Avianca Lifemiles Fraud

I am a member of Avianca’s supposedly award winning frequent flyer program, Lifemiles.
I purchase points to redeem 3 tickets from Kuala Lumpur to Frankfurt which use code share airline Lufthansa.
Upon check in, Lufthansa said the ticket had a technical problem despite a valid ticket being issued. I was at the LH counter for almost 2 hours and the staff said they couldnt honour the ticket but called Avianca in Columbia but apparently no one there could speak english! Eventually they found a supervisor who could speak english and confirmed the ticket was valid but yet LH could not honour it in their system and we had to be off loaded when the flight closed. I then contacted the call centre again and was told by a rude agent “too bad”. I finally firmly but politely threatened legal action and his response was amazing!! He screamed ..” YOU DARE?? THIS IS COLUMBIA, WE CAN GET AT YOU WHEREVER YOU ARE!” and hung up!
I wonder if Avianca is a member of IATA and whether they coudl do anything. My losses are substantial which included prepaid hotels and car rentals not to mention a heavily inflated cost of issuing new one way tickets. I booked another set of tickets on MH on tonight’s flight rather than dealing with gangsters in Columbia. Lifemiles members beware!

Thanks for your response Martyn.. it was done directly through Avianca’s lifemiles.com.
I have actually used it many times previously without issues.
Ive never flown of Avianca or Taca but learnt from an article from of either the BT or Aust BT illustrating how it was far cheaper to buy points and redeem for tickets – and indeed it was, until now!

I just had a look at their website and saw this:

Other airline partners

Find out about the other agreements we have with different airlines worldwide, remember that the miles accrued on flights operated by these airlines are not eligible for elite status.

Not sure if there’s some get out clause there?