Credit Card News
Avianca Airlines Launches U.S. Credit Card Lineup with Cardless
Another foreign airline is launching rewards credit cards in the U.S. with the help of Cardless.
About the cards:
Avianca Airlines and Cardless have announced the arrival of two new cards: The Avianca LifeMiles American Express card and the Avianca LifeMiles American Express Elite card.
First, the $99 annual fee Avianca LifeMiles card earns 2x LifeMiles on Avianca Airlines purchases (including the purchase of LifeMiles). Additionally, the card earns 2x miles on dining and 2x miles on groceries. All other purchases earn 1 mile per dollar spent.
As for other benefits, Avianca LifeMiles cardholders receive complimentary LifeMiles Silver status. With Silver status, members enjoy Avianca lounge access, premium seat selection, an additional checked bag, priority check-in, priority boarding, 30% bonus miles, and more.
Turning to the $249 annual fee Avianca LifeMiles Elite card, it earns 3x miles on Avianca and LifeMiles purchases as well as 2x on other travel purchases (including flights on any airline, hotels, and taxis), 2x on dining, and 1x on all other purchases.
Like the regular Avianca LifeMiles card, the Elite version includes LifeMiles Silver status. However, the Elite card offers some additional benefits. This includes a LifeMiles+ Lite subscription, enabling cardholders to receive 500 miles per month, a 10% miles redemption rebate on Star Alliance flights, and up to 25% miles redemption rebate on Avianca flights, and more.
At launch, both Avianca cards are also offering welcome bonuses. For the Avianca LifeMiles American Express card, new cardholders can earn 40,000 bonus LifeMiles after they spend at least $3,000 on the card within their first 90 days. For the Avianca LifeMiles American Express Elite card, customers can earn up to 100,000 bonus LifeMiles. This includes 60,000 bonus miles after they spend at least $4,500 on the card within their first 90 days, as well as an additional 40,000 bonus miles after spending $25,000 on the card within their first 12 months.
What they’re saying:
Announcing the new cards, Cardless co-founder and president Michael Spelfogel stated, “We are thrilled to be partnering with Avianca to launch the Avianca LifeMiles credit cards. This collaboration will provide greater access to rewards and deliver superior value to Avianca’s LifeMiles customers in the U.S. as we expand our offerings into the Latin American travel sector.”
Additionally, LifeMiles CEO Matt Vincett said of the offerings, “Together with Cardless and American Express, we are pleased to launch excellent new credit card options for mileage enthusiasts. The Premium card, I believe, is especially compelling, but both of our offerings give cardholders the ability to earn miles quickly, and then enjoy discounts when their miles are redeemed. We’ve even packaged-in an Elite status to make reward travel more enjoyable.”
My thoughts:
The debut of these Avianca Airlines cards comes hot on the heels of Cardless rolling out two Qatar Airways cards. Sure enough, each of these offerings fit perfectly into Cardless’s new apparent niche of American market cards for foreign airlines. Notably these Avianca cards are on the American Express network, whereas the Qatar cards operate on the Visa network.
As for the cards themselves, the included Silver status could be nice — although it’s slightly disappointing that the Elite card doesn’t up that to Gold. Meanwhile, even if you don’t fly Avianca often, LifeMiles could come in handy for booking award flights on Star Alliance partners. Add in the potential 100,000 mile bonus offer and this could be a winner for advanced travel hackers. For everyone else, though? It’s probably best to look elsewhere.
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