No Availability: What’s the Point of Buying LifeMiles in 2022?

LifeMiles, the frequent flyer program of Star Alliance member Avianca, is known for its regular and generous promotions that make it cheap to buy miles. For example, during the current offer running from 4-26 July 2022, you could earn 125-145% bonus LifeMiles on all purchases.

Before the pandemic, buying LifeMiles during a promo was often a clever way to save thousands of dollars on Star Alliance Business & First Class seats. You could buy LifeMiles from Avianca at a heavy discount, then redeem for international flights to/from Australia in premium cabins on Star Alliance partner airlines such as Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, United, All Nippon Airways, South African Airways or Asiana.

Several years ago, Avianca changed its award charts so that flights departing from Australia were more expensive. Redeeming LifeMiles for more complicated itineraries also sometimes involved deploying the complicated and time-consuming “screenshot method”. But as long as there was still award availability and the miles were cheap, many Australians persevered with the LifeMiles program.

Sadly, much of that LifeMiles award availability has now dried up. It’s true that there’s currently a dearth of award availability on international flights out of Australia generally… but LifeMiles members now can’t even access any of the Business Class award seats on Thai Airways or Singapore Airlines that are available to book through other Star Alliance loyalty programs.

 

Singapore Airlines & Thai award seats not available to LifeMiles members

In general, Business and First Class award seats on Singapore Airlines long-haul flights are only available to book through the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer or Virgin Australia Velocity programs. It has already been the case for years that premium long-haul award seats on Singapore Airlines weren’t available to members of other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs, including LifeMiles.

But members of other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs can normally at least access premium cabin seats on Singapore Airlines regional routes, including Business Class seats from Cairns and Darwin to Singapore. They can also normally access Singapore Airlines Economy seats on most routes.

For example, United MileagePlus members have access to Singapore Airlines award seats from Cairns to Singapore on 30 March 2023 (and many other dates) in both Economy and Business Class:

But searching for the exact same flight on the LifeMiles website yields no results in Business…

…or Economy, either.

Perhaps the biggest problem, however, is that LifeMiles members cannot currently access any Thai Airways Business seats at all – on any route.

Thai Airways is currently one of the only Star Alliance airlines to consistently offer two Business Class award seats to members of partner airlines on its flights to/from Australia. But LifeMiles members can’t access any of these seats.

For example, the Air Canada website shows 2 Business award seats available on Thai Airways from Melbourne to Bangkok on 19 November 2022:

We searched for award availability on multiple other Star Alliance websites, and found exactly the same seats available. For example, here’s the United website:

And the Singapore Airlines website:

But on the same flight, the LifeMiles website only shows award space in Economy:

It’s a similar story on all other Thai Airways routes. For some reason, it appears either that Thai Airways is blocking LifeMiles members from accessing any of its Business award inventory – or that LifeMiles is choosing not to let its members book it.

South African Airways, also part of Star Alliance, was another “go to” airline before the pandemic for its excellent award availability between Perth and Johannesburg. Sadly, South African Airways no longer flies to Australia.

For what it’s worth, we also haven’t seen a single First Class award seat to or from Australia through LifeMiles in 2022. That’s right – not one, on any Australian route, for travel any time in the next year.

 

So, what is available to book ex Australia through LifeMiles?

It is still possible to redeem Avianca LifeMiles to book flights in both Economy and Business with the other Star Alliance airlines that fly to Australia. Award availability is not exactly plentiful right now, but we did find a few seats when searching yesterday.

Air India

There is some award availability on Air India flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Delhi, with up to 1 Business seat and a couple of Economy seats per flight. For example, there is one Business seat available from Sydney to Delhi on 19 November 2022:

All Nippon Airways

Award availability on All Nippon Airways (ANA) from Sydney to Tokyo is actually quite good for the rest of this month, and you might be able to find 1 Business seat per flight on this route for travel next year. This screenshot shows availability on 26 July 2022:

There are also a few Business seats available between Perth and Tokyo for travel next year, although typically not more than one per flight.

Air New Zealand

Economy awards on Air New Zealand are generally plentiful. But Air New Zealand has always been stingy with releasing Business Class award availability to partners – that’s not new.

There are a small number of trans-Tasman flights though with Business seats bookable through LifeMiles. For example, we found 2 Business seats from Sydney to Auckland on 6 September 2022.

Asiana

Asiana has very limited Business availability between Sydney and Seoul, with up to 1 Business seat per flight. Asiana Economy and Business seats are still available through LifeMiles – if you can find a seat. (We did find one Business award from Sydney to Seoul on 9 December 2022, as an example).

Other airlines

United has lots of Economy availability, and there’s a bit on Air Canada too between Australia and North America. But we couldn’t find any Business awards on either airline to/from Australia for travel any time in the next year. This is the same whether booking with LifeMiles or any other Star Alliance airline’s miles.

By the way, if you’re looking to redeem LifeMiles for travel in the next two months, you may find https://awards.pnr.sh useful.

 

Conclusion

There are still limited Business award seats available to/from Australia using LifeMiles. But with Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways seats generally unavailable to LifeMiles members presently, redeeming LifeMiles from Australia is now a lot harder than it used to be.

If you can find Business Class availability on another Star Alliance airline, you might still be able to get good value from your LifeMiles. And LifeMiles award availability is still very good on many other routes, such as trans-Atlantic flights between Europe and North America.

But until Thai Airways or Singapore Airlines award seats come back online, if you live in Australia, there’s probably not much point in buying new LifeMiles right now – regardless of how good the promotions are.

The same award availability issues with Thai Airways do not exist with other programs such as Air Canada Aeroplan, which also sells points (currently with 50-100% bonus points available) and partners with an extensive list of airlines. As well as all the Star Alliance carriers, Aeroplan points are redeemable on airlines including Virgin Australia, Etihad, Air Mauritius and Oman Air – and it’s easy to book online.

 

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.