US Dividend Miles vs. Avianca LifeMiles

[markis10]

You're right about points + pay, but it does quite clearly state 150,000 per calendar year, so what do you mean by "promo limit"? They're not really worth buying without the promo anyway....

You won't get any more bonus miles once you hit the 150K as part of the promo, its new but there is no limit normally AFAIK and the points plus pay is cheaper anyway so you still have effectively 300K odd to play with per member per year.

 

[Nizar]

Don't think so - if you go on LM and try to buy, you can't put in anything more than 75k now anyway.

Don't think so re: what exactly ?
Don't think so re: 150k being a calendar limit ?

Or don't think so re: if I buy the max now and there is another promo later in the year, I cannot buy the max (or any) again ?

 

[ryanbryan]

Or don't think so re: if I buy the max now and there is another promo later in the year, I cannot buy the max (or any) again ?

This........

http://imgur.com/dYdhkt7
For info, took a screenshot from the LM page stating the calendar year limit

 

[anat0l]

points plus pay is cheaper anyway

That's not quite true.

Points plus pay isn't cheaper, but if you use the sweet spot ratio then you'll pay effectively the same amount for the points as you would if the points were on promotion (i.e. 1.5c per point).

But basically you're right - buying up the maximum of 150k will give you about 300k per year to use up thanks to points plus pay.

 

[Nizar]

That's not quite true.

Points plus pay isn't cheaper, but if you use the sweet spot ratio then you'll pay effectively the same amount for the points as you would if the points were on promotion (i.e. 1.5c per point).

But basically you're right - buying up the maximum of 150k will give you about 300k per year to use up thanks to points plus pay.

Points plus pay is 1.576c per point. Miles on promo is 1.5c per point so not much it in.

Agree that 150k can be used for upto 375k worth of redemptions if using miles+pay each time to the maximum extent (maximum cash, minimum miles).

 

[ketsuzei]

Points plus pay is 1.576c per point.

Your previous interpretation of the "sweet spot" was incorrect. You shouldn't stop the slider at the spot where the incremental cost of additional miles increases, you should keep going until you get the round numbers, giving you 1.5c per point.

 

[markis10]

Points plus pay is 1.576c per point. Miles on promo is 1.5c per point so not much it in.

Agree that 150k can be used for upto 375k worth of redemptions if using miles+pay each time to the maximum extent (maximum cash, minimum miles).

Not quite, it used to be 1.3c now its 1.5 at the sweet spot.

 

[HWilliams]

Comparing both programs myself (please note, I'm very new to this) one of the advantages of Dividend Miles seem to be more flexibility with flights (I assume there are more award flights available than what is listed on the LM website).

Are there any other programs that compare to USDM and LM that are worth looking into for regular flights to Europe?

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

Comparing both programs myself (please note, I'm very new to this) one of the advantages of Dividend Miles seem to be more flexibility with flights (I assume there are more award flights available than what is listed on the LM website).

Are there any other programs that compare to USDM and LM that are worth looking into for regular flights to Europe?

I find the opposite. Just booked a SYD - LHR - BKK - SYD flight with USD but when i did some dummy booking via LM I saw a lot more options that what was provided to me when i range up US.

I like the fact i can book so quickly with LM. Am sad i still have 110K of miles to burn with USD, otherwise LM would be my miles of choice

 

[HWilliams]

I find the opposite. Just booked a SYD - LHR - BKK - SYD flight with USD but when i did some dummy booking via LM I saw a lot more options that what was provided to me when i range up US.

I like the fact i can book so quickly with LM. Am sad i still have 110K of miles to burn with USD, otherwise LM would be my miles of choice

Interesting. Any reason why USDM is so much popular on this forum compared to LM?

 

[casanovawa]

USDM, if you knew what you were doing, provided much more flexibility than LM and sometimes cheaper flights... Basically LM will spit you out a couple of options (routes/airlines/transits) and that's it, take it or leave it... If its really important to you one of the benefits of LM was that you could get access to some of SQs 77W and A380s in the higher cabins which SQ blocked for USDM...

But in terms of planning itineraries, if you used something like ANAs search tool to look for available seats/flights, with USDM you could find the few itineraries that LM provided you plus dozens more, stitch together ones that took you on some scenic routes and let you try some different airlines... You could also stop over in cities along the way for up to 23:59 and have them considered as transits in addition to your destination and stopover or open jaw where LM seems to have some constraints about transits of any length and ones that go over into the next day...

Its a bit hard to compare but USDM also let you have a stopover and destination in two different continental zones that may work out in your favour if that was of any value to you... LM is handy in that it does one way flights so you have the options of doing a one way redemption or a return where with USDM you paid the same amount to go one way or return....

As to which program was/is cheaper, that depended slightly on which zone you were going to etc, some were slightly cheaper in USDM, some slightly cheaper in LM... USDM was a much more flexible beast though...

 

[Alanslegal]

Interesting. Any reason why USDM is so much popular on this forum compared to LM?

There's a whole range of reasons why USDM is better than LM however here are some of my points 1. better value, 2. allows creative routing, 3. you can choose your flight/sectors to maximise time on ground or onboard, 4. DM agents occasionally makes mistakes and you end up paying much less than required, 5. points purchase/gift/share promotions come up regularly.

 

[casanovawa]

I don't think i ever had a USDM agent make a mistake in my favour with points, although perhaps with some of my US/EUR redemptions by the absolute book i should have been paying '120k' and got away with 110k, no F for 60k or whatever like Shayne used to tell us about, but this could be evened up on LM by a few mistaken city/zones or the ability with a one way redemption to drop off the last city and get it cheaper than it should be...

LM is also a pain in the but as it doesn't allow mixed class redemptions, so if you want F then every flight in your itinerary has to be F and there are many, many smaller/shorter routes where F is not offered so it means you can't have any F flights in your itinerary even if on part of it there were F flights available, USDM (and almost all other programs) allow mixed classes...