Buy Avianca LifeMiles with a 160% Bonus
Avianca puts on frequent promotions for buying LifeMiles from the loyalty program. In some cases, buying points during sales can represent a great deal, although it’s important to have an immediate plan for how to use them.
This time, Avianca is offering a bonus of up to 160% on purchased LifeMiles, which can be a great way to score premium cabin flights with Star Alliance airlines at a steep discount.
With this sale, you have until January 19, 2026 to take advantage of the deal if it works in your favour.
Buy Avianca LifeMiles with a 160% Bonus
From January 9 to 19, 2026, Avianca is offering up to a 160% bonus on purchased LifeMiles.
This time, Avianca is offering a different bonus depending on how many miles you purchase:
- Buy 1,000–20,000 LifeMiles, get a 140% bonus
- Buy 21,000–50,000 LifeMiles, get a 150% bonus
- Buy 51,000–200,000 LifeMiles, get a 160% bonus
Normally, Avianca sells points at a base price of 3.3 cents per point (USD).
If you were to take advantage of the 160% bonus promotion, you’d lower the cost of acquisition down to 1.27 cents per mile (USD).
While a 160% bonus is solid, we’ve seen more generous offers in the past, including bonuses as high as 200% (though we don’t know if/when a deal like that will return).
As per the terms and conditions, LifeMiles must be purchased in increments of 1,000, and the minimum purchase amount is 1,000 miles.
LifeMiles stay active as long as there’s qualifying activity in your account every 12 months. Buying LifeMiles counts as an eligible activity, but redemptions don’t.
Therefore, you’ll want to make sure that you have at least one qualifying transaction each year to protect your balance, and promotions such as this can be an easy way to extend their lifespan.
How many Avianca LifeMiles can you buy?
Avianca LifeMiles members can buy up to 200,000 LifeMiles per calendar year without taking into account any bonuses. Therefore, if you were to max out this promotion, you’d end up with 520,000 LifeMiles for $6,600 (USD) with a 160% bonus.
Which credit card should you use to buy Avianca LifeMiles?
Avianca recently moved from selling points through Points.com back to selling them directly from its website. Therefore, your purchase will code as an airline purchase, and it’s eligible for category multipliers.
The best credit card to use will be one on which you’re working to meet a minimum spending requirement, or one with a multiplier for travel.
Keep in mind that LifeMiles are sold in US dollars. This means that if you use a Canadian-issued credit card, you’ll want to use one with no foreign transaction fees to avoid being charged a 2.5% fee.
Your best bet could be to use the Scotiabank Passport® Visa Infinite* Card or the Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card, which come with no foreign transaction fees and earn Scene+ points.
First-year value
$850
Annual fee: $150
• Earn 40,000 points upon spending $2,000 in the first 3 months
• Earn 10,000 points upon spending $10,000 in the first 6 months
• Earn 10,000 points upon spending $40,000 in the first 12 months
Earning rates
Key perks
- No foreign transaction fees
- 6 Visa Airport Companion lounge visits per year
- Avis Preferred Plus (1 car-class upgrade)
- 10GB complimentary GigSky international data plan (valid 15 days)
Annual fee: $150
• Earn 40,000 points upon spending $2,000 in the first 3 months
• Earn 10,000 points upon spending $10,000 in the first 6 months
• Earn 10,000 points upon spending $40,000 in the first 12 months
Earning rates
Key perks
- No foreign transaction fees
- 6 Visa Airport Companion lounge visits per year
- Avis Preferred Plus (1 car-class upgrade)
- 10GB complimentary GigSky international data plan (valid 15 days)
When Should You Buy LifeMiles?
Avianca is a Star Alliance airline, which means that you can redeem LifeMiles for flights with Avianca and other Star Alliance carriers. Fortunately, it’s one of the better programs when it comes to pricing for partner awards, though it’s also worth noting that the program recently went through a devaluation for routes from US–Europe.
Buying LifeMiles during a sale such as this can make sense in a handful of situations, as is the case for most points sales.
For example, if you’re short by a few miles for an upcoming redemption, you can simply top up your account by purchasing miles, which are then added to your account instantly.
With enough LifeMiles available for a redemption, you can then proceed with the booking as per usual.
In other cases, you may be able to score a flight in a premium cabin at a significant discount over paying cash for a flight. As long as you’re redeeming your points at a greater value than what you paid to acquire them, you’ll come out ahead.
LifeMiles has competitive award pricing for many transatlantic and transpacific routes with Star Alliance airlines, and is one of the best North American loyalty programs within the alliance. The pricing is better than that of United MileagePlus, and is similar to what you might find with Air Canada Aeroplan, and sometimes better.
For example, a one-way flight in business class for most routes between the United States and Europe costs 69,000 LifeMiles, plus a very modest amount of taxes and fees.
During this promotion, buying 70,000 LifeMiles costs around $924 (USD), which is a great deal for a business class flight across the Atlantic, and surely much less expensive than the cash price for the same flight.
Fortunately, the recent devaluation doesn’t seem to apply to flights between Canada and Europe, which have retained the “old” pricing of 63,000 miles in business class.
Buying 65,000 LifeMiles during this sale costs just $858 (USD), which is a great price for a one-way flight to Europe in business class.
One of the best new sweet spots with LifeMiles is to fly between Newark (EWR) and London (LHR), which costs just 45,000 miles in United Polaris business class.
For a round-trip booking for two, buying 180,000 miles with a 160% bonus would cost around $2,310 (USD), which is a phenomenal deal (assuming you can find award availability).
The award availability on LifeMiles isn’t always the same as what you might see in other programs. For example, you might find an award seat available on Aeroplan that isn’t available on LifeMiles; however, you may also find something available on LifeMiles that isn’t available with other programs.
Just be sure to locate the flight you’d like to book before proceeding with a points purchase. This way, you’ll be almost certain to get what you want at a steep discount, and won’t wind up being disappointed.
Other Ways to Earn Avianca LifeMiles
Before jumping on this bonus, it’s important to note that there are other methods to acquire LifeMiles, especially if you have access to US credit cards.
LifeMiles is a 1:1 transfer partner for the following US-based points programs:
By taking advantage of a welcome bonus and then transferring the points to LifeMiles, you’re effectively “buying” LifeMiles for whatever the annual fee is for the credit card. This tends to be the cheapest way to acquire points.
We’ve also seen transfer bonuses from the above programs to LifeMiles, usually within the range of 15–25%.
Marriott Bonvoy points can also be converted to Avianca LifeMiles at a ratio of 3 Bonvoy points = 1 LifeMile. Unfortunately, with LifeMiles, you won’t get a bonus 5,000 miles for every 60,000 Bonvoy points transferred, as you would with many other airlines.
This makes it less favourable, so you should only convert your Marriott Bonvoy points to LifeMiles when you need a top-up on a planned redemption without any other options at your disposal. Otherwise, you should save your Bonvoy points for aspirational hotel and resort stays.
Previous Promotions
Looking at historical trends, a 155-165% bonus has been the standard over the past year, with occasional spikes to 185% or even 200%. While this promotion doesn’t break any records, it’s right in line with Avianca’s usual high-value offers.
Since these promos run frequently, there’s no need to buy speculatively. But if you have a specific redemption lined up, this 160% bonus is as good as it usually gets.
| Bonus | Cents Per Point (USD) | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | January 9, 2026 | January 19, 2026 |
| 125% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.47 | December 10, 2025 | December 16, 2025 |
| 170% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.22 | November 11, 2025 | November 18, 2025 |
| 165% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.25 | October 15, 2025 | October 24, 2025 |
| 155% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.29 | September 11, 2025 | September 29, 2025 |
| 165% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.25 | August 21, 2025 | September 2, 2025 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | July 24, 2025 | August 14, 2025 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | June 25, 2025 | July 14, 2025 |
| 155% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.29 | June 9, 2025 | June 14, 2025 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | May 20, 2025 | May 30, 2025 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | May 8, 2025 | May 15, 2025 |
| 155% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.29 | April 23, 2025 | April 30, 2025 |
| 135% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.40 | April 9, 2025 | April 14, 2025 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | March 18, 2025 | March 31, 2025 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | February 13, 2025 | March 14, 2025 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | January 9, 2025 | January 31, 2025 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | December 10, 2024 | December 31, 2024 |
| 185% more purchased lifemiles | 1.16 | November 25, 2024 | December 3, 2024 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | November 11, 2024 | November 19, 2024 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | October 8, 2024 | October 31, 2024 |
| 200% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.1 | September 24, 2024 | September 30, 2024 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | August 22, 2024 | September 19, 2024 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | July 19, 2024 | August 15, 2024 |
| 155% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.29 | June 12, 2024 | July 11, 2024 |
| 160% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.27 | May 2, 2024 | May 31, 2024 |
| 170% more purchased lifemiles | 1.22 | March 26, 2024 | April 9, 2024 |
| 165% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.25 | February 27, 2024 | March 12, 2024 |
| 170% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.22 | January 23, 2024 | January 27, 2024 |
| 175% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.20 | December 14, 2023 | December 31, 2023 |
| 165% more purchased LifeMiles | 1.25 | November 21, 2023 | December 5, 2023 |
Conclusion
Avianca is currently offering a 160% bonus on purchased LifeMiles, lowering the cost to 1.27 cents per mile (USD). It’s a solid deal if you’ve found a premium cabin redemption with award space, but less attractive if you’re just stockpiling points.
While this could still be a good deal if you have a trip in mind, it’s not the strongest offer we’ve seen. If you can wait, you might want to hold out for a 180–200% bonus.
LifeMiles is also a transfer partner of American Express US Membership Rewards, Brex Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Citi ThankYou Rewards. However, if you don’t have access to those programs, consider buying during a promotion, ideally one with a bonus of 170% or higher like this one, to get more value for your money.
If you’re still keen on this sale, be sure to lock in your purchase by January 19, 2026—but only if you’ve found award space and have a plan in place.
Jason thrives on connecting with the heart of a destination, seeking out experiences that go beyond the guidebooks.
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