Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. During my recent App-O-Rama, I was instantly approved for the Avianca Vuela Credit Card. The standard offer is only 40,000 LifeMiles, but if you use promo code AVSPWE, you will get an extra 20,000 LifeMiles. To get the 60,000 LifeMiles, you just need to make 1 purchase and pay the $149 annual fee (not waived). Doctor of Credit has a full review of the credit card.
During the application process, remember to enter the promo code AVSPWE on the Financial Information section, underneath the gross annual income boxes.
I have quite a few credit cards open, but I got a pretty generous credit limit for a credit card that only requires 1 purchase.
I was instantly approved for the credit card on Tuesday December 6 and I received the credit card in the mail on Friday December 16. I can’t remember where the card was mailed from since I already shredded the letter. Does anyone know? It is hard to tell from the image, but on the front of the card is the Earth and all the little circles/dots are cities that Avianca flies to.
After I received credit card, I went to the Popular Credit Services website (the online account provider for the credit card) and created an online account. During the process, I thought I activated the credit card because I had to enter the card information into the website. After creating my account, I was able to log in and see my card details.
I tried several times to reload my Amazon gift card balance with $5 using my new Avianca Vuela Credit Card, but every time I would submit an order, I would get an email that the reload was declined. After failing 4 times, I called the number on the back of the Avianca Vuela Credit Card to see what was going on. The rep was very helpful and said that my credit card was not fully activated, even though I activated it online. She stated that there has been some issues lately with online card activations. I then asked the rep to verify that the promo code was successfully added to my application. The rep put me on hold for 2-3 minutes to look at my application. In the meantime, I successfully reloaded $5 to my Amazon gift card balance using my new Avianca Vuela Credit Card. Moments later, the rep confirmed that the promo was added to my application and that I would get 60,000 miles after making my first purchase.
I logged into my Avianca Vuela Credit Card online account again. The $149 annual fee and the $5 pending charge on Amazon were both shown.
As soon as my next statement closes, I should have 60,005 Avianca LifeMiles in my account. I just need to figure out where to go. Here is a snippet of their award chart (full page here). Are there any sweet spots on their award chart?
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
Sweet spots not so much, but there are no stopovers allowed in LifeMiles Star Alliance awards and layovers are limited to 8 hours.
Bummer about the lack of sweet spots and long layovers. Are you planning on getting the credit card? If so, what are your plans with the miles?
Thanks for this info. It’s good to see this card getting some coverage despite no blogger referral links.
I feel like it is one of the best credit cards / sign up bonuses available at the moment (I just wish the annual fee was waived the first year). Are you getting this card?
Can you apply/ receive the bonus for both the Vuela and Vida cards?
I have no idea. I guess the small print on both credit card applications would state if it’s possible to get both cards or multiples of the Avianca Vuela Credit Card. I haven’t heard any confirmed data points.
The footnoted text on the application page says “Only one Avianca credit card per customer.” …so the answer would seem to be no.
Gotcha, but would that footnote prevent you from being approved for the other Avianca credit card or prevent you from getting the sign up bonus on the other Avianca credit card?
There’s only one way to find out, I guess, but I understood it to mean that you could only get one of the two cards, not both. YMMV of course….
I just got approved for this card. I already have about 40k lifemiles, so this will get me up to around 100k. I’m thinking of using it to fly from North America to South Asia in First class on some fantastic star alliance airlines such as ANA or Asiana. It costs 99k Lifemiles, compared to 130k United miles.
That sounds like a great use of LifeMiles. Have a great trip to Asia :)
The program’s useful in Latin America, but intra-country airfares are now very cheap down here anyway. This morning I online booked a $34US, 24 Dec. Avianca 1-way MDE-CLO, all-in with checked luggage and a carry-on. My LM account appears to consider it a miles-earning ticket, too, and I’ll spend nearly that much on taxis. But country to country from Guatemala down through northern South America, it’s 10K LM 1-way versus $400-600US revenue (you’re routed through SAL a lot, but availability is consistently decent). I’m surprised how many North American travelers in Central and South America haven’t been introduced to the program, especially since the miles are routinely on sale at prices that have dipped to $13US per 1K LM in the last year. So I figure the sign-up bonus translates to about $850 in miles bought at $13 per 1K, or just shy of $2K for the feckless few who pay retail for LifeMiles. Or several thousand in revenue tickets. The eight-hour stopover limit is the landmine on the road to many quirky international LM redemptions, however.
I’ve seen super cheap intra-country flights too in most parts of South America. But when you go from one country to another, then prices skyrocket. In your experience, is booking award tickets with LifeMiles relatively easy?
Award booking, for me, has always been fully automated. I’ve never spoken to a human redeeming LMs. I’ve consistently found availability is good except when you don’t expect it to be, i.e., Easter, and the cabin crew have always been professional. It’s a very handy regional airline, and if you travel frequently where Avianca flies it’s a good opportunity. But I wouldn’t go for the miles expecting to fly them on somebody else’s metal using those routing rules.
Good to know, thank you for sharing your experience :)
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Same exact experience. The online “activation” does not work. Thanks for confirmation on the 60k promo. This is the one and only reason I would deal with this bank.
Thanks for the data point, Larry. This bank doesn’t seem ready to compete with the big boys in the credit card space. Let’s see how they handle the promo…
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Have the miles posted for anyone yet?
Not yet, but hopefully soon.
Annual fee hasnt posted on mine yet. First charge was made on 12/10 and paid shortly there after… Whats going on?
fee will post no later than 2nd statement.
Facebook group commenter says he called about that, and was told his fee is due at the end of the year. This is a hacker’s dream if it turns out universally true.
That would be surprising if true.
Surprising’s the least of it, but the guy is a frequent commenter, said he made the call. Coupled with the $10 maximum balance transfer fee for 0%, there are some inspiring possibilities here. Anyone here get billed for the fee yet?
I got the annual fee billed on my first statement, even before I got the credit card in the mail.
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Made first charge around 12/11 & paid it off. Statement generated yesterday, 1/11 & annual fee showed then. I went ahead and paid the annual fee… Now waiting to see if points post.
The miles should post to your LifeMiles account in the next 1-2 days.
Is anyone else’s card not working? I’ve seen a few data points like mine, but I’m wondering how common it is.
I was approved on 12-28, and received the card about a week later. I activated the card as soon as I received it, but my card gets declined whenever I try to use it. When I try to talk to customer service they tell me there is a passcode on my account and transfer me to the fraud department. They just claim that their systems are having issues and it is affecting all card holders. They don’t know when it will be fixed, and it has been going on since I got the card, so I can’t make my 1 required purchase.
There are several more datapoints like this on the flyertalk thread about this card. I’m curious how widespread this is.
Hmm, I haven’t heard about that issue. Hopefully it is an easy IT fix.
Great feature beside the 60,000 points is the max $10.00 fee on balance transfer within first 90 days. Took advantage of balance transfer fee that was expiring on another card.
Awesome, that’s a great feature if you can use it responsibly. Is the interest rate 0%?
Curious if your points have posted yet? Got card last week, bought a coffee, wondering the usual timeframe ….
Yes I got my Avianca LifeMiles. I believe I had to wait for the following statement to close after paying the annual fee.
Do you have to be a lifemiles member before or will they assign an account?
If you do not provide a LifeMiles number, they will try to find you in the system. If that fails, they will create an account and number automatically for you.
I just checked my Avianca account. Only 40k posted! Even though i signed up for the Avianca Vuela Visa Card with the promo code. Anybody else have the same problem?
Hi Teddy, can you share the date you were approved for the Avianca Vuenla CC, the date you made the purchase, and the date the miles posted to your Avianca LifeMiles account?
My credit card was approved at the end of November 2016. I made a purchase at the end of December. Apparently, I had some problems with my Avianca account. I gave them my account number in the application and I emailed them at the end of January to inquire about my points. They told me that it would take up to 6 weeks to post. For some reason, I didn’t see any activity in my account. But apparently, they send me a new Avianca account number (which i didn’t know until yesterday), so I went ahead and registered it yesterday and only 40k showed up.
Hmm, I guess you will need to call Banco Popular and see if they see the coupon/promo code added to your credit card application. Hopefully they do and then they can issue you the remaining 20,000 LifeMiles.
Thanks for the tip. I called them last week so hopefully the points will post in 4 weeks.
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