Avianca LifeMiles has introduced Club LifeMiles a subscription service for their frequent flyer points. Subscription services are becoming very popular in many industries in the world particularly software and shopping. So I guess it was inevitable that it would come to frequent flyer programs as well! This is the first program I have heard of doing this. Let me know in the comments if there is another loyalty program that offers something similar. Avianca are well known for offering great deals on purchasing points so lets see if their subscription service is also worth it.
How does the point subscription work?
It seems like it works just like any other subscription service. You pay a monthly fee (at one of three tiers) and you accrue a certain amount of points. You will also recieve an annual bonus of points every year you hold the subscription. Without looking into the numbers just yet I am expecting you will need to get this annual bonus for the subscriptions to be worth it. Also Avianca seem to run some promotions to get a bonus on sign up. The last bonus on sign up was 15%, which seems to be a bonus on top of the annual bonus that get paid in your second month of subscription.
What are the tiers?
As mentioned there are three tiers of subscription each giving relative amounts of LifeMiles to the amount paid. The tiers range in price from US$56.99, up to US$125.99. So lets do some calculation and see how much you pay per point in each tier. I am going to calculate the total cost over one year and the amount of points accumulated in one year as I assume most people will do this for the annual bonus.
Tier 1 – US$56.99/month
So at the tier 1 you will pay US$683.88 ($1,013.82 in Australian dollars at the time of writing) for a year of subscription. Over the year you will accrue 36,000 points plus and annual bonus of 12,000 giving a total point amount of 48,000. So with tier 1 you are paying 1.4 US cents (~2.1 Australian cents) per point. Not too shabby, this is a decent earn rate and better than some of their point buying promotions.
Tier 2 – US$91.99/month
So at the second tier you will pay US$1,103.88 ($1,636.59 in Australian dollars at the time of writing) for a year’s subscription to Club LifeMiles. Over the year you will accrue 60,000 points plus and annual bonus of 20,000 giving a total point amount of 80,000. So with tier 2 you are paying 1.37 US cents (~2 Australian cents) per point. You get a bit more bang for your buck with the second tier but lets see where tier 3 lands in terms of value.
Tier 3 – US$125.99/month
So at the final tier of Club LifeMiles you will pay US$1,511.88 ($ 2,241.48 in Australian dollars at the time of writing) for one year of subscription. Over the year you will accrue 84,000 points plus and annual bonus of 28,000 giving a total point amount of 112,000. So with tier 1 you are paying 1.34 US cents (~2 Australian cents) per point. The most valuable tier but you must be willing to fork out the money and trust you will be able to redeem these points.
OK, lets say you signed up during a bonus period and got and extra 15%. For tier 3 that would be 4,200 which makes our total 116,200. This changes our cost per point to 1.3 US cents (1.92 Australian cents). An absolute bargain for points especially if you can wrangle some huge value redemptions.
Is a subscription worth it?
For some people this will definitely be worth it. You can buy LifeMiles at quite cheap rates and there are plenty you redemptions available for LifeMiles. Especially on Star Alliance partners. Check the redemptions below for some of the options. Regular flyers on Star Alliance partners could benefit from getting a subscription and turning it into some cheaper business class fares. It would be even more valuable if you snag a subscription during a promotion. As always it depends on your situation but there are frequent flyer points to be had here for good rates.
What can I redeem my Avianca LifeMiles for?
The most common redemption target for most LifeMilers will likely be aiming for a redemption on a Star Alliance partner. Partners like Singapore Airlines, Asiana Airlines, Lufthansa and United Airlines are all available to be booked. You can check the points redemption chart below for routes on Star Alliance partners.
If you haven’t already signed up for Avianca’s LifeMiles program, you can go here to sign up today. Are you thinking of signing up to Club LifeMiles? Think it will be worth it for your situation? Let us know your thoughts in a comment below. We would love to hear others opinions on this new feature of LifeMiles.