I want to share with you one of the tricks that I have used for many years to fly on Premium Classes, for much less, with Star Alliance carriers.
I use LifeMiles to redeem on flights with ANA, Lufthansa and other Star Alliance carriers Premium Classes.
But what if you don’t have miles? No problem! You can buy LifeMiles and it is significantly cheaper than most other mileage programs. LifeMiles is one of the most useful frequent flyer programs. It often sells miles with bonuses and has great award redemption rates.
Real Example of Flights using LifeMiles
Cost of buying miles and redeeming on tickets is at least 50-80% significantly cheaper than a one-way normal fare! You just need to make sure that the seat is available for redemption.
Here are some examples of the cost of using LifeMiles to fly in Premium Class using the current LifeMiles promotion. With this, you could purchase miles for as little as 1.375 cents each.
- Flying ANA First Class from Tokyo to LA would cost 90,000 Lifemiles, which cost $1,237.50 (90k * 0.01375 cost per mile)
- Flying ANA Businesss Class from Tokyo to LA would cost 64,000 Lifemiles, which cost $880 (64k * 0.01375 cost per mile)
You can also fly in mixed classes. For example, from Chicago to Dubai via Frankfurt on Lufthansa.
From Chicago to Frankfurt in B747-8 First Class, then from Frankfurt to Dubai in Business Class. This will cost 93,930 LifeMiles, which equates to about $1,290 if you buy LifeMiles with the current bonus promotion.
I did exactly this last July from LA to Dubai via Frankfurt. I was able to experience the Lufthansa B747-8 First Class at a fraction of the cost.
For those who are more price-conscious, LifeMiles also allows you to mix classes to lower the overall cost. For example, Dubai to New York with Dubai to Frankfurt in Business and Frankfurt to New York in Economy would cost just 51,030 LifeMiles or $701 (51,030 * 0.01375 per mile)
The beauty of LifeMiles is that it allows you to mix and match; they also one-way redemption, which some airline programs either do not allow or charge more than 50% of round-trip.
LifeMiles Star Alliance Award Sale
At the moment LifeMiles also is running a sale on award redemptions, where members can receive up 15 to 30% off select redemptions.
This promotion is only valid for redemptions through 11th October, 2021, though you can plan travel for any dates in the future.
Here are all the Business Class Star Alliance award discounts that we’ve seen with this deal (in all cases, discounts are available for both directions of travel):
- Tokyo Haneda to Los Angeles for 60,000 LifeMiles
- Tokyo Narita to New York for 64,000 LifeMiles
- Seoul Incheon to Los Angeles for 64,000 LifeMiles
- Taipei to Vancouver for 64,000 LifeMiles
Buy LifeMiles with 140% bonus
LifeMiles Bonus Sale
At the moment LifeMiles is offering a 140% bonus on purchased miles, which is a great deal. With this, you could purchase miles for as little as 1.375 cents each.
- Buying 30,000 LifeMiles will get you 42,000 bonus miles. Total cost for 72,000 LifeMiles is $990.
- Buying 50,000 LifeMiles will get you 70,000 bonus miles. Total cost for 120,000 LifeMiles is $1,650.
While purchasing miles through this link will support me; in the interest of transparency, LifeMiles is offering a slightly cheaper price when you purchase the miles through One Mile At A Time.
My Recommendation
Now is a great time to buy LifeMiles for intercontinental travel (especially now that US borders will re-open in November and there will be more competition for award seats). It is a great way to save considerable money to travel in Premium Classes.
I recommend checking flight availability before buying points and then using them immediately or on a short-term basis.
Cannot find any business/first between IAD and BRU. On any airline, UA, LH, TAP…. Thank you for any advice! Hoping to find anything in business end of September BRU to IaD. I transferred lots of points to Avianca and am now unable to use them…
You should find availability first before transferm miles. For transatlantic, seat will open closer to departure date around 2 weeks. However, there’s no guarantee and subject to the load.
Why is Lifemiles no longer making business/first points seats available? I searched 3 months for my destination, and found zero
I have no problem seeing the availability. Which route you’re talking about?
Let me add that I searched multiple dates,multiple departure and destination cities for business class Sep/Oct to Europe I also searched for business class to Japan. Same result – the search engine wants hundreds of thousands of miles plus thousands of $. Oddly when I searched two weeks ago they were asking 90,000 miles plus $900 for similar flights. I tried to book then but Mastercard did not recognize the charge from Avianca, and sent me a note to confirm, I confirmed but the purchase did not go through. Weird.
YES!! I found a LH business super saver, 77k plus $24 on mileageplus from IAD to BRU. For the entire month of May, Lifemiles has zero business class available. Only 221,536 miles plus $2763 for 1 one-way business class ticket. Oh boy
LifeMiles awards business class are completely crazy now. The are asking no less that 200000 miles plus minimum $2000 for any combination of flights to Europe in fall 2022. In some cases they are are asking for more cash plus 1000000s mile than if you paid business class directly to an airline!
there’re any such websites for another alliances or airlines like Emirates, Qatar airways or Etihd?
Hi, How long does it take for the miles to post?
Immediately.
Seems like a decent deal, thank you for sharing. However, you didn’t mention taxes nor YQ charges for your flights. E.g. for Lufthansa intra-Europe, they can be more expensive for flights redeemed with *A points than entire flights found via Kayak and paid by credit card.
I advise readers to use Lifrmiles for long haul flights for maximum benefit, not for short European hauls.
Hi, is it also possible to buy miles directly when I register with Lifemiles? Or do I need to use the use the lifemiles frequent flyer number for some flight segments first?
Thanks.
You can buy miles directly too.