Article: Is It Worth Buying LifeMiles in 2025?

[AFF Editor]

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Is It Worth Buying LifeMiles in 2025? is an article written by Stephen, one of AFF's new writers.

Is It Worth Buying LifeMiles in 2025?

You can buy Avianca LifeMiles very cheaply during a generous promotion, lilke the current 160% bonus, but redeeming them for Star Alliance flights can be difficult. Is it worth it in 2025?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[zainman]

Maybe if you have an immediate need (like booking within the next couple of days) and there is a specific award like LH F, otherwise, no.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not comparing apples with apples. Unless you want to travel tomorrow!

Aeroplan points with the regular 80-100% bonus will get you the same flights to thailand for the same price as Lifemiles including all taxes fees and charges.

But the aeroplan points will also get you to singapore, vietnam, laos, hong kong… anywhere else in asia. That lifemiles simply can’t do.

And if you really did want to fly tomorrow… good chance Lifemiles might block any purchase or redemption opportunities as they might flag it for mileage broker issues.

Another thing to consider is phantom availability. Sometimes seats show on LM that you just can’t book

 

[Kremmen]

I wouldn't recommend Lifemiles any more as a new plan to join, but I still find it has occasional value. LM used to be great for piecing together awards, but now you have to rely on the web site, which doesn't search as deeply as others. Generally, Aeroplan is better than Lifemiles, but there are odd quirks. I once got a Lifemiles redemption from America to Asia that wasn't available on Aeroplan. A few years before I got a Turkish award from Europe to Asia that either wasn't on Aeroplan or cost more. (I don't remember which.)

And these days the Lifemiles web site is much faster and more usable than AC! Making a booking takes about a tenth the time.

 

[drron]

Not comparing apples with apples. Unless you want to travel tomorrow!

Aeroplan points with the regular 80-100% bonus will get you the same flights to thailand for the same price as Lifemiles including all taxes fees and charges.

But the aeroplan points will also get you to singapore, vietnam, laos, hong kong… anywhere else in asia. That lifemiles simply can’t do.

And if you really did want to fly tomorrow… good chance Lifemiles might block any purchase or redemption opportunities as they might flag it for mileage broker issues.

Another thing to consider is phantom availability. Sometimes seats show on LM that you just can’t book

Our Christmas trip to BKK last year started With J awards on TG SYD-BKK.

We are flying again in just under 2 weeks with another set of J awards on TG to BKK. But we are breaking up our Bangkok visit to have 4 days in the middle in Hong Kong again j awards on TG both ways. And all on lifemiles.
Though I wouldn't buy any more as it has been a long time between drinks.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Our Christmas trip to BKK last year started With J awards on TG SYD-BKK.

We are flying again in just under 2 weeks with another set of J awards on TG to BKK. But we are breaking up our Bangkok visit to have 4 days in the middle in Hong Kong again j awards on TG both ways. And all on lifemiles.
Though I wouldn't buy any more as it has been a long time between drinks.

Agree, there are a few routes, a few flights, here and there that you can use LM on.

TG coming back online was a huge bonus, but it equally applied to Aeroplan.

For those of us with a LM balance looking to use them up, it was good. But the issue is whether you would recommend opening an account and buying more/new LM?

I had a huge difficulty using the last of my LM even when it displayed results for BKK-SIN. Multiple times I selected flights and got an error

 

[ansett7e7]

The biggest issue I’ve found is that after going through the whole process of selecting and booking seats, the very last step—entering your credit card and billing address—is where it all falls apart.
The billing form is configured for U.S. postcodes only, and it won’t accept Australian postcodes. Soooo... you end up having to call the Avianca call centre. They’ll send you a separate payment link so you can finalise your booking. It’s a bit of a pain, but relatively easy once you know to expect it.
Word of advice: don’t do what I did and slap the table in frustration before picking up the phone.

 

[dajop]

The biggest issue I’ve found is that after going through the whole process of selecting and booking seats, the very last step—entering your credit card and billing address—is where it all falls apart.
The billing form is configured for U.S. postcodes only, and it won’t accept Australian postcodes. Soooo... you end up having to call the Avianca call centre. They’ll send you a separate payment link so you can finalise your booking. It’s a bit of a pain, but relatively easy once you know to expect it.
Word of advice: don’t do what I did and slap the table in frustration before picking up the phone.

So Australia has 4 digit postcodes, does adding a leading 0 work?

We had similar issue with entering Singapore postcode for using a SG based CC, the postcodes are 6 digits. We just dropped the leading digit and it goes through with no issues. (i.e for postcode123456 we enter 23456, never had an issue). For AU card, if postcode was 1234 I'd enter 01234.

 

[ansett7e7]

So Australia has 4 digit postcodes, does adding a leading 0 work?

We had similar issue with entering Singapore postcode for using a SG based CC, the postcodes are 6 digits. We just dropped the leading digit and it goes through with no issues. (i.e for postcode123456 we enter 23456, never had an issue). For AU card, if postcode was 1234 I'd enter 01234.

Hmmm...good thinking. Worth a try next time.

 

[burmans]

So Australia has 4 digit postcodes, does adding a leading 0 work?

We had similar issue with entering Singapore postcode for using a SG based CC, the postcodes are 6 digits. We just dropped the leading digit and it goes through with no issues. (i.e for postcode123456 we enter 23456, never had an issue). For AU card, if postcode was 1234 I'd enter 01234.

Yep, I’ve managed to use this method successfully!

 

[Kremmen]

The biggest issue I’ve found is that after going through the whole process of selecting and booking seats, the very last step—entering your credit card and billing address—is where it all falls apart.

Does it matter? Some US machines that want to do AVS with a zip code accept "00000" for overseas cards. It would be worthwhile to find out if the back end is actually doing anything with that field for non-US cards.

 

[burmans]

Does it matter? Some US machines that want to do AVS with a zip code accept "00000" for overseas cards. It would be worthwhile to find out if the back end is actually doing anything with that field for non-US cards.

Agreed, given we are not asked for address details here in Oz, not sure any of those address details are actually used for verification of Oz cards.

 

[Volando]

Maybe I’m in a fortunate minority, but I’ve been able to redeem LMs on quite a few trips to Europe, North America and Asia over the years, including via the good old Screenshot method (RIP).

I’ve had generally ok interactions with the call centre too. Despite crackly lines and occasional language barriers (hey, they are trying to speak my language, not the other way around), my issues have always been solved on one call, which is much much more than can be said for our national carrier!

I no longer stockpile lifemiles, but if a good sale coincides with when I’m planning travel and availability looks good, it’s still a program that can have some unicorn bargains, like the current example where LM would be $1000 cheaper than Aeroplan for the same TG flights

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Maybe I’m in a fortunate minority, but I’ve been able to redeem LMs on quite a few trips to Europe, North America and Asia over the years, including via the good old Screenshot method (RIP).

I’ve had generally ok interactions with the call centre too. Despite crackly lines and occasional language barriers (hey, they are trying to speak my language, not the other way around), my issues have always been solved on one call, which is much much more than can be said for our national carrier!

I no longer stockpile lifemiles, but if a good sale coincides with when I’m planning travel and availability looks good, it’s still a program that can have some unicorn bargains, like the current example where LM would be $1000 cheaper than Aeroplan for the same TG flights

It wouldn’t be $1000 cheaper because the article didn’t compare like with like. It compared LM points on sale, with Aeroplan at a pretty low 30% discount… not the usual 80-100% bonus. So unless you needed to buy the mikes today and fly tomorrow… Aeroplan is likely to be cheaper if you buy during one of their sales.

Agree LM used to be great… I redeemed many many tickets, including via the screenshot method. But that availability disappeared meany years ago… well before covid.

 

[Kremmen]

It wouldn’t be $1000 cheaper because the article didn’t compare like with like. It compared LM points on sale, with Aeroplan at a pretty low 30% discount… not the usual 80-100% bonus. So unless you needed to buy the mikes today and fly tomorrow… Aeroplan is likely to be cheaper if you buy during one of their sales.

My best buy price for LM was 1.10 US cents and for Aeroplan was 1.14 US cents, so I consider them equivalent.