Get a 25% transfer bonus when you transfer Citi ThankYou to Avianca Lifemiles.

Avianca has really been messing with its program lately. They’ve devalued twice in the last 6 months, although in the most recent devaluation all sorts of quirks emerged with pricing. For instance a business class ticket from the US to/from Europe could be 69,000 miles or it could be 80,000 miles. And last week, I saw JFK – Zurich in Business Class on Swiss for around 55,000 miles!

All of the same issues I’ve always had around Lifemiles customer service remain. I don’t want to ever have to deal with a schedule change than needs a ticket reissued with them again, and sometimes the website shows phantom availability and phone agents are often unable to help after incredibly long hold times.

You can also stack a Lifemiles+ membership with this (from $20 / month or free if you have the Lifemiles Amex). If you found a business class ticket for 69,000 miles, after the 10% lifemiles+ discount and 25% transfer bonus, it would be a great deal at 49,680 – if you know the risks of Lifemiles bookings and are ok with that.

So,  for expert Lifemiles users, this could be a great deal…. but would I speculatively transfer? Not a chance.