In light of the news that American Airlines is changing to a revenue-based award earning structure, and the fact that all three major US carriers now use a revenue-based award earning structure, I am writing a series of posts about when and where you should diversify the award miles you earn through paying for airfare.

Today (May 11, 2016) is the last day to take advantage of the 30% discount on Virgin Atlantic economy awards that brings the price of an award between select U.S cities and London down to only 12,250 Virgin Atlantic miles and $134.60 in taxes and fuel surcharges.

If you stack that Virgin Atlantic economy sale with the current deal American Express is offering-- a 30% transfer bonus of Membership Rewards to Virgin Atlantic through May 31, 2016--then you can book an award to London for only 10,000 Membership Rewards +$134.60!! Book now, but not as a roundtrip.
Why

Last week my friend flew 24 hours of Lufthansa First Class and had a 3.5 hour layover in the famous Lufthansa First Class Terminal, which he booked for 125,000 United miles and $58.

Forget paying 110,000 United miles one way for Lufthansa First Class. You can book the same flight for 40,000 points + $203 (and there is even a way to avoid the $203.)

Lufthansa First Class flying from Europe to the United States is a fantastic product.

The onboard First Class product is solid--a step above American carriers and a step below Asian and Middle Eastern carriers.

And the ground experience in Frankfurt is my favorite in the world.

The Miles & More® Premier World MasterCard® comes with 20,000 bonus Lufthansa Miles & More miles after first purchase and 30,000 more after spending $5,000 in the first 90 days for 50,000 total bonus miles.

The card also comes with two complimentary Lufthansa Business Lounge vouchers annually.

The card earns 2 miles per dollar on ticket purchases made directly from Miles & More integrated airlines and 1 mile per dollar on all other purchases.

Miles &

Updated 1/29/16 to reflect new Aeroplan award prices effective for awards booked 12/15/15 or later.
Updated 10/6/15 to reflect new ANA award prices effective for awards booked 10/15/15 or later.

In the last few weeks, I have published some comparative charts of Star Alliance award charts. I'm putting all of those charts into this post for easier reference.

You can use any type of Star Alliance miles to book almost any Star Alliance flight. (Swiss, Lufthansa, and Singapore hold back some premium cabin award space for their own members.

Since August 2014, Avianca LifeMiles, one of my favorite types of Star Alliance miles, could not book Lufthansa First Class, one of my favorite Star Alliance First Classes.

Now LifeMiles can book Lufthansa First Class again for 87,000 miles one way from the United States to Europe with NO fuel surcharges.
How to Book Lufthansa First Class with LifeMiles
On lifemiles.com,  click Air Tickets under Enjoy.

Search for the Lufthansa First Class segment you want, selecting Lufthansa under "Preferred carrier" if you'd like.

Award space should show up whenever Lufthansa has released it, which is only within 15 days

All 106 Lufthansa longhaul planes now feature fully flat beds in Business Class, following the completion of Lufthansa's four-year retrofit.

That's great news since Lufthansa offers a ton of transatlantic Business Class award space that you can book with United, or any other Star Alliance, miles.

Lufthansa serves 18 American destinations.

If you don't live in one of those, you can connect to the United hubs easily in United First Class for zero extra miles.

Update: LifeMiles are now on sale for as little as 1.4 cents each through September 30, 2015, which allows you to follow the steps in this post.

Last week I published How to Consistently Buy Business Class Tickets to Europe for about $1,000, which explained how to purchase Avianca miles and use them to book award tickets, so that the total cash outlay is far less than just purchasing a ticket.

Yesterday, I had the chance to book my friend into Lufthansa Business Class from Tallinn, Estonia to Chicago for $1,050 for a flight this weekend.

Booking one

Cash is great because it can buy everything from travel to your basic necessities. But sometimes miles are better. There are a lot of things I can easily do with miles that I would never do with cash (at least until my bank account had a few more zeroes.)

Dream big with your miles. Better yet, dream big before your miles. Then get the right miles to turn that dream into a reality.