Lufthansa’s Miles & More program has gotten into the business of selling miles, and the backstory of this is an interesting one.
In this post:
Lufthansa Bundle&Go mileage sale
As noted by You Have Been Upgraded, Lufthansa has started selling 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 a small, medium, or large bundle. Through January 31, 2023, Lufthansa Miles & More is even offering a 30% bonus on these bundles. Here’s the value proposition with the 30% bonus:
- You can buy 13,000 Lufthansa miles for $260; this comes out to 2.0 cents per mile
- You can buy 65,000 Lufthansa miles for $1,040; this comes out to 1.6 cents per mile
- You can buy 130,000 Lufthansa miles for $1,820; this comes out to 1.4 cents per mile
As you’ll see, these bundles include 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 incredibly high fuel surcharges, which greatly 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.
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) in recent years. 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.
So 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. So 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 started selling miles, in the form of mileage bundles that are being marketed as Bundle&Go. For the time being this is an opportunity to buy miles for as little as 1.4 cents each, which has the potential to be a good deal, at least with a specific use in mind.
This new offering also explains that weird points.com email many of us received a while back.
What do you make of Lufthansa’s attempt to sell miles?
What is not clear to me if miles in the bundle is treated as 'status' or 'award' miles.
For example, to elevate from Frequent traveller to Senator status the eligibility is have 100,000 status miles within one calendar year.
Anyone know?
Hello, I was asking the same thing about that , because if they are consider with status miles, its can be rly interesting !
It is only award miles. Not status miles. LH rarely offers promotions on status - really only LH Frequent Traveller with 30 segments/year - but not for LH SEN or HON. There are also differences between status miles and HON miles and LH never gives HON miles out for free. The only concession is that you earn a 25% bonus on the status miles for each flight after reaching LH FT.
As one of the few US-based Miles&More users/holder of the Barclays credit card, it's... something. But even with the extra LH Group award availability (especially for LH F), it's not enough to make me want to continue with the program. Just liquidated my points at the first opportunity I could and am leaving the program soon. It was nice while it lasted.
Transferring points from Amex to LH via Payback is a terrible deal since it cuts the number of points you get in half since the exchange rate from Membership Rewards to Payback is 2:1.
It is still way better then using the Amex points directly at Amex or transfer to anywhere else.
Of course you get more miles if you use a M&M credit card but if you use M&M to buy "Meilenschnäppchen" it is still a good deal to transfer through Payback to M&M. Of course you only transfer in June/July or Nov/Dec when Payback is offering 25% more in miles.
So if you want to buy...
It is still way better then using the Amex points directly at Amex or transfer to anywhere else.
Of course you get more miles if you use a M&M credit card but if you use M&M to buy "Meilenschnäppchen" it is still a good deal to transfer through Payback to M&M. Of course you only transfer in June/July or Nov/Dec when Payback is offering 25% more in miles.
So if you want to buy a "Meilenschnäppchen" for a business Flight from Europe to the US you need 55k Miles. These 55k Miles are worth at least 1.800€ (It is currently hard to get a Business Class ticket from the Lufthansa Group for a return flight to the US for less then 2.500€. since you have to pay around 700€ as fees your miles worth is 1.800€). To get 55k M&M you need 88.000 Amex Rewards. I looked at other possibilities (Kris Flyer and Marriott Bonvoy, because those are the only other I am interested in) to transfer Amex Reward points and I did not find anything where 88.000 Points are worth 1.800€.. If you know something better, please let me know.
I do not entirely agree with your assessment that you couldn't buy MM miles previously. In GER we have what we call Meilenabo, whereby you can "buy" X miles for X Euros and recieve a "free" newspaper on top ;) Sometimes you can get 55k miles for 670€. My partner and I always do so and fly C longhaul on these. Even with taxes & surcharges, this presents incredible value to us as we'd get newspapers anyway.
This is correct (although the deal is typically 670€ for 50k miles, not 55k). In any case, this option to buy miles does not work for people based in the US since a German shipping address is required.
It used to be 60.000 miles for Die Welt & Welt am Sonntag in the Christmas promotion. Now it is only 55.000. They offer this promotion several times a year, with Christmas being reliably the best option for almost all newspapers, including FAZ & SZ.
Yes, the shipping address sucks (not for me, I'm German with a German address). Somebody mentioned once that they "donate" the newspapers to a hospital or other social institution as...
It used to be 60.000 miles for Die Welt & Welt am Sonntag in the Christmas promotion. Now it is only 55.000. They offer this promotion several times a year, with Christmas being reliably the best option for almost all newspapers, including FAZ & SZ.
Yes, the shipping address sucks (not for me, I'm German with a German address). Somebody mentioned once that they "donate" the newspapers to a hospital or other social institution as they did want all that paper, although I only know of Germans who did that.
Hotels have let you do this for years buy purchasing a more expensive price for the same room but getting more miles for the stay. Generally not a good deal.
Three remarks:
The German Amex let’s you transfer Amex points via Payback to M&M.
On Meilenschnaeppchen.de you can book business class flights between the US and Europe for 55.000 Miles (plus some 500 € in taxes)
M&M Miles are actually quite okay for US domestic flights operated by UA and AC. Taxes are less than 10 USD, 30.000 miles per direction in Domestic first Class. Distance doesn’t matter. (Hawaii is 35.000 Miles)
Meileschnaeppchen.de deals between US and Europe are really just worth it when starting the roundtrip in Europe. There, you are correct, it's about 500 euros in taxes and quite a good deal. Unfortunately, starting in the US and go to Europe, it's a ridiculous $1,400-1,800 USD in taxes and fees for the same flight in reverse!
Absolutely right. I was looking for a return flight from the US to Germany and I could not believe the fees...
What is the expiration policy associated with these miles?
What do you value miles and more points at?
As I have written above I am using Meilenschnäppchen and I stark my travels from Europe. Above I wrote a calculation that I value 55k Miles at 1.800€ which would mean 0,0327€ per miles. You have to be careful because this only works if you actually buy "Meilenschnäppchen). Calculating like me the 130k miles sold for 1.750€ are actually worth 4.254€ so a great deal. If you can't find "Meilenschnäppchen" the value of the miles...
As I have written above I am using Meilenschnäppchen and I stark my travels from Europe. Above I wrote a calculation that I value 55k Miles at 1.800€ which would mean 0,0327€ per miles. You have to be careful because this only works if you actually buy "Meilenschnäppchen). Calculating like me the 130k miles sold for 1.750€ are actually worth 4.254€ so a great deal. If you can't find "Meilenschnäppchen" the value of the miles goes down a little over 50% because the regular award ticket business EU to US would cost 112k miles plus 700€ in fees (The fees went up). Still the 130k miles would have a value of 2.089€. So OK, but not great. You always have to consider that you still have to find an award flight with M&M. That does take a lot more time then booking with cash ;-)