I’ve had several readers reach out to me about the lack of Lufthansa first class award space using partner miles. For that matter, I was hoping to take advantage of this space myself for an upcoming trip, so I’ve taken a direct interest in this as well.
It seems that as of the beginning of the month (now almost four days), Lufthansa has just completely stopped releasing first class award space to partner programs, so let’s talk a bit about that, and what’s going on, not that I have a definitive answer, unfortunately.
In this post:
The state of Lufthansa first class award availability
Over the years, it has become increasingly difficult to redeem partner airline miles for travel in Lufthansa first class. Admittedly this has been a slow and steady trend over the past 15+ years, going back to when Lufthansa had 16 first class seats on the upper deck of its Boeing 747-400s (time flies!).
Nonetheless, Lufthansa first class remains one of the best mileage values for those looking to travel in first class across the Atlantic, given the lack of options, in those situations where the airline releases availability.
While Lufthansa’s own Miles & More members can book first class awards as soon as the schedule opens (subject to capacity controls), Lufthansa has significant restrictions for those booking first class through partner frequent flyer programs.
When it comes to redeeming partner miles for Lufthansa first class, historically it has been possible to redeem miles for first class up to 15 days before departure. In early 2024, that window was shortened significantly, and ever since, Lufthansa seems to be opening first class awards to partner programs within three days of departure. As you can tell, that provides a limited period during which you can redeem for Lufthansa first class.
For what it’s worth, seats.aero is an awesome tool for searching award availability, and it has a Lufthansa first class award tracker. Tools like this are great, in terms of making it easy to find award space. At the same time, the ease with which space can be searched is probably also one of the reasons we’ve increasingly seen airlines add restrictions on many types of award tickets.
Anyway, this brings us to what’s going on at the moment — as of June 1, 2026, Lufthansa has just completely stopped releasing first class award space to partners programs. It doesn’t matter which route you’re flying, or if you’re terminating in Germany or connecting. It’s the same story across the board.
I’ve not been able to get an answer as to what’s going on. In fairness, we’ve seen some quirks with Lufthansa award availability in the past, so it’s possible that this is one of those. However, I find it interesting that this essentially coincided with the change in calendar months, which seems deliberate… or maybe it’s just coincidental.
What could explain this latest trend? As I see it, there are a few most likely explanations:
- Lufthansa has just changed its policy, and will no longer release first class award seats to partner program; this would of course be the most drastic change
- Lufthansa is temporarily restricting award availability; this could be because we’re entering the peak summer season, or it could be because Lufthansa is anticipating another employee strike soon, and doesn’t want to have even more premium passengers to rebook
- It could just be some sort of a glitch that will resolve itself very soon
I don’t know what the answer is, but I think it’s worth acknowledging the current reality, and if I get any answer as to what’s going on, I’ll report back. My general assumption would be that this isn’t a permanent change, at least not yet, since we’ve seen somewhat similar stuff happen in the past
What does the future hold for Lufthansa awards?
When it comes to redeeming miles for Lufthansa first class, I have to imagine that our best days are behind us:
- Lufthansa is increasingly rolling out its new Allegris cabins, including the new first class, which has only three(ish) seats, and partner first class awards are completely blocked on those flights; for that matter, the airline also recently rolled out its new first class soft product, so one wonders if this might be part of a bigger “reset” in first class
- Lufthansa Miles & More has moved to dynamic award pricing, and over time, I suspect the premium cabin pricing will become more aggressive
The general industry trend we’ve seen is clear, as I wrote about some time back. We’re seeing airlines increasingly restrict award space to partner programs, to focus on monetizing their own programs.
So I’m not saying that Lufthansa will completely eliminate partner first class awards, but… I’m also not saying it won’t? I think the more likely direction this goes is that we increasingly see Miles & More added as a partner for international transferable points currencies, so that Lufthansa has more control over its award space.
Obviously this hobby is quite different than it used to be, but it’s not all bad news — there are also a lot of amazing opportunities that didn’t exist years ago.
Bottom line
While this is hopefully temporary, I’d like to acknowledge that since June 1, Lufthansa hasn’t made any first class award seats available to partner frequent flyer programs. There’s no denying that it has become much more difficult to redeem for Lufthansa first class over the years, but blocking space completely is obviously the most extreme measure.
It’s anyone’s guess what’s going on here. It could be a glitch, it could be temporary (due to summer demand or looming strikes), or it could be a permanent change. With Lufthansa increasingly moving toward its new Allegris first class, these opportunities are becoming more and more limited.
What do you make of this Lufthansa first class award availability situation?
In this context, in the last couple of weeks I have not seen any ANA F (or C) availability, even far in advance, anymore either, when trying to redeem ANA points...
It's not just LH. Alaska, Aeroplan, FlyingBlue, and Qantas used to have the sweet spots. No one is releasing anything of real value anymore (not F, not even J.) Sure, you can still get Economy. It's a sign of greater economic strife across the industry and the world (namely, increased fuel costs, etc.)
Asking for a friend....Does anyone know when the upcoming LH strikes may occur? Traveling with my 95 year old mother in Business class sucks when the flights are cancelled!
Its expected turn of events. More people are hunting for these seats while the number of seats in those cabins are reducing with the Allegris updates.
I won't be surprised if they stop award bookings on first class cabins completely.
The ease with which space can be searched probably contributes in a small way - but to say that it is responsible for the rather drastic award availability decrease and price inflation of the last 5 years is false.
The amount of miles out there, be it from credit cards, or OPM "spend"-based earnings is the main culprit. Then comes the slow deterioration of partner space within Star Alliance. Good luck finding United or AC...
The ease with which space can be searched probably contributes in a small way - but to say that it is responsible for the rather drastic award availability decrease and price inflation of the last 5 years is false.
The amount of miles out there, be it from credit cards, or OPM "spend"-based earnings is the main culprit. Then comes the slow deterioration of partner space within Star Alliance. Good luck finding United or AC J space with any partner. Or TK. Or even longhaul CA or SQ, the list goes on.
LuftKafka is not an airline. It is a social experiment. It is as if Stanley Milgram himself designed it - except it is much more sadistic.
:'(
According to the SEN hotline in Switzerland, it seems that LH F will soon be restricted in similar ways to LX F, considering the rollout of allegris etc. At first restricted to M&M members only, but in the future likely restricted to HON/SEN as with LX
All LH F or just Allegris F (which are already restricted)?
"Obviously this hobby is quite different than it used to be, but it’s not all bad news — there are also a lot of amazing opportunities that didn’t exist years ago."
Can you name any? I've tried to stay positive, but both in my professional capacity as an award consultant (12 years in business) and my personal capacity as a traveler (16 years being a miles/points enthusiast), I've never seen things this bad.
The...
"Obviously this hobby is quite different than it used to be, but it’s not all bad news — there are also a lot of amazing opportunities that didn’t exist years ago."
Can you name any? I've tried to stay positive, but both in my professional capacity as an award consultant (12 years in business) and my personal capacity as a traveler (16 years being a miles/points enthusiast), I've never seen things this bad.
The only advantage I see now is that it's way easier to accrue points. 100k signups are much more common than they used to be, bonus categories keep getting better, etc. I can reliably generate over a million points in a year. But in terms of using them, the amount of creativity/flexibility needed is just way higher.
@ James K. -- Oh, on the redemption side, the state of things is mostly really bad, I totally agree. We're both old timers with this, and I think we have exactly the same impression.
My point is that points earning opportunities have increased massively, from sign-up bonuses, to bonus categories, to earning points on housing payments. Back in the day most of us would use the SPG Amex, which earned one point per...
@ James K. -- Oh, on the redemption side, the state of things is mostly really bad, I totally agree. We're both old timers with this, and I think we have exactly the same impression.
My point is that points earning opportunities have increased massively, from sign-up bonuses, to bonus categories, to earning points on housing payments. Back in the day most of us would use the SPG Amex, which earned one point per dollar spent, and I think had a welcome offer of like 20K points.
Points earning opportunities through non-flying means have increased exponentially, and I do think that has to be factored into the math.
I think loyalty programs have just become so mainstream, and when you combine that with the increasing tools that automate search, it makes it really tough to get good value.
@Ben, this was enlightening. Although now I feel that the takeaway should be "redeeming points has never been as bad as it is now." :(
Ben the greater ability to earn points is actually contributing to the problem. If we viewed the airlines as central banks they really just printed more currency. Of course the cost of redemptions would increase.
@Nards the issue is not the cost of redemptions, it's the availability altogether. If redemptions were available for 1 million miles, it's would be different. I think airlines have understood that there is a lot of halo effect around their programs so that they can release 0 awards but money is still flowing in. And it's less damaging to their reputation than outright devaluations. If you don't find availability it's because you don't know how...
@Nards the issue is not the cost of redemptions, it's the availability altogether. If redemptions were available for 1 million miles, it's would be different. I think airlines have understood that there is a lot of halo effect around their programs so that they can release 0 awards but money is still flowing in. And it's less damaging to their reputation than outright devaluations. If you don't find availability it's because you don't know how to play the game. If you find availability and it's too expensive it's the airlines fault.
This situation won't last. Airline have invested a lot in their product and now want to maximize cash in and minimize cash out. But world will come on the street that playing with miles is not a good game anymore and it will all vanish. The credit card companies will want to stay out of this though so that game will move to another industry and airlines will start collapsing.
"Our ability to earn worthless points is better than ever!"
(click below to apply)
@Ben , your claim that 'points earning opportunities through non-flying means have increased exponentially' is simply inaccurate in the context of the European market. If anything, the merchant fee caps have REDUCED those opportunities.
I'm sure you can earn more points in the USA, and a handful of other major markets like Brazil and China have both increasing middle class populations and large loyalty ecosystems, but this doesn't really move the needle as far...
@Ben , your claim that 'points earning opportunities through non-flying means have increased exponentially' is simply inaccurate in the context of the European market. If anything, the merchant fee caps have REDUCED those opportunities.
I'm sure you can earn more points in the USA, and a handful of other major markets like Brazil and China have both increasing middle class populations and large loyalty ecosystems, but this doesn't really move the needle as far as the likes of M&M, Eurobonus, AY+, Miles&Bonus, Suma etc are concerned. (AFKL and BA/VS are aggressively targetting the US market so they're probably issuing more points than the other European airlines)
From time to time, partner availability does disappear for a few days on seats.aero and then suddenly it pops back up. I did notice that this time it's longer than usual. Hopefully, its only temporary.
@ VS -- Indeed, we've seen it a few times in the past, but this is lasting a bit longer, and something about this happening on the first day of the month concerns me (like it's a policy that was intended to be implemented as of that date).
I've been keeping an eye on LH F awards with lifemiles for over a month now and there has been ZERO availability. Interestingly, economy awards were completely gone as well until just a few days ago when I started seeing some random availability here and there. I haven't checked again for Y awards so they might be all gone again for what it's worth...
There's nothing wrong with LH wanting to prioritize M&M redemptions, if...
I've been keeping an eye on LH F awards with lifemiles for over a month now and there has been ZERO availability. Interestingly, economy awards were completely gone as well until just a few days ago when I started seeing some random availability here and there. I haven't checked again for Y awards so they might be all gone again for what it's worth...
There's nothing wrong with LH wanting to prioritize M&M redemptions, if it weren't for the fact that M&M doesn't seem very engaging or useful (I have no idea how things are for people based in Germany, though).
Let's hope this is just a temporary thing instead of a permanent Allegrification.
They're probably just holding seats to sell at the last minute for those who want to come to the US for the World Cup.
Just Kidding! Nobody wants to come to the US for any reason.
You have to remember that frequent flyer programmes in Europe are for frequent flyers, they're not banking loyalty schemes masquerading as something else. M&M isn't a terrible programme, there are offers to buy mile bundles or get extra miles from flying, the dynamic pricing creates opportunities and you can always redeem across Star Alliance. I'm neither a Lufthansa fan nor even a M&M member (I have *G with another airline) but it really isn't materially...
You have to remember that frequent flyer programmes in Europe are for frequent flyers, they're not banking loyalty schemes masquerading as something else. M&M isn't a terrible programme, there are offers to buy mile bundles or get extra miles from flying, the dynamic pricing creates opportunities and you can always redeem across Star Alliance. I'm neither a Lufthansa fan nor even a M&M member (I have *G with another airline) but it really isn't materially worse than the competition [though I wouldn't consider switching to it as I am not losing any sleep over LH F awards since I'm not exactly enamoured with that cabin- when it comes to long haul I'd rather be travelling in business class with Turkish, AF or even IB].
I was able to snag a flight on 4/27 this year
Bummer. Was looking to take my first ever later this month, even with the increased Aeroplan cost that coincided to the day.
Hi Ben,
Curious if you saw the same space as Live and Let's Fly apparently did 1 day ago? I know that Lufthansa first class space has been touch and go, it just seems odd that they have a seats aero screenshot with availability from yesterday. https://liveandletsfly.com/lufthansa-first-class-partner-award-redemptions/
@ Joy -- Hah, good catch, but that post was from 2025 and not 2026 (funny it was yesterday, one year ago). :-) Seems something similar happened around the same time last year.