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.
In this post:
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 a small, medium, large, or special bundle.
For purchases through Sunday, June 30, 2024, Lufthansa Miles & More is offering a 30% discount on its Bundle&Go product. The pricing for these bundles is as follows, assuming your account is registered in the United States:
- You can buy a small bundle with a 30% discount; this gets you 10,000 Lufthansa miles for $189; this comes out to 1.89 cents per mile (in USD)
- You can buy a medium bundle with a 30% discount; this gets you 50,000 Lufthansa miles for $763; this comes out to 1.53 cents per mile (in USD)
- You can buy a large bundle with a 30% discount; this gets you 100,000 Lufthansa miles for $1,337; this comes out to 1.34 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 among the better promotions we’ve seen from Miles & More for buying miles. So far we’ve mainly seen bonus offers rather than discount offers — in March we saw a 30% bonus, in early April we saw a 40% bonus, and in late April we saw a 50% bonus. A 30% discount is equivalent to a ~43% bonus.
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 1.34 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?
Any cards that will get a bonus when buying miles this way? Not sure who will actually process the charge since I haven't done it before.
Fuel surcharges have just been increased to €700 for transatlantic flights departing from Europe, and even more for flights originating from the United States. This hike seems excessive. However, there is a silver lining: you can utilize airline miles to cover the associated taxes, thereby maximizing the value of your miles, especially in light of the increased fuel charges.
https://amarsimoffer.info/%e0%a6%ae%e0%a7%83%e0%a6%a4%e0%a7%8d%e0%a6%af%e0%a7%81-%e0%a6%a8%e0%a6%bf%e0%a6%af%e0%a6%bc%e0%a7%87-%e0%a6%ac%e0%a6%be%e0%a6%82%e0%a6%b2%e0%a6%be-%e0%a6%93-%e0%a6%87%e0%a6%82%e0%a6%b0%e0%a7%87/
Fuel surcharges have just been increased to €700 for transatlantic flights departing from Europe, and even more for flights originating from the United States. This hike seems excessive. However, there is a silver lining: you can utilize airline miles to cover the associated taxes, thereby maximizing the value of your miles, especially in light of the increased fuel charges.
https://amarsimoffer.info/%e0%a6%ae%e0%a7%83%e0%a6%a4%e0%a7%8d%e0%a6%af%e0%a7%81-%e0%a6%a8%e0%a6%bf%e0%a6%af%e0%a6%bc%e0%a7%87-%e0%a6%ac%e0%a6%be%e0%a6%82%e0%a6%b2%e0%a6%be-%e0%a6%93-%e0%a6%87%e0%a6%82%e0%a6%b0%e0%a7%87/
Fuel charges just raised to € 700 for an trans Atlantic flight when flying from Europe, much more flying from the states, which is ridiculous. You can pay the airline taxes with miles, which gives you more value as fuel charges raised.
What are the sweet spot redemptions im M&M ?
Do not forget very high fuel surcharges for award tickets.
….which increased even more last week with zero blog coverage .
As I’m sure you are aware you can also pay more miles to offset the taxes.
Yeah , right ? At 1.5 rate , no, thank you !
For those who are really very flexible at where and when to travel, this may have some value. Otherwise, redeeming miles for award flights (the only real value) is not as smooth as they would like to present.
I recently saw an option for Cathay First Class awards from M&M (for an HKG-CDG flight, without any LH-group segments, 111k points), but cannot find it since. Was it a ghost?
From my past attempts to redeem M&M miles for award flights (business/first) I learned that sometimes you can see the offer, however when you try to book it, it is not available. Sometimes they appear, then disappear. And reappear again.
You call helpline and they tell you they do not see anything on their screen, but that they use different platform than customers and that sometimes this happens. To make long story short, I...
From my past attempts to redeem M&M miles for award flights (business/first) I learned that sometimes you can see the offer, however when you try to book it, it is not available. Sometimes they appear, then disappear. And reappear again.
You call helpline and they tell you they do not see anything on their screen, but that they use different platform than customers and that sometimes this happens. To make long story short, I was told that sometimes it works, sometimes it does not, and I have to try several times. :-)
How does this promotion compare (cost per mile) to recent promos? Didn't they sell miles last year below 1.3 cents per mile?
@ jediwho -- The best offer I recall seeing was a 50% bonus in late April 2024, which was an opportunity to buy miles for as little as 1.31 cents each. So this isn't too far off.
I skipped the 50% bonus last year because I had recently bought at the 40% bonus, but regretted missing it
I’ve used those miles so I’ll probably buy this.
I’m a LH fan boy ;-)