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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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In May, The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard® ran a 50,000 bonus mile offer for about six weeks, and it is back!
I personally got the card last time the offer was around because 55k miles after spending $5k on the card was way too good for me to pass up.
And since getting the card, I was offered another 15,000 bonus miles for spending $2,250 on the card, so my Lufthansa miles total is set to go over 72,000 miles from this card and its various bonuses very soon.
This is huge news because Lufthansa miles offer huge value:
- to Hawaii
- in domestic First Class and Business Class
- to Europe
- to Asia
- to South America
- to Central America
- to Australia
Last time the offer came around I wrote a series of posts on the card. In my estimation, there are Six Great Uses and Two Bad Uses for the 50,000 bonus miles from the card.
But before getting to the great uses for 55,000 Lufthansa miles (or 72,000 in my case), let me walk you through the Miles & More program, which you may be unfamiliar with.
This post is a full primer of the Miles & More program for folks who don’t know much about it plus:
- those six great uses including roundtrip business class to Europe for 55k miles and low taxes
- how to book online and by phone
- three ways to save miles on a Miles & More booking
- and comparisons between Miles & More and United MileagePlus and US Airways Dividend Miles.
Is the 50k mile offer on the Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard® right for you?
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 and US Airways.
If you only have United miles, you won’t be able to book Swiss First Class, Lufthansa First Class more than two weeks out, or LOT business class on its Dreamliner at the moment.
Also since Miles & More member airlines are part of the Star Alliance, Miles & More miles can be used on all Star Alliance partners.
Award Chart
Lufthansa has a competitive award chart except on first class awards, which are generally priced way higher than the competition. 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.
Lufthansa Award Chart
Footnote 4
For comparison, United charges
- 10,000 more miles for a roundtrip economy award to Europe
- 5,000 less for a roundtrip business class award
- and 35,000 less for a roundtrip first class award
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.
Roundtrip prices within US 48
For only 35,000 United miles, you can fly United’s flat bed p.s. service from JFK to LAX or SFO roundtrip! That is an incredible value. In a few weeks, I’ll have over 70,000 Lufthansa miles from bonuses on the card. I could use them for two roundtrips in flat beds that would ordinarily cost several thousand dollars.
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.
Here are examples 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. These are the bad awards to book with Lufthansa miles.
Luckily there are several ways to redeem Miles & More miles for zero fuel surcharges or very minor surcharges. These are other awards I’ve priced out over the phone:
- Philadelphia to London in US Airways Envoy Suites (business): 52,000 miles + $2.50
- LAX to JFK in United Business (flat bed on p.s. flight): 17,000 miles + $2.50
- Philadelphia to Phoenix in US Airways First: 25,000 miles + $2.50
- Chicago to Warsaw in LOT economy Business of a Dreamliner: 52,000 miles + $2.50
- Honolulu to Newark in United First (flat bed): 35k miles + $2.50
- Las Vegas to Honolulu in United economy: 20k miles + $5
- San Francisco to Sydney in United BusinessFirst (business, flat bed): 67k + $26.42
- Sao Paulo to Frankfurt in Lufthansa Business: 65,000 miles + $36.48
- Houston to Buenos Aires in United BusinessFirst: 52,000 miles (business, flat bed) + $2.50
- Beijing to San Francisco in United Global First: 92,000 miles + $32.17
Note that the space I checked on LOT is on February 12, 2014. 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 six months ago I saw fantastic availability on LOT with United miles, but now the only access may be through the Miles & More program.
Stopovers and 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.
“Should the airport of departure and the final destination be located in different award zones (open-jaw flight), the higher award zone always applies and is used for mileage redemption.”
You can get two stopovers on roundtrip awards–one stopover per direction–that cover at least two regions. The stopover cannot be in your region of origin.
You get no stopovers on one way awards.
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. This can be gotten around incredibly easily by booking your roundtrip award as two one ways.
“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.”
Six Great Uses of the Lufthansa Card’s Sign Up Bonus
When I say “great” and “bad” below I mean those words in an absolute sense, but also in a relative sense. I am comparing these redemptions to what you can do with a similar amount of United and US Airways miles, which are the Star Alliance miles we are more familiar with in the United States.
1. Fly from Chicago to Warsaw or other Polish cities before December 28 for 30,000 miles roundtrip 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. One person getting the card is almost enough miles (55k) to book 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.
United bed on p.s. flight
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. Fly US Airways Envoy Suites to Europe for 52,000 miles and $2.50 one way.
US Airways Envoy Suite (convertible to bed)
This is only 2,000 more miles than it would cost with United miles. US Airways would charge the 100,000 mile roundtrip price.
4. 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 from American Express–25,000 SPG points.
5. 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.”
6. 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.
Two Bad Uses of the Lufthansa Card’s Sign Up Bonus
1. United First Class from the US to Europe for 85,000 miles and $260.
This is a stinker on so many levels. One, that’s way too many miles for a flight in United First Class, which is nice, but not an aspirational award that should cost that much.
Two, United would only charge 67,500 miles for the same flight. US Airways would charge 125,000 miles roundtrip.
Three, United and US Airways would not charge the $258 per direction fuel surcharge.
2. US Airways First Class domestically for 25,000 miles per direction.
Lufthansa treats US Airways first class, a standard recliner product, like a three-cabin fancy first class. That means domestic First Class on US Airways is over priced.
This isn’t nearly as horrible as the last redemption, but I don’t like it. It’s true this award would have no fuel surcharges and taxes of less than $10. And it’s true that United would also charge 25k miles for the same flight.
But United First Class domestically is only 17,000 miles per direction with Miles & More miles. It’s as nice or nicer than US Airways First Class, and you can get on flat beds on United between JFK and LAX/SFO for only 17,000 Miles & More miles.
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.
The Deal
With all this information, I think you can easily get as much value from Lufthansa miles as from United miles in small quantities. This doesn’t mean you should earn 1 million Lufthansa miles instead of 1 million United miles. United miles are far more versatile, so they are better to stockpile.
But in small quantities–say 55,000–Lufthansa miles have several values that are as good or better than United miles.
That tells me that I should continue to focus more on earning United miles and Ultimate Rewards, but I needed to jump on the 50k Miles & More miles sign up bonus before it dropped back to the normal 20k mile offer, which is exactly what I did in June.
Additional factors that make the decision easy include the card being issued by Barclay’s, so one doesn’t have to worry about adding another application to a list of past Chase applications, and the card being a MasterCard, so one doesn’t have to worry about it not being accepted everywhere.
Lufthansa Miles & More World MasterCard bullet points:
- Earn 20,000 award miles after your first purchase 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
- With 50,000 award miles you can redeem for a round-trip award flight to Hawaii, Europe or the Caribbean!
- Cardholders receive a Companion Ticket annually
- Enjoy 2 award miles per $1 on Miles & More integrated airline ticket purchases and 1 award mile per $1 spent everywhere else
- No mileage expiration with monthly qualifying purchases
- No foreign transaction fees
- $79 Annual Fee waived for Senator and HON Circle Members
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 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!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.
Excellent Analysis. I wasn’t interested in the LHM&M card because of the fuel surcharges. but your post convinced me of the value here! Thx!
I think this program is a lot like Avios or Delta. There are a lot of very high value uses.
So, what about to Asia? Bad value? I’m seeing 80K miles to Asia… very interested in this card but if I can’t get to asia (I go constantly), a bit pointless for me.
Most of Asia is 80k/135k in economy/business. You have to fly United to avoid the fuel surcharges.
Any Biz card available with same boni?
I don’t think so. But SPG points from the SPG biz could transfer here.
How much would a flight from JFK to HNL cost? Is this considered domestic so only 25k miles, or is Hawaii an exception to this so it is 40k miles?
20k each way in economy, 35k in domestic first. The sweet spot would be to book what I booked with Lufthansa miles: EWR to HNL for 35k in a fully flat bed on United ($2.50 taxes).
My wife and I both applied for the card back in June. She was targeted for the 15000 mile bonus I was not. Any ideas on how to get the offer? I stopped using the card hoping that would trigger it. Thanks
It’s anyone’s guess. Good luck.
Thanks for the tip. I was wondering if Miles and More offer ways of earning miles, like for example Ultimate Rewards Mall or double miles promo’s?
I’ve never looked into that.
I enjoyed reading this post and learning more about the value & sweet spots of the M&M program. Thank you. However, I won’t be applying for this offer. I’m not a big fan of the fuel surcharges and how Swiss will restrict Swiss F award space to HON/SEN members only starting in 2014.
Dang, I would have gotten this card if I hadn’t just got the Barclays world arrival card last month, here’s to hoping the offer will last another month or two.
Both great cards. I don’t see an end date, but I definitely hope this sticks around!
Great analysis. My concern is the overhead of required monthly transactions on the account to prohibit mileage expiration; it forces you to use the miles quickly, or keep the card open with recurring monthly charges and annual fee until you’ve redeemed.
That’s not correct. When you earn miles, they go to your Lufthansa account. You can cancel the credit card, and the miles are untouched. You might want to check this post: https://milevalu.wpengine.com/the-complete-guide-to-miles-and-points-expiration/
Scott-My concern is that if I have the credit card, and am accumulating miles by spending for an aspirational award with them, a 36 month clock is ticking on at least the first 50k miles I’ve earned by signing up for this card.
Per the Lufthansa website “2.5. Mileage expiry – Any mileage not redeemed within 36 months of the date of accrual (date of flight, start of hotel stay, time of car rental) will expire at the end of that quarter (e.g. miles expiring in August of any given year would expire at the end of September of that same year), failing other arrangements published in the Miles & More communication media.”
http://www.lufthansa.com/online/portal/lh/cmn/generalinfo?nodeid=2522607&l=en
I’m interpreting their rules to include miles earned with their credit card. So this means I need to redeem (for example) those 50k signup bonus miles before 36 months are up – correct?
Yes, but I highly recommend you always redeem miles within 36 months of getting them. In that time, they will devalue at least once. See https://milevalu.wpengine.com/how-far-in-advance-should-you-start-earning-miles-you-need-to-get-this-right/
hi,
after reading your post, i’m wondering if i could get this kind of thing in Singapore.
any idea which credit card has huge advantage of mileage?
I don’t follow non-American cards.
-the YQ on LH/LX/OS is bruuutal. does anyone know of any US to euro (or anywhere else) routes using MM miles where the YQ is <$300 please?
-a USA domestic flight on UA/US will be the same price in LH miles as UA/US miles? ..impossible to get any award search results from MM.com (for me at least)
-"5. Book a roundtrip economy award to Europe for 50k miles.
Tip 1: Book it on US Airways planes to avoid fuel surcharges."
-UA charges YQ when using LH miles??
1. Yes, as mentioned in the post, look for US Airways and LOT flights.
2. No. It is the same or fewer LH miles than UA/US miles as discussed in the post. MM.com only shows MM group carriers. MM has access to all SAVER United space and LOW US Airways space. Search for it on united.com then call MM.
3. LH charges YQ on some United flights including all the flights to Europe as indicated in the post. But not all United flights such as those to SOuth America, Asia, Hawaii, and within the continental US.
So you can get United Lie Flat roundtrip for 35K using Miles & More? (SFO-JFK rt) How much would it cost in miles using United?
Yes. 35k Lufthansa for SFO-JFK r/t in a bed or 50k United. Same taxes ($5), same award availability.
I don’t get why United first SFO – SYD is only $26 surcharge. YQ on that flight is $340, so while M&M charges the surcharge on United to Europe, they don’t for flights to Australia?
Correct. These programs aren’t always consistent. Remember that Avios charges surcharges on AA flights to Europe but not South America.
Good to know thanks! When my manufacturing spend capacity frees up a bit I might sign up for this one.
Is it a chip and PIN card? If not, it’s virtually useless in most of Scandinavia (and lots of other places).
This is not. I don’t actually know any US cards that are chip and pin, which did indeed make traveling in Scandinavia hard. I found most machines (like train tickets) needed chip and pin, but most restaurants could swipe too.
I’ve had no problems using chip+signature chase BA visa across most of Europe, but haven’t been to Scandinavia. Do they force a PIN entry there?
Machines do.
[…] The big news in the miles world is that The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard is now offering 50,000 bonus Lufthansa miles after spending $5k in the first three months on the card. […]
When you talk about the US Airways first class as overpriced on M&M awards, I’m not sure what you mean. Other than PS, United has a similar first class product for the same price, doesn’t it?
United’s Domestic First Class and p.s. Business Class is fare code (I), which is the same fare code as international business class. US Airways Domestic First Class is fare code (O), which is the same fare code as international first class. Because of this quirk, Lufthansa charges 35k roundtrip in United domestic First or Business and 50k in US Airways Domestic First. That’s what I mean by US Airways First Class is overpriced with Lufthansa miles.
Scott,
Check this thread re: US redemptions using M&M: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles-more-lufthansa-austrian-swiss-other-partners/1434529-us-airways-domestic-first-class-award-using-m-m.html Note from M&M (post #6) says o/w in US F, CLT-SFO, is only 17K miles.
Thanks for sending that along. I’ll try to argue with the agent next time, but I think their computer is seeing fare code O and charging F price, which they will be reluctant to override.
That’s weird. I booked LAX-PHX-ORD oneway business class for two people for a total of 34,000 miles in first class, and I didn’t have any problems. Taxes were $5.00.
That’s great! I’ve always had them charge the First Class price.
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