LifeMiles Purchase Bonus – Flying A Family
LifeMiles is currently running a promotion offering a 40% bonus when purchasing miles. In this sponsored post we’ll not only go over the details of the promotion but will also show some of the ways it can work for families and some of the cool destinations LifeMiles can bring you to.
What Is The LifeMiles Purchase Bonus Promotion?
Right now, you can buy LifeMiles from Avianca with a 40% bonus. What that means is you will receive 1,400 miles for every 1,000 that you purchase.
It’s also worth noting that buying miles from LifeMiles may code as “airline purchase” (travel) on most credit cards. Thus, you could earn 3X-5X points on this purchase depending on the credit card you choose to use for the purchase. Check our bonus categories article for the best cards to use, if you go this route.
When Is Buying Miles Worth It?
Just like with any promotion, this one may not be for everyone. Here are some of the scenarios where it could make sense to purchase miles, especially with a bonus promotion.
- You’re just a few miles short for a redemption, so you buy the “remaining” part to make an award booking that saves you tons of money in the end.
- You can buy the miles for less than the cost of the cash ticket AND you don’t have other options for a redemption (meaning you’d be spending money on the ticket, just less money now).
Sample Family Itineraries Utilizing LifeMiles Purchase Bonus
In this post we’ll focus specifically on families and some of the places they could visit utilizing this LifeMiles bonus promotion.
Sample Family Itinerary #1 – Chicago to Cairo
Want to take your family to see the pyramids in Egypt? LifeMiles partners with Star Alliance, which means plenty of options over the Atlantic, including via their partner Turkish Airlines.
The Costs
- For redemptions on Turkish Airlines, we can fly from Chicago to Istanbul and then to Cairo. You will need a total of 42,500 miles per person to fly in economy. It’s 78,000 miles per person each way in business class.
- If you need to buy these miles, you’d pay $1,023 per person to get enough miles for the economy flights. The price is $1,848 to buy the miles for the business class award redemption.
- If you would purchase these economy flights, you would pay $589 per person.
- To purchase the business class flights, it’s a staggering $4,191 per person.
Is it worth buying miles for these flights?
This example highlights the fact that it may not always make sense to buy miles over paying cash, especially when it comes to economy class. With that said, it really shows the outsized value that is sometimes possible when purchasing miles to redeem for business class. In a head-to-head comparison, the price of the miles is significantly lower than the price of the cash ticket for business class.
Sample Family Itinerary #2 – Los Angeles to Madrid
Dreaming of taking your family to somewhere interesting in Europe? Star Alliance has a lot of options to get you there. Here is a look at sample family itinerary flying between Los Angeles, CA and Madrid, Spain.
The Costs
- For an award redemption in economy, you’ll need 30,000 miles per person each way. It’s 63,000 miles per person each way in business class on this date.
- To buy the miles for these flights, you’ll spend $726 for the points for economy redemptions and $1,485 for the points for business class redemptions.
- If you buy these same flights with cash, it’s $1,853 in economy. Tickets must be hot to Spain in the next few weeks.
- The business class flights are $5,158 per person.
Is it worth buying miles for these flights?
In this scenario, it makes sense to purchase miles–both for economy and business class. For economy, the cash cost of LifeMiles is less than half of the cost of a cash ticket, while for business class the gap is even wider.
Other Considerations
While using miles vs. cash is always something that deserves a lot of thought, here are some other considerations to make sure you get the best deal.
- If you are purchasing for a specific flight, make sure the itinerary you want is available with miles.
- Do you have flexible points that transfer to LifeMiles? Currently, Amex Membership Rewards is offering a 15% transfer bonus to LifeMiles.
- Also, consider the value of the points you would earn from buying these miles. Does that offset some of the costs? It depends on how you value those points and how you use them, obviously.
LifeMiles Purchase Bonus – Final Thoughts
LifeMiles has a robust program with many partners flying around the globe. This gives traveling families tons of redemption options for popular destinations in the United States, South America, Europe, and beyond. As with any promotion, you should crunch the numbers to see if this LifeMiles purchase bonus make sense to you, but as we demonstrated quite often it can be a good deal for both economy and business class flights.
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