![Marriott Bonvoy Status Match [2020]](https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/app/uploads/2020/08/marriott-bonvoy-phone-150x150.jpg)
The Avianca LifeMiles website and booking engine will be offline for almost a week as the Colombian frequent flyer program upgrades its systems.
The scheduled LifeMiles outage is from Friday 1 February to Tuesday 5 February 2019, Colombian time. This means you’ll be unable to make any new award bookings or access your LifeMiles account until at least the 6th of February, Australian time. However, that assumes the system upgrade is completed on schedule – something we’re not entirely sure will be the case.
During the scheduled outage, the LifeMiles frequent flyer program website and mobile app will both be unavailable. It will not be possible to earn or redeem any LifeMiles during this period. The call centre will remain open, but will also be unable to process any transactions. So, if you’re planning to redeem LifeMiles in the near future – or your LifeMiles are due to expire soon – be sure to take action before the end of January!
LifeMiles says that the system upgrade will “facilitate an enhanced and more modern experience in LifeMiles.com and the LifeMiles mobile application”. This is both promising and concerning at the same time. On one hand, the LifeMiles website is currently a little bit extremely clunky, and often doesn’t show award flights that are in fact available. On the other hand, there is a very real possibility that the “upgraded” website will be even worse than its predecessor. Our members fear that the system upgrade could result in even fewer flights showing online or the removal of the infamous “screenshot” booking method.
Heaven help us for the upgraded system
I’m excited by the potential opportunities, hopefully it will fix all the issues that we now have to send screen shots for. At the same time i hope they don’t use this to get rid of the screenshot method if they don’t fix it. They have been talking about getting rid of that option for some time (but never eventuated).
Many Australian frequent flyers use the Avianca LifeMiles program in order to access cheap Business and First Class award flights on Star Alliance airlines. It’s possible to buy LifeMiles in bulk – often at generous discounts – and redeem for flights across the Star Alliance network.
We’ll have to wait and see whether the LifeMiles system upgrade will be beneficial or detrimental for LifeMiles members. Hopefully it will be an improvement, but only time will tell. In the meantime, be sure to book any flights you’re looking at before 1 February 2019.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Avianca “Lifemiles” – Questions and Discussion
