10xTravel is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. All values of Membership Rewards are assigned based on the assumption, experience and opinions of the 10xTravel team and represent an estimate and not an actual value of points. Estimated value is not a fixed value and may not be the typical value enjoyed by card members.
The LifeMiles program, the frequent flyer program of Colombian airline Avianca, has long been a favorite among points and miles enthusiasts. Since Avianca is a member of Star Alliance, you can book award flights on any Star Alliance airline, including Air Canada and United Airlines, through this program. Plus, while the Avianca LifeMiles program prices Avianca-operated award flights using a dynamic pricing model (meaning award prices are tied to cash prices), all partner awards are priced according to a region-based award chart.
Unfortunately, in August 2024, the Avianca LifeMiles program underwent a significant devaluation when award rates for certain partner flights increased by as much as 50%, particularly on long-haul flights from North America to North Asia or Europe. And, while award prices for certain other partner-operated flights actually decreased by as much as 25%, these August 2024 changes were overall negative. And more recently, as of February 2025, LifeMiles further increased redemption costs on popular routes including one-way flights to Europe and Asia in business class.
Despite these changes, Avianca LifeMiles is still a great program through which to book Star Alliance award flights due to the fact that the program uses fixed award charts to price partner awards. So, you can definitely still find outsized value on many routes through the Avianca LifeMiles program. However, for the partner award flight routes to Asia and Europe that just underwent devaluations, you may be better off booking through another Star Alliance program (such as Air Canada Aeroplan).
In this article, we’re going to explain the dynamic pricing used for Avianca-operated flights as well as the region-based award chart used for partner award flights in the Avianca LifeMiles frequent flyer program.
LifeMiles Award Pricing for Flights on Avianca
Award flights operated by Avianca are priced according to a dynamic pricing model through the Avianca LifeMiles program. This means that the rate for any Avianca-operated award flight is tied to the cash price of that flight. However, the exact formula that Avianca uses to price its own award flights is hard to ascertain.
Whereas most dynamic pricing models make it nearly impossible to get much more than 1 cent per mile in value for redemptions, it seems that you can still get decent value for Avianca-operated flights through the LifeMiles program.
For example, we found a flight from New York (JFK) to Bogota (BOG) in late November 2024 for 14,450 miles plus about $71 in taxes and fees.
If you were to book the same exact flight at the same fare with cash instead of points, it would cost you about $433.
Thus, by redeeming Avianca miles for this Avianca-operated flight, you’d get a value of about 2.5 cents per mile, which is very good for an economy flight.
So, it seems that despite the fact that Avianca uses a dynamic pricing model for Avianca-operated award flights, you can still find good value per mile when redeeming for Avianca flights through the LifeMiles program.
LifeMiles Award Chart for Flights on Partner Airlines
Avianca is a member of Star Alliance, an international alliance of airlines. Through the Avianca LifeMiles program, members can redeem reward miles for flights on any Star Alliance airline. The current roster of Star Alliance airlines is as follows:
- Aegean Airlines
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- All Nippon Airways (ANA)
- Asiana
- Austrian Airlines
- Avianca
- Brussels Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- EgyptAir
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA Air
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airlines
- Swiss International Air Lines
- TAP Air Portugal
- Thai Airways
- Turkish Airlines
- United Airlines
In addition to redeeming miles with the Star Alliance airlines listed above, the Avianca LifeMiles program allows you to redeem miles for award flights on three non-Star Alliance airlines: Aeromexico, GOL and Iberia.
Regardless of the partner airline you’re flying with (either Star Alliance or non-Star Alliance), all partner award flights are priced according to a series of unpublished, region-based award charts. And, as mentioned above, this chart underwent some significant changes in August 2024 and February 2025 as rates for certain partner routes increased by as much as 50% while other partner routes decreased by as much as 25%. On the whole, these changes represented an overall devaluation of the LifeMiles program.
And the Avianca LifeMiles award chart that governs international partner award flights is massive and extremely complicated. So, we’ve chosen not to publish the entire award chart in this article. Instead, below are some of the award rates for Star Alliance-operated flights on popular route for U.S. travelers:
- One-way flights between North America and Europe cost between 35,000 and 40,000 miles in economy class and between 70,000 and 80,000 in business class.
- One-way flights between North America and Asia cost between 47,000 and 55,000 miles in economy class and between 90,000 and 100,000 in business class.
- One-way flights between North America and Europe cost between 40,000 and 55,000 miles in economy class and between 80,000 and 100,000 in business class.
The Avianca LifeMiles partner award charts divide the U.S. Lower 48 States into three regions. Here are the states that are included in each region:
- Region 1: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia
- Region 2: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin
- Region 3: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming
Unfortunately, in February 2025, it seems that rates for Star Alliance award flights within the continental U.S. increased by at least 2,500 miles across the board.
Using those regions and factoring in the recent devaluation, here’s the award chart for domestic partner flights within the U.S. Lower 48 States:
| Flights within the U.S. Lower 48 States | Region 1 - Economy | Region 1 - First | Region 2 - Economy | Region 2 - First | Region 3 - Economy | Region 3 - First |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cabin class | Economy | First | Economy | First | Economy | First |
| Region 1 | 10,000 | 17,500 | 12,500 | 17,500 | 15,000 | 27,500 |
| Region 2 | 12,500 | 17,500 | 10,000 | 17,500 | 15,000 | 27,500 |
| Region 3 | 12,500 | 27,500 | 15,000 | 27,500 | 10,000 | 17,500 |
*The Avianca LifeMiles award chart above has been compiled using crowdsourced data and may not 100% accurate 100% of the time.
The rates listed in the award charts above are for one-way travel. If you wish to know the price of a round-trip partner award flight, you can simply double the applicable rate in the chart above. It’s worth noting that real-world rates are often higher than those listed in the chart above. So, you may have to do some searching to find award flights at these levels.
The Bottom Line
Despite the program’s recent devaluations, Avianca LifeMiles is still a good program through which to book Star Alliance flights (as well as flights on some non-Star Alliance partner airlines). This is because partner awards are priced according to a series of fixed award charts, meaning that you should be able to get outsized value for these kinds of redemptions.
Unfortunately, deciphering the Avianca LifeMiles partner award chart is quite difficult. So, we’ve included the sections of these award charts that cover flights to and from the U.S. Lower 48 States as well as flights within the U.S. Lower 48 States in this article. If you want to know the rates for partner award flights on other routes, you’re better off just searching them through the Avianca website rather than trying to make sense of the Avianca LifeMiles partner award chart.
However, as you can see from the award charts reproduced above, there are definitely some great rates for flights originating in and arriving to the U.S. through the Avianca LifeMiles program. And, since LifeMiles is a 1:1 transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards, this is definitely a program worth getting familiar with, even if you never fly with Avianca.
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Editors Note: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
10xTravel is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. All values of Membership Rewards are assigned based on the assumption, experience and opinions of the 10xTravel team and represent an estimate and not an actual value of points. Estimated value is not a fixed value and may not be the typical value enjoyed by card members.
Editors Note: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
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