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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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Lufthansa is offering a 20% bonus on purchases of Miles & More miles until December 31, 2013. The deal allows you to buy up to 14,400 Miles & More miles for 2.69 cents each.

This comes on the heels of US Airways offering a 50% discount on miles–1.88 cents each up to 100k–and Starwood offering a 25% discount on points–2.63 cents up to 20k.

Why would you want Miles & More miles? Is this a good deal? How can you get 65,000 bonus Miles & More miles?

Miles & More Rundown

Miles & More miles are Lufthansa and several other airlines’ miles.

Miles & More miles have access to the same award space on Star Alliance carriers as United MileagePlus Miles and US Airways Dividend Miles, the only access to Lufthansa First Class more than two weeks before departure and Swiss First Class at all, and better access to Miles & More partner airline space like LOT Business Class on its 787 Dreamliner.

Miles & More miles also have fantastic specials on redemptions on partner airlines like 50,000 miles roundtrip to Europe in business class.

The major drawback of Lufthansa miles is that fuel surcharges are imposed on almost all awards. The notable exceptions are all US Airways flights and most United flights. This is excellent because some of the sweet spots on the Lufthansa chart are the US to Europe in economy–where US Airways has a ton of destinations–and domestic first and business class including to Hawaii where United releases a lot of award space.

See here for a full Miles & More Program Primer & Six Great Uses (and Two Bad Ones) of Lufthansa Miles.

The Promotion

Lufthansa will sell you 1,200 miles for 35 euros ($46.74) right here.

The price per mile drops as you buy more. The maximum you can buy is 14,400 (12k + 20% bonus) for 290 euros ($387) all in. All purchases represent a price of 2.69 (US dollar) cents per mile.

Interestingly the transaction is processed on the Miles & More website, so I would anticipate earning 2 miles per dollar by using The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard to make the purchase, but I cannot say for sure.

No matter what, use a no-foreign-transaction fee card–yes, The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard is one–to avoid adding on up to 3% to the purchase price.

The Better Promotion

Better than buying miles, or course, is getting them for credit card spending you’d already do. Currently The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard is offering 50,000 bonus miles after spending $5k in the first three months.

This is one of my favorite limited time offers. We’ve seen the standard 20k miles bonus jump to 50k only twice this year. Last time I got it–and was then targeted for another 15k bonus–and the current offer ends December 15, 2013 if not before.

Do not miss out on this 50,000 mile sign up bonus!

Offer details:

 

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

Is This a Good Price to Buy Miles?

I’ve said before that I think of Lufthansa miles as a way to save my more valuable United miles. Where I can use either type about equally, I burn the Lufthansa miles to save the United miles for redemptions when Lufthansa awards would have big surcharges.

Because of the smaller set of good redemptions, I value Miles & More miles at about 1.5 cents even though when I redeem them I often do better.

That means I would not speculatively buy Lufthansa miles for 2.69 cents.

But if I were just short of the miles I needed for an award after getting the The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard with 50,000 bonus Miles & More miles after spending $5k in the first three months, I would consider purchasing a few thousand miles at this price. It’s nice to have the option.

Recap

Lufthansa will let you top up your Miles & More balance by buying up to 14,400 miles at 2.69 cents each. It’s not a great price, but if you need to top up the 55k+ Lufthansa miles you got from The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard with 50,000 bonus Miles & More miles after spending $5k in the first three months, it can be a good deal for you!

 

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

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 Portal 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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