How to use Avianca LifeMiles to book United flights for as few as 6,500 credit card points

Avianca Airlines is a Colombian airline based in the South American nation’s capital city of Bogota.

For many US travelers, their primary exposure to the carrier will be on vacations to Latin America; you might find fly Avianca if you’re hoping to visit one of its hubs in Colombia or El Salvador.

Or, there are cases where Avianca might offer the cheapest airfare for flights to popular vacation destinations in Central America, Mexico or elsewhere — though you’ll almost always make a connection in its hub cities of Bogota, San Salvador or Guatemala City first.

But even if you don’tplan to step foot on an Avianca airplane, you may want to join the airline’s LifeMiles loyalty program anyway.

The reason: you can redeem Avianca LifeMiles for flights aboard United Airlines and its partners. Oftentimes, these can be booked a fraction of the miles you’d spend if you booked an award flight directly with United.

Why should you earn Avianca LifeMiles?

Even if you never fly Avianca, it’s worth researching LifeMiles. The airline is a Star Alliance member, which is one of three large global airline alliances. There are two prominent North American airlines that are part of the Star Alliance: United Airlines and Air Canada.

That’s on top of many other alliance partners on other continents, like Lufthansa in Germany to Swiss Air in Switzerland, among many others. You can view the full list of Star Alliance members here.

With alliance partnerships, you can typically earn and redeem airline miles across airlines within the alliance. For example, you can book flights on almost all Star Alliance carriers — including United — with LifeMiles.

Additionally, LifeMiles has opted to price award tickets based on an award chart. This means award flights are priced using fixed, predictable amounts largely tied to a flight’s distance. This is unlike United MileagePlus which uses dynamic pricing, meaning that award prices change daily.

As a result, you can find some really good deals with Avianca LifeMiles. Domestic Untied flights start at 6,500 LifeMiles one-way, and business class tickets to Europe start at 60,000 LifeMiles.

Finally, you can transfer many popular credit card rewards currencies to LifeMiles. This makes them remarkably easy to earn in the US. Don’t worry, we’ll look at which cards can transfer points to LifeMiles shortly.

How to earn Avianca LifeMiles

There’s just one problem: Most of us with frequent flyer miles have them with a US airline, not an international carrier. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to earn LifeMiles, even if you live in the US.

Fly with Avianca

The most straightforward way to earn miles with Avianca is, of course, to fly with the airline.

The carrier serves several US cities, with nonstop flights to cities like Bogota, San Salvador, Guatemala City. From those hubs, you can connect to numerous popular vacation destinations in Latin America.

Notably, Avianca can take you to places like Mexico or Costa Rica.

Transfer credit card points to LifeMiles

If you have an American Express, Capital One or Citi credit card that earns points, you may be able to transfer those rewards to your Avianca LifeMiles account.

Specifically, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards® points, Capital One miles and Citi ThankYou points to Avianca at a 1:1 transfer ratio. This means 1,000 points equals 1,000 LifeMiles.

Since Amex, Capital One and Citi don’t have transfer arrangements with United, transferring points to Avianca LifeMiles is a roundabout way for travelers who live in United hub cities to book award flights with the carrier.

Better yet, you can earn a bulk of points at once when you open a new travel credit card. Banks often give new card holders welcome offers as a way to incentivize new applications. These offers let you earn a large number of points after meeting a specific spending target.

Here’s a look at some of the best US credit cards for earning LifeMiles. Note that each card has a different annual fee and varying travel benefits.

Earn LifeMiles on United flights

This isn’t an ideal strategy if want to earn elite status with United. However, thanks to the Star Alliance, you can choose to earn Avianca LifeMiles instead of United MileagePlus miles when you fly with United.

To do that, simply book a flight on United’s website and choose “Avianca LifeMiles” as your frequent flyer program when you pay for your flight.

The number of LifeMiles you’ll earn on a United flight depends on the distance of your flight and what fare class you’re booked in. You can view earning rates on the LifeMiles website.

How to book a flight with Avianca LifeMiles

Thankfully, actually booking an award flight with Avianca LifeMiles is straightforward. The program shows most available award flights on its website, so it’s almost as easy as booking a flight with Expedia or Orbitz.

But before we walk through a sample booking, one word of caution. Always search for your flights before you transfer credit card rewards to Avianca LifeMiles. Transfers are one-way from banks to airlines, so finding a flight before you transfer will prevent you from having points stuck in a partner program.

Additionally, award availability changes daily. It’s in your best interest to book a ticket quickly if you find an award flight that fits your travel schedule. Airlines only release a limited amount of award seats per flight, and it could get booked up by another traveler if you wait.

With that said, let’s run through the booking process. First, head to the Avianca LifeMiles website and sign-in to your account. Then, click the large “Travel”button at the top of the screen.

Now, enter the cities you’d like to travel to and from, select your class of service and click the blue arrow button to start your search.

Now, a calendar will pop up and you can pick your desired travel dates. A word of caution: the calendar can be rather glitchy, so it might take some paitience to select your travel dates. Try the LifeMiles mobile app if you have trouble.

Again, there won’t be award space on every flight. Look for days on the calendar highlighted in blue, like below, as those should have bookable award space.

Once you’ve found a flight that works for you, select it, transfer your credit card points and follow the on-screen prompts to book your ticket. Note that you may need to sign in and out of LifeMiles to see transferred points reflected in your account.

The best Avianca LifeMiles award flights

Easy, right? Now, let’s look at some of the best LifeMiles redemptions, from booking domestic United flights to maximizing your miles to book some of the world’s best business class seats.

This isn’t an exhaustive list of the best Avianca LifeMiles bookings, so make sure to run your own searches too. Also, remember that award space changes daily, so you may need to be flexible to book these example flights.

Booking United flights with Avianca LifeMiles

As discussed, one of the best ways for US-based travelers to make use of Avianca LifeMiles is by redeeming them domestic flights within the US, aboard Star Alliance partner United. Typically, shorter flights cost fewer LifeMiles.

For example, you’d pay 6,500 LifeMiles for a one-way flight from Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) to Columbus, Ohio (CMH), plus minimal taxes and fees.

Likewise, a flight from Washington-Dulles International Airport (IAD) to Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) costs 7,500 LifeMiles in each direction.

You’ll pay more miles for longer tickets, like transcontinental flights New York City to the west coast. This example flight from Newark (EWR) to Los Angeles (LAX) costs 13,500 LifeMiles.

Flights to Canada and Mexico

Of course, you’re not limited to booking domestic flights with LifeMiles. If you’re looking to vacation in Canada or Mexico, you can often find inexpensive award tickets on United and Air Canada.

For example, a one-way Air Canada flight from New York-LaGuardia (LGA) to Toronto (YYZ) costs just 6,500 LifeMiles plus taxes and fees.

Or, you can book San Francisco (SFO) to Vancouver (YVR) on United Airlines for 7,500 LifeMiles.

Flights to Mexico are bookable too, though these flights tend to be slightly more expensive. For example, this United flight from Houston (IAH) to Cancun (CUN) costs 17,500 LifeMiles in economy.

Business class tickets to Europe

LifeMiles can take you beyond the Americas too. Another great redemption is business class flights from the US to Europe, which start at 63,000 LifeMiles plus moderate taxes and fees. Not only will these awards get you to Europe, but you’ll fly there in style.

The cheapest award tickets are found on flights from the US to Northern Europe. This flight from Boston (BOS) to Copenhagen (CPH) via Lisbon (LIS) costs 60,000 LifeMiles, plus taxes and fees.

Meanwhile, this example flight New York-JFK to Berlin (BER) via Frankfurt (FRA) is slightly more expensive at 63,000 LifeMiles.

Similarly, this Turkish Airlines flight from Washington-Dulles (IAD) to Istanbul (IST) costs the same 63,000 LifeMiles in business class.

Bottom line

Booking United flights using Avianca LifeMiles may seem unconventional, but it can be a great way to redeem Amex Membership Rewards points, Capital One miles or Citi ThankYou points. Plus, with so many other great redemptions available, it’s worth taking some time to learn the ins-and-outs of the loyalty program.

Click here for rates and fees of the Amex Platinum card.
Click here for rates and fees of the Amex Gold card.

Looking for a travel credit card? Find out which cards CNN Underscored chose as our best travel credit cards