In late 2022, Lufthansa’s Miles & More program got into the business of selling miles, with an interesting backstory. Lufthansa has just launched its latest promotion on purchased miles. This has the potential to be a good value, especially given that this is a points currency that can otherwise be hard to accrue.
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Lufthansa Bundle&Go mileage sale
Lufthansa sells Miles & More miles. The airline isn’t flat out selling miles like most programs do, but rather is selling mileage bundles. These bundles are branded as Bundle&Go, and you can purchase an extra small, small, medium, or large bundle.
For purchases through Thursday, November 7, 2024, Lufthansa Miles & More is offering a 50% bonus on its Bundle&Go packages. The pricing for these bundles is as follows, assuming your account is registered in the United States:
- You can buy an extra small bundle with a 50% bonus; this gets you 4,500 Lufthansa miles for $100; this comes out to 2.22 cents per mile (in USD)
- You can buy a small bundle with a 50% bonus; this gets you 15,000 Lufthansa miles for $280; this comes out to 1.87 cents per mile (in USD)
- You can buy a medium bundle with a 50% bonus; this gets you 75,000 Lufthansa miles for $1,140; this comes out to 1.52 cents per mile (in USD)
- You can buy a large bundle with a 50% bonus; this gets you 150,000 Lufthansa miles for $1,990; this comes out to 1.33 cents per mile
As you’ll see, these bundles come with extra perks, including bonus miles when you book through the Hotels&Cars platform, bonus miles with Avis, and discounts on Priority Pass memberships.
The nice thing about Lufthansa Miles & More miles is that you can use them to redeem for Lufthansa first class more than 15 days in advance, unlike when booking through partner programs. The catch is that Lufthansa Miles & More has fuel surcharges, which limits the value of the miles.
Still, it’s nice to be able to top off your Miles & More account balance, since there aren’t otherwise many ways to do that. Miles & More doesn’t partner with any major transferable points currencies, though the program does have a US co-branded credit card.
For what it’s worth, this is in line with the best promotions we’ve seen from Miles & More for buying miles. In March we saw a 30% bonus, in April we saw a 50% bonus, in June we saw a 30% discount (equal to a ~43% bonus), and in September we saw a 50% bonus. So the 50% bonus we’re seeing now is excellent.
Why Lufthansa is being creative with selling miles
Lufthansa is one of the few major airlines that hasn’t directly sold miles to consumers (at any cost) up until recently. That’s not a coincidence, and it’s not because Lufthansa doesn’t see value in it.
Rather it’s because Germany has strict consumer protection laws. This has caused issues in the past when Lufthansa directly sold miles, since the company faced lawsuits over mileage expiration, etc.
Lufthansa is obviously being very strategic here, and is selling these bundles in a way that doesn’t assign a direct dollar value to the miles. While the added perks with Avis and Priority Pass are probably not worth anything to most people buying miles, this allows Lufthansa to avoid legal issues associated with selling miles at a specific valuation.
Bottom line
Lufthansa Miles & More has launched its latest promotion on buying miles, in the form of mileage bundles that are being marketed as Bundle&Go. With the promotion being offered at the moment, you can buy Lufthansa miles for as little as 1.33 cents each. While I wouldn’t be proactively picking up Lufthansa miles at this cost, that will definitely be worthwhile for some people.
What do you make of Lufthansa’s attempt to sell miles?
I booked recently a BRU-CAN round trip with LH in business , 113 000 M&M miles with TK and 626 € tax , I would have a 9 hours layover in IST , I hope I can enjoy the lounge over there .
I get pretty great value from M&M. I need to travel several times a year from an LHG hub to the US and using miles allows me to fly in J for less than the price of PE (after surcharges, cost of buying miles, etc…). Being able to buy one-way, flex tickets is also great. Now, it does come with the downside of having to fly in LH J at times, but I mostly find pretty good availability on UA Polaris.
What are some examples of redemption costs (I’m not an expert on the program). For example how many miles is it from from Frankfurt to nyc or Hk in biz or first? What are the cash outlays?
Thanks for any color!!!
Frankfurt to New York in J is 105k and in F in 170k. Frankfurt to Hong Kong in J is 135k and in F is 210k. One-way cash pricing is skewed and not a good metric for comparison. Regarding Frankfurt to New York, you might find that Singapore is a better choice in terms of experience and pricing (points or cash). Happy trails.
^^ return prices. Who books return award tickets, no benefit at all.
LH group to and especially from US are worthless. Its decent for *A, assuming there is availability, as taxes/charges are relatively low. Free feeder and follow-up flight within origin and target region is what brings the benefit, flying out from high-price areas like ZRH without needing own feeder flight/transpo.
Best use is europe to middle east at 35k for J oneway, however...
^^ return prices. Who books return award tickets, no benefit at all.
LH group to and especially from US are worthless. Its decent for *A, assuming there is availability, as taxes/charges are relatively low. Free feeder and follow-up flight within origin and target region is what brings the benefit, flying out from high-price areas like ZRH without needing own feeder flight/transpo.
Best use is europe to middle east at 35k for J oneway, however often through TK/IST which is a pain. LHG chargest to the region are not crazy at least but still high.
Second best use is far asia (JPN, ICN, GMP, TPE, etc) to south-east asia at same 35k in J and with choice of ANA, Eva, Asiana, SQ, TG.
Just flew LH F MUC-LAX for 115,000 and $147 taxes/fees. Not bad for 11 hours in first when I've always wanted to try it! (and can't book within a few days of departure)