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The 50k mile bonus offer is back on the Lufthansa card mentioned in this post until 6/30/14. Get it now!
- Earn 20,000 award miles after your first purchases or balance transfer
- Earn an additional 30,000 award miles when you spend $5,000 in purchases within the first 90 days of account opening
- Earn 2 award miles per $1 on ticket purchases directly from Miles & More integrated airline partners and 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases
- Cardholders receive a companion ticket after first use of the account and annually after each account anniversary
- No Foreign transaction fees on purchases made outside the U.S.
- Redeem miles for flight awards and upgrades on Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, SWISS, Star Alliance member airlines and on other partners
- $79 Annual Fee. Please see Terms and Conditions for complete details
Application Link: The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard
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Update 11/18/13: Here’s a post about an actual booking I did with Lufthansa miles for myself.
I’ve gotten a lot of questions from people who have recently gotten the Lufthansa Miles & More World MasterCard about how to book award with their new Lufthansa miles.
The process is pretty easy, but I thought I’d share it with those who have gotten the card, and the stragglers who still haven’t.
There are two distinct steps to booking an award with Lufthansa miles–finding the award space and booking it.
Finding the Award Space
Miles & More is the loyalty program of Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Swiss Air Lines, Adria Airways, Croatia Airlines, Luxair, Brussels Airlines, and Germanwings.
Lufthansa miles have access to extra space on all of those carriers. Searching for space on Miles & More member airlines is a snap on milesandmore.com.
Unfortunately you can’t search the availability open to Miles & More members without signing up for the program and having some Miles & More miles in your account.
Luckily new account sign ups right now earn 500 miles as long as you leave the pre-checked boxes allowing emails to be sent to you checked during sign up.
With the miles in your account, you can perform award searches and see space. Unfortunately you can’t price the space. You get an an error message that tells you you don’t have enough miles in your account if you try to select award space to price it.
To price space, you can call the Lufthansa Miles & More center.
Beyond those airlines, Lufthansa miles can book awards on any Star Alliance partner. That’s 27 airlines that fly to every inhabited continent in the world. The North American carriers you’ll probably want to use your Lufthansa miles on in this group are United, US Airways, and Air Canada.
If you want to book a flight with Lufthansa miles on a Star Alliance carrier, search for award space on united.com using this guide. If you want to search for a direct segment on united.com easily, make sure you’ve read Tricking United.com’s Award Calendar.
Once you’ve found award space, the second step is booking it.
Booking Online and By Phone
To book award space on Miles & More carriers, book the flights at milesandmore.com.
To book space on other Star Alliance carriers with Lufthansa miles, call the Lufthansa Miles & More center in the US at 800-581-6400 from 8 AM to 8 PM ET Monday through Friday.
If the service center is closed, you can call another one. I recently called the Australian one at +61 1300 655 727 for two cents per minute through Google Voice.
In my experience calling the American call center, I have had to hold between one and 15 minutes on each call at which point I was connected to an agent whose competence easily extended to the simple pricings I requested.
There is no phone fee for booking award tickets by phone with Lufthansa miles!
Recap
To use Lufthansa miles, you need to search for award space and book the awards.
To search and book Miles & More integrated airlines, use milesandmore.com.
To search other Star Alliance carriers, search united.com, then call Miles & More to book the space you’ve found.
The 50k Lufthansa card offer ends Sunday. Here’s what you can do with the sign up bonus.
Application Link: Lufthansa Miles & More World MasterCard
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
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FYI – The service center can’t look up rates for mileage deals. You can only do that online, and only if you have enough points in your account. Boo 🙁
FYI – The service center can’t look up rates for mileage deals. You can only do that online, and only if you have enough points in your account. Boo 🙁
How many miles does it take to fly to Europe on Lufthansa? Is it 50k or 60? thanks!
50k in economy r/t from the US to Europe for Americans
How many miles does it take to fly to Europe on Lufthansa? Is it 50k or 60? thanks!
50k in economy r/t from the US to Europe for Americans
how do you search SQ flights from west coast in J , UA site dont show this ever.
On singapore.com
how do you search SQ flights from west coast in J , UA site dont show this ever.
On singapore.com
I WAS CONSIDERING GETTING THIS CARD UNTIL I READ YOU HAVE TO MAKE ONE PURCHASE A MONTH TO KEEP THE MILES FROM EXPIRING AND THEY EXPIRE 3 YEARS FROM WHEN THEY ARE EARNED OTHERWISE, NOT THREE YEARS FROM WHEN THERE IS ANY ACTIVITY ON THE ACCOUNT. TOO HIGH MAINTENANCE OF A CARD FOR MANY WITH THIS REQUIREMENT I WOULD THINK!
You do not need to make one purchase per month to keep the miles active. That is incorrect.
I WAS CONSIDERING GETTING THIS CARD UNTIL I READ YOU HAVE TO MAKE ONE PURCHASE A MONTH TO KEEP THE MILES FROM EXPIRING AND THEY EXPIRE 3 YEARS FROM WHEN THEY ARE EARNED OTHERWISE, NOT THREE YEARS FROM WHEN THERE IS ANY ACTIVITY ON THE ACCOUNT. TOO HIGH MAINTENANCE OF A CARD FOR MANY WITH THIS REQUIREMENT I WOULD THINK!
Even more concerning is if you have a problem while you’re on a mileage award and it’s after hours, good luck! You are at the mercy of the airline flying you. Stick with airlines that have 24 hour call centers for your own sake! I speak from experience. Don’t get caught up in these constant ads for these things, think about them first (I live you Milevalue guy, but these folks need to know this).
live=love
@Lani/MileValue: the once-a-month purchase to keep miles from expiring is true for the Swiss credit card, but not for the German one mentioned in the tip!
ad pricing: you can also determine the taxes/fees of a flight by looking up the very same connection on http://matrix.itasoftware.com and deducting the base fare from the total quoted price! Is usually accurate +/- 5 Dollars.
[…] How to Book an Award with Lufthansa Miles: A simple how-to on searching for award space and booking that space with your Lufthansa […]
Just grabbed the card yesterday. Kind of a drag that they’ll show no availability on flights until you have adequate miles to make the “purchase”. I was trying to book a United flight and found it available on the UAL website, but continually got “not available” on the Lufthansa site. I don’t like that you have to pay $79 in year one and I’m not sure how valuable that free companion ticket upon card renewal will be since I don’t normally go to Europe. Still, if one looks at 50,000 miles for $79 (or even 20,000 miles if you don’t meet the spending criteria), that’s not a bad deal and no one is forcing you to renew the card.
Search united.com for United space. Any space with a Blue Saver button is available to Lufthansa. Call Lufthansa to book it.
Australia charges $20 ticketing fee. I booked anyway to avoid the M-F Bullshit.
For some reason when I call Lufthansa, an agent on the phone is not able to see a Blue Saver award from Boston to Chicago for example, which I find on united.com. I am searching united.com without logging into my account. Are there any changes recently how to book United flights with Lufthansa miles?
Thanks!
Very surprised to hear this. I have never heard a report like this. I hope it’s just a one-off glitch.