Avianca and Cardless are gearing up to launch what appears to be two new Avianca LifeMiles American Express cards.
They’re promising an extra 10,000 miles if you sign up for their “waitlist” and later apply and are approved for the card. Most LifeMiles members in the U.S. appear to have gotten this email. While the emails were sent out to existing LifeMiles members, anyone can join the waitlist here.
My take on the new cards
We don’t yet have any information on what the new cards will offer.
I’ve personally used LifeMiles for business class tickets to between the United States and Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia. The program transfers with most major transferable points currencies and doesn’t pass along carrier-imposed fuel surcharges on many partners. It’s probably my most-used Star Alliance program. However, I don’t seek to accumulate LifeMiles primarily because they expire without activity in 12 months.
The short expiration window means that, even given a generous credit card welcome bonus, I’ll probably pass on most Avianca LifeMiles credit cards—I don’t want to pay an annual fee on a card that’s not offering me ongoing value and I don’t want to accumulate miles that will expire when I could be accumulating Chase Ultimate Rewards® or Citi ThankYou® Points.
If they launch a card with no annual fee that lets me keep my miles alive with no cost, I’d pick one up. I’d say that there’s less than a 25% chance that will happen.
This is a developing story and we’ll update this post when we get more information about the card launch.
