Through a Great Loyalty Program, Which You Need Not Be a Member of Today—and Perhaps Never Heard of—You Can Gain Amazing Access to Its 30 Partners Including All Nippon, Lufthansa, Singapore, and United.
LifeMiles is the loyalty program of Avianca, an airline based in Columbia, and is a new Star Alliance partner as of May 2013.
You DO NOT have to fly frequently or with Avianca to enjoy the many LifeMiles booking opportunities. As with many FCF strategies, the value lies in the partner opportunities, and buying your way into airline frequency schemes often in a matter of minutes.
[aside headline="JUST IN: New LifeMiles 100% Buying Bonus" alignment="alignright" width="half" headline_size="default"]When we originally slated this article for the December issue, it was meant to come out in advance of the next mileage-purchase bonus since it only applies to current LifeMiles members. Become a member now and be ready for the next sale because they do come up every few months, or save nearly as much, now, as the deal is great anytime.[/aside]
You have to know how to play LifeMiles just right to get the most out of it, as it has some nuances, but the savings can be substantial: transcon Business Class on United for $833 round-trip, a ticket that otherwise costs $4,374; Hawaii for up to 61% off; international First and Business Class at up to 73% off; and to/from Africa, Asia, India, the Middle East, South America and the South Pacific.
The key to using the program lies in understanding that LifeMiles is a miles seller, and does it in more than one way. While the retail price per mile is 3¢, the LifeMiles program regularly offers a 100% bonus on purchases, cutting that price to 1.5¢.
How to Best Use LifeMiles
LifeMiles offers one-way awards at 50% of the round-trip cost. Getting the outbound and return with the dates and departure times that I can live with and in the degree of comfort I’m after is not always easy. In fact, a mathematician would tell you that the odds of getting two ideal flights are exponentially more difficult than getting just one.
That’s why I frequently turn to one-way awards. Simply put, they increase my chances of getting a First or Business Class seat at a lower award-cost level. In other words, you might just book a one-way with LifeMiles, and another one-way through American, British Airways, or any other program offering one-way awards.
One-Way Award Scenario Example: Let’s say you’re flying Los Angeles-Paris in Business Class, and you’ve found that only American has a “saver” Business Class award (50,000 miles) on the outbound segment. If you stick with American all the way, you’ll have to buy an unrestricted anytime award for the return (100,000 miles), bringing the cost to 150,000 miles. You may find that LifeMiles has a 52,500-mile saver award for the return. Grab the one-ways and save the 50,000 American miles for another day.
[aside headline="How the LifeMiles Deal is Like British Airways" alignment="alignright" width="half" headline_size="default"]
Because airlines would rather have your cash than your miles—even on a mileage award ticket—some are making the cash/miles mix a much better deal than paying in miles.
LifeMiles is similar to BA’s Avios & Money program. In effect, the airline wants more cash, and will reduce the number of miles required to get into your wallet.
Through British Airways’ program, premium travelers can gain significantly, as you can essentially buy miles at a special rate, about 2¢ each, whereas the normal cost is 2.8¢ and capped at 25,000 annually.[/aside]
Searching For Availability Using LifeMiles: You might start your search on the operating airline’s own mileage program. Let’s say you want to fly Houston-Frankfurt in February 2014. Check United’s availability at United.com to get an idea of dates that could be booked with LifeMiles, as they are usually very similar. After you find something that can work for you, go to LifeMiles.com to get an idea of the cost in miles and the cost to buy down the miles required.
Another LifeMiles Advantage: In general, our research found that LifeMiles award tickets also have little or no fuel surcharges, which can easily run $800 to $1,000 with other carriers, and the Star Alliance partner mileage cost is good; as of Feb. 1, 2014, it will be much better than United’s.
A Good Deal Gets Better
LifeMiles’ “Miles + Money” option allows you to bring down the price for an award ticket cost—in miles—by paying more in cash. But you need to have 40% of the miles required for a mileage award ticket in order to use this option.
Two Major Benefits of the Miles + Money Feature
Miles + Money Benefit #1: This program nuance can often cut down the cost per mile, as you can “buy down” the number of miles required, at a cost between 1.2¢ and 1.9¢ per mile.
Miles + Money Benefit #2: By being able to buy up to 60% of the miles needed—at time of booking—it significantly reduces the number of miles you need to “stockpile in advance, through direct purchases.” No U.S. airline offers this feature.
Think of this as a new way of thinking about how to purchase an airline ticket: Not only with miles (you do not need to have any to start out in this case), but “paying-down the number of miles required” by paying more in cash.
We have not been trained to think this way.
The benefits of this new way of thinking can outweigh the “learning curve hassle” significantly, as you can see in the savings charts on the right and on page 6. Here’s an example of how it works.
Example of Potential Savings: 73% Off First Class
On the Washington, DC-Brussels route, United currently charges 135,000 miles plus $58 round-trip. A straight mileage redemption on LifeMiles costs 145,000 miles plus $83.36. No advantage there.
But push the “More Money” button when you are searching for flights on LifeMiles.com (or ask a reservations agent) and the miles required decreases. Increase the cash cost to $1,050 and the mileage cost goes down to 75,000—that’s 1.4¢ per mile. (The total cost including taxes and fees is $1,133.) Which is the sweet spot on this route.
You can reduce the mileage to the 40% minimum (58,000 miles), in which case the cost is $1,371. But that actually increases the cost per mile to 1.57¢. The total cost including taxes and fees is $1,454 with LifeMiles; add in the cost to buy 58,000 miles at 1.5¢ ($870) and your total cost is $2,324 (for 145,000 miles). 135,000 United miles would cost $5,079, or $6,020 (160,000 miles) as of Feb.1, 2014.
To keep it simple, the best buy is to use the minimum 40% miles required in most cases, so you don’t have to whip out your calculator to save every last penny.
Even with the initial buy-in at 3¢ per mile, which you can cut in half by signing up for the program now, and pouncing on the next LifeMiles bonus promotion, this approach is much better than going through United. (See chart below.)
First Class Washington, DC-Brussels / United Using Miles + Cash Through LifeMiles
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Reaping With LifeMiles: For FCF Subscribers Who Live Abroad (or in U.S. Cities Not in Examples
This booking strategy has global relevance because anyone in most any country can buy LifeMiles, book LifeMiles’ mileage partners, and save on First and Business Class travel. For example, LifeMiles’ All Nippon partner award is offered from China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan to/from North America, South America and Europe at the same cost. Lufthansa’s flight awards are offered from/to Europe, North America (including Canada), South America, and Africa. Even United awards via LifeMiles redemptions are not only offered from the U.S., but also between Europe and North America and Canada. Click here to see Star Alliance awards using LifeMiles.
Net-Cost Think
This LifeMiles booking strategy represents a different way of thinking. Instead of comparing mileage award charts you’re comparing the price per mile of your ticket.
Why LifeMiles Works: Not Only Cheap Miles, But Decent Availability
Cheap miles means nothing if there’s no award space. Our research shows that LifeMiles has good award availability on many airlines, including even last-minute Business Class space on Singapore on the A380 LAX-Tokyo, inventory that is not even available through United for some reason.
Program Caveats
- No stopovers allowed on award tickets.
- One strange nuisance, is that you can’t book “mixed class awards”, meaning the same class must be available on all segments of the award. For example, if your itinerary is Monterey-San Francisco-Tokyo, and the MRY-SFO segment has only coach and you’re looking for First Class on the SFO-Tokyo segment, you will have to purchase a separate ticket MRY-SFO.
- LifeMiles works best on non-stop flights or connecting flights which offer the same class of service from departure to destination. That said, if you have to buy extra segments it’s not so bad. I often find myself in this situation out of Monterey, anyway.
- Initial mileage purchase takes from instantly up to three days to post. Figure it into the equation. If you fly often, have 40% of the miles in your account at all times. If you fly less frequently, make sure there is good availability, ideally on multiple dates, before you purchase the miles.
- You can’t participate in the 100% bonus promo, that gets this strategy started best, unless you’re a current LifeMiles member prior to promo being announced. Sign up now.
- Booking award travel by phone can be a hassle. LifeMiles agents seem to lack training and it can take a redial or three to get someone knowledgeable. Yet well worth it when you have savings like this.
Using Miles + Cash Through LifeMiles
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How to Get Started
Step One: Join LifeMiles, which takes less than two minutes, here. You can decide later if you want to use the account and this strategy, but sign up now while you’re thinking about it, so you’re ready either way.
Step Two: Wait for the 100% bonus promo, if you can, which usually comes around every few months. That brings the cost of miles down to 1.5¢. (If you buy miles without the promo, they cost 3¢ per mile, and that’s still a great deal overall.)