if paired via airline search (they dont appear on smart/star search).
That was me. My OP here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/37126578-post28.html

Yours is slightly different though as if both sectors are visible via smart search I would have expected them to be bookable even if using airline search. I am not aware of TG having married segment logic for awards but maybe that has changed.

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Old Mar 12, 2026 | 2:26 am
  #1153  
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Originally Posted by pogonation
That was me. My OP here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/37126578-post28.html

Yours is slightly different though as if both sectors are visible via smart search I would have expected them to be bookable even if using airline search. I am not aware of TG having married segment logic for awards but maybe that has changed.
They were not only visible, but bookable separately, I was able to go all the way to payment. They showed up under smart/star search but would error out when trying to book. It was TG PER-BKK-PVG with overnight in BKK (long layover). I suspect the layover is the issue.
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Old Mar 25, 2026 | 9:21 pm
  #1154  
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I was looking for Singapore Airlines flights online for a mid-haul route from SIN to Australia, but availability is completely wiped out for months. I decided to call to see if an agent could find anything different. The rep initially said that whatever is available online is all we can gethe couldnt see anything either. Then he checked another system and found availability, but said Id need to submit a request to another team to manually book the ticket. I got an email w the confirmation number -pending payment link follow up.

The same flight is available with Aeroplan but not with United.
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Old Mar 25, 2026 | 10:00 pm
  #1155  
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Originally Posted by kaiotes
... but said Id need to submit a request to another team to manually book the ticket. I got an email w the confirmation number -pending payment link follow up.
Clarify this please
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