Miles & More Program Primer & Six Great Uses of the Lufthansa Miles

MileValue is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or are no longer be available. You can view current offers here.

The Miles & More® Premier World MasterCard® comes with 20,000 bonus Lufthansa Miles & More miles after first purchase.

The card comes with an annual companion ticket for paid economy class tickets on Miles & More airlines.

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 & More miles are extremely valuable for trips:

• within the United States, including to Alaska and Hawaii, especially in First Class
• to Europe, especially in Business Class
• to Central America
• to South America
• to fly Lufthansa First Class
• to Canada
• to the Caribbean

This post is a full primer of the Miles & More program for people who don’t know much about it.

This post features five great uses for Miles & More miles including roundtrip business class to Europe for 55k miles and low taxes, how to book Miles & More awards online and by phone, three ways to save miles on a Miles & More booking, and comparisons between Miles & More and United MileagePlus.

What is Miles & More

Miles & More is the frequent flyer program of Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Swiss Air Lines, Adria Airways, Croatia Airlines, Luxair, Brussels Airlines, and Germanwings.

Miles & More is such an important program because those airlines–at least Lufthansa, LOT, and Swiss–release more and better award space to Miles & More members than to their partners like United.

For instance, if you only have United miles, you won’t be able to book Lufthansa First Class more than two weeks out. If you have Miles & More miles, you can book it 361 days in advance.

Also since Miles & More member airlines are part of the Star Alliance, Miles & More miles can be used on all 27 Star Alliance partners.

Award Chart

Lufthansa has a competitive award chart with United. For instance, USA to Europe with Miles & More miles is only 50,000 miles roundtrip in economy, 105,000 in business, and 170,000 in first class.

For comparison, United charges 10,000 more miles for a roundtrip economy award, 10,000 to 35,000 more miles for a roundtrip business class award, and 35,000 less for a roundtrip first class award. (60k/100k/135k)

Unique to Miles & More–to my knowledge–is the fact that it charges the same amount for domestic trips whether those trips are wholly within the USA or wholly within a much smaller country. That makes domestic flight on United and US Airways a great deal with Miles & More miles.

Unfortunately this deal does not extend to flights to Alaska and Hawaii, which cost more. Hawaii costs 40k/70k/125k roundtrip, a better deal than with United or US Airways miles. Alaska costs 30k/55k/75k roundtrip, a worse deal than with United or US Airways miles.

When reading the Lufthansa award chart, be aware that:

• United BusinessFirst international flights book as business class
• United Global First international flights book as first class
• United domestic first or business on two cabin planes (basically all domestic flights including transcontinental p.s. service with flat beds in business class) book as business class
• United domestic first on three cabin planes (rare but they fly some routes) books as first class

Huge and Tiny Miles Savings

You can book one way awards for half the miles price of roundtrips. The miles price will always be a multiple of 1,000, and if it’s not naturally, it will be rounded down!

This strange policy means you actually save 1,000 miles by booking many awards as two one ways. For instance, Chicago to Warsaw roundtrip in LOT business class would be 105,000 Miles & More miles. But each direction as a one way is 52,000 miles. So booking two one ways is 104,000 miles.

Children aged 2 to 11 can be booked as award passengers at 75% of the normal miles price! I don’t know any other airline that allows this significant miles discount.

“Children’s awards are only offered on flights operated by Adria Airways, Austrian Airlines Group, Air Dolomiti, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Luxair and SWISS.”

There is a humungous list of discounted flight awards called Mileage Bargains that allow for economy travel to Europe for 30,000 miles roundtrip or business class travel for 55,000 miles roundtrip.

If your home city and destination city match up, you can save big miles.

Fuel Surcharges

Miles & More does collect fuel surcharges on award tickets, so instead of $100 in taxes on a roundtrip award to Europe, it could be $1,000 in taxes and fuel surcharges.

I gave these examples a few days ago of one way awards that I priced out by calling Miles & More:

• LAX to Zurich in Swiss First: 85,000 miles + $430.50
• Washington-Dulles to Frankfurt in Lufthansa First: 85,000 miles + $430.50.
• Newark to Frankfurt on United: 85,000 miles + $260.50.

All three of those carry fuel surcharges of $258 to $428 for a one way flight. Luckily there are several ways to redeem Miles & More miles for zero fuel surcharges or very minor surcharges. I priced these out today over the phone:

• LAX to JFK in United Business (flat bed on p.s. flight): 17,000 miles + $2.50
• Chicago to Warsaw in LOT Business (flat bed on a Dreamliner): 52,000 miles + $2.50

Note that the space I checked on LOT is on February 12, 2015. United doesn’t have access to that space. That means Miles & More miles are the only way to get on that flat bed that day. Until recently I saw fantastic availability on LOT with United miles, but now the only access may be through the Miles & More program.

Open Jaws

Much of the rest of my info will come from the online terms and conditions of Miles & More.

One open jaw is allowed. If the open jaw is between regions–like flying to Frankfurt (Europe) and returning home from Abu Dhabi (Middle East)–you pay the roundtrip price of flying to the more expensive region. This is a customer un-friendly rule. You can easily get around this by booking the award as two one ways. This is also a way to get two open jaws.

“Simple ‘open-jaw’ flights (e.g. where the outbound flight destination and the inbound flight departure airport are not identical) are allowed. The number of miles required is calculated with reference to the higher region chosen.”

Mixing Cabins

If you fly one way in economy and return in first class, you pay the roundtrip first class. This is a customer un-friendly policy. To avoid paying excess miles, just book each award as a one way.

“If the outbound and inbound flights of the flight award are booked in different classes of service, the number of miles required for the entire trip is calculated with reference to the higher class.”

Change and Cancellation

Change and cancellation fees are a very modest $60. This is a very customer friendly policy. The industry standard is $75 to $150 for changes and $150 to cancel.

“Flight awards which are cancelled prior to the start of the outbound journey can be refunded subject to a cancellation charge of €50.”

“A charge of €50 or CHF 70/USD 60 is payable for rebooking or cancelling a flight award.”

When can you book?

You can book almost 361 days in advance. Most US airlines allow booking about 11 months in advance. That means you will have access to Lufthansa, Swiss, LOT, and Austrian space about a month before people using United miles.

“You can book your flight award up to 361 days in advance of the desired travel date. Flight awards are valid for twelve months after the date of issue.”

Five Great Uses of the Lufthansa Card’s Sign Up Bonus

1. Fly from Chicago or New York to Warsaw or other Polish cities before January 28 for 55,000 miles and about $200 in taxes and fees. This takes advantage of the Mileage Bargains price and the very low surcharges on LOT flights on Miles & More redemptions. Alternatively you could redeem two economy Mileage Bargains awards for 60,000 miles total.

2. Fly from LAX/SFO to JFK for 17,000 miles and $2.50 each way in a flat bed on one of United’s p.s. flights.

This would cost 25,000 United miles. US Airways would charge 50,000 miles for the roundtrip or one way, since it doesn’t discount one way awards.

3. Book Lufthansa or Swiss First class up to 361 days in advance for 85,000 miles + $460 one way.

The price is high, but neither airline’s first class is bookable with US Airways miles. United can access the Lufthansa space 15 days in advance if you can make last second bookings. To make up the shortfall from the sign up bonus, you can transfer 25,000 SPG points to 30,000 Miles & More miles. Coincidentally (?) that is the current sign up for the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card–25,000 SPG points.

4. Book a roundtrip economy award to Europe for 50k miles.

Tip 1: Book it on US Airways planes to avoid fuel surcharges.

Tip 2: Add a 2 to 11 year old companion for 37,500 more.

Note that Tip 1 and 2 are NOT combineable because “[c]hildren’s awards are only offered on flights operated by Adria Airways, Austrian Airlines Group, Air Dolomiti, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Luxair and SWISS.”

5. Fly from the US to Europe on LOT Airlines in business class on flat beds on the 787 Dreamliner for 52,000 miles and $62 one way.

This use is made even more valuable because LOT seems to have stopped releasing award space its award space to United and US Airways miles holders.

Booking Online and By Phone

Once you have your miles, booking Miles & More integrated airlines is a snap on milesandmore.com.

Unfortunately you can’t even 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. A phone agent gave me this tip. When I signed up for a new account to test it, I got 500 miles immediately upon opening the account even though at no point was I told that signing up for emails would earn me 500 miles.

With the miles in my account, I can perform award searches and see space. Unfortunately I can’t price the space. I get an an error message that tells me I don’t have enough miles in my account if I try to select award space to price it.

To price space, you can call the Lufthansa Miles & More center in the US at 800-581-6400 from 8 AM to 8 PM ET Monday through Friday.

In my experience, I had to hold for about 15 minutes on each call at which point I was contacted to an agent whose competence easily extended to the simple pricings I requested.

Full Offer Details:

Miles & More® Premier World MasterCard®:

• Earn up to 35,000 award miles with qualifying transactions
• Earn 20,000 award miles after your first purchase or balance transfer
• Earn up to 15,000 award miles with balance transfers (1 mile per $1 transferred) within 30 days of account opening
• Earn 2 award miles per $1 on ticket purchases directly from Miles & More integrated airline partners
• Earn 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases
• Complimentary Companion Ticket after first purchase, then annually thereafter
• No foreign transaction fees
• $79 Annual Fee, waived for SEN and HON Circle Members

Application Link: Lufthansa Miles & More World MasterCard