Devaluation: Avianca Lifemiles Increases Award Flight Costs by Up to 50% Miles

Avianca, the South American airline, has implemented an unpopular change to its frequent flyer program. Lifemiles, once a popular program for booking Lufthansa First Class flights at a good value, has been devalued significantly. Avianca, the airline behind the program, has faced financial difficulties in recent years, which already made many Lifemiles fans wary. This latest move by the Star Alliance member might confirm their concerns.

Overnight, and without any prior announcement, Avianca has increased the cost of many award flights, effectively devaluing their miles. The changes have hit some of the most popular award routes particularly hard.

Avianca Lifemiles are popular to book Lufthansa First Class (Source)

Avianca Lifemiles offered attractive sales, allowing customers to purchase miles with generous bonuses. When looking to book a Lufthansa First Class ticket, checking Lifemiles for award availability and discounted miles was often a good strategy, saving several thousand dollars per flight.

However, our interest waned when Avianca entered a period of financial trouble and had to file for bankruptcy. Even so, it still made sense to purchase miles ad hoc and use them immediately, often avoiding the high surcharges typical with Miles & More.

If you bought miles in advance, you might now be in for an unpleasant surprise. Avianca Lifemiles has increased the cost of some premium cabin flights by up to 50%. The popular route between Europe and North America has been hit particularly hard. A one-way First Class flight on this route now requires 130,000 miles, up from the previous 87,000 miles for a Lufthansa First Class flight from Frankfurt to the USA.

Higher charges for Lufthansa's First Class between Germany and the US (Source)

Here’s a summary of the changes:

• Economy Class: 30,000 → 35,000 miles

• Business Class: 63,000 → 70,000 miles

• First Class: 87,000 → 130,000 miles

However, there have also been some adjustments downward. For example, award values for flights from Germany to Brazil have improved. You can now save 7,250 miles in Business Class and 5,000 miles in both Economy and First Class.

• Economy Class: 50,000 → 45,000 miles

• Business Class: 80,000 → 72,500 miles

• First Class: 110,000 → 105,000 miles

Once again, this situation reinforces the golden rule of frequent flyer programs: "Earn & Burn." It’s usually a bad strategy to buy miles without a specific plan for using them, even if there’s a sale. If you made that decision with Avianca Lifemiles, it might now be a costly one.

Despite the devaluation, you can still find good value in the Lifemiles program. The surcharges remain reasonable, and there are still some routes where redeeming miles offers a fair value, including certain flights between Europe and North America.