How To Redeem Miles For Lufthansa First Class

Lufthansa offers a solid first class product, among the better first class products across the Atlantic. There’s something I love about flying the Lufthansa Boeing 747-8 in first class and visiting Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in Frankfurt or First Class Lounge in Munich.

Perhaps what I like most about Lufthansa first class, though, is how it’s practical to book with points. Really it’s the only transatlantic first class product without carrier imposed surcharges where you can consistently find award availability if you’re flexible. The great news is that it’s very much possible to redeem a variety of points currencies for travel in Lufthansa first class, so in this post I want to take a closer look at the logistics of how that works.

Basics of redeeming miles for Lufthansa first class

Lufthansa offers first class on a variety of routes, including those operated by Boeing 747-8s out of Frankfurt, and those operated by Airbus A340-600s and Airbus A380s out of Munich. Lufthansa is also introducing an all-new first class product on select Airbus A350-900s, though given the tiny size of the cabin, don’t expect any award seats in it. For the purposes of this post, we’ll focus on the “old” first class.

While Lufthansa Miles & More members have access to first class award seats as soon as the schedule opens (roughly a year in advance), those redeeming miles through partner airline frequent flyer programs only have access to first class award seats close to departure.

While it has historically been possible to redeem partner miles up to 15 days before departure, nowadays it seems like first class award seats are made available at most four days before departure. If you’re flexible and patient, snagging Lufthansa first class award seats is definitely achievable.

In this post I wanted to focus specifically on redeeming partner airline miles for travel in Lufthansa first class. I’m not focusing on Lufthansa Miles & More redemptions because:

• These redemptions have fuel surcharges, which can cost nearly $1,000 one-way in first class from the United States to Germany, which takes much of the value out of these redemptions; I’ll focus on programs without fuel surcharges
• Lufthansa Miles & More doesn’t partner with any major transferable points currencies, so even if you were fine with those fuel surcharges, most people wouldn’t have a practical way to earn those miles

With that out of the way, let’s first talk about the best programs for booking Lufthansa first class, and then we’ll talk about general tricks for finding award availability.

Best mileage programs for booking Lufthansa first class

Lufthansa is in the Star Alliance, so you can redeem miles with most Star Alliance partners for travel in Lufthansa first class. Let’s take a look at how many miles you can expect to pay with some major programs for Lufthansa first class redemptions, focusing specifically on transatlantic flights.

The Air Canada Aeroplan program charges 90,000-100,000 points one-way in first class for itineraries between the United States and Europe (90,000 points for up to 4,000 miles of travel, 100,000 points for 4,001-6,000 miles of travel):

• Aeroplan offers lots of routing flexibility, and allows stopovers for an additional 5,000 points one-way
• Aeroplan is transfer partners with Amex, Capital One, and Chase, has the excellent Aeroplan® Credit Card (review) in the United States, and also frequently sells points directly

The avianca lifemiles program charges 120,000 miles one-way between the United States and Europe in first class, regardless of the route:

• This isn’t the deal it once was, since lifemiles devalued Lufthansa first class awards several months back
• LifeMiles is transfer partners with Amex, Capital One, and Citi, and also frequently sells miles directly, often with the most attractive acquisition cost for miles
• The program sometimes doesn’t have access to all Lufthansa first class award seats, so you’ll want to search availability before acquiring miles

The United MileagePlus program charges 140,000-165,000 miles one-way between the United States and Europe in first class:

• The 140,000 miles pricing is for the East Coast and Midwest, while the 165,000 miles pricing is for the West Coast
• MileagePlus is transfer partners with Chase, has several co-branded credit cards, and also often sells miles directly
• MileagePlus has no change and cancelation fees on awards, so you have the most flexibility for making changes

Now, it’s worth emphasizing that there are other programs that could make sense as well, but they have some downsides. For example:

• Aegean Miles+Bonus charges just 75,000 miles one-way, but you’re on the hook for fuel surcharges, and Aegean miles are also hard to come by
• All Nippon Airways Mileage Club charges 165,000 miles roundtrip between the United States and Europe in first class, but you have to pay fuel surcharges, one-ways aren’t allowed, and there are some other complicated logistics with the program
• Asiana Club charges just 50,000 miles one-way, but fuel surcharges apply, and Asiana Club miles are also hard to come by, not to mention the airline is leaving the Star Alliance due to Korean Air’s takeover

Personally my strategy is generally to redeem Aeroplan points, given that the program has the best pricing. I used to mainly use avianca lifemiles for these awards, but it’s no longer the best value.

Tips for redeeming miles for Lufthansa first class

As mentioned above, Lufthansa has historically released first class award space to partner airlines at most 15 days out. “At most” is the operative term there. This doesn’t mean that Lufthansa will make every single first class seat bookable with miles at that point.

For the past year or so, Lufthansa has become much stricter with the timeline for releasing award space, and more often than not, you’ll find first class award seats within four days of departure (and often within two or three days). So the closer to departure you’re looking, the better your odds are of space opening up (this is generally a good tip when redeeming points).

How to gauge odds of Lufthansa opening award seats

Lufthansa has a complicated algorithm for releasing award seats, so there’s not some easy rule-of-thumb policy I can share that will always be accurate. That being said, there are some general ways to determine your odds of seats opening up.

Lufthansa has eight first class seats on the 747-8, A340-600, and A380, so that means at most eight seats will ever be for sale. The first thing to do is to figure out how many first class seats are still available for sale on the flight you’re eyeing.

You can use Google Flights for this, and just search the exact route and see how many first class seats are still for sale (by progressively increasing the number of tickets you’re trying to book). Alternatively, you can use a site like ExpertFlyer to view the number of seats for sale.

Let me share a few very general trends I notice, and of course let me emphasize that these are just trends and not rules:

• Nowadays simply don’t expect Lufthansa to open up first class award seats to partner programs more than four days out
• Lufthansa makes award seats available until the very last minute, so don’t be surprised to see first class award seats made available as late as the day of departure
• Generally the last one or two first class seats for sale won’t be made available for awards
• Sometimes there are just quirks with award availability based on a variety of factors, as there are lots of other considerations as well; for example, it could be that even if there are first class seats for sale, business class is oversold, and the airline is anticipating having to bump people up, so may not make award seats available

The best way to see award availability at the last minute is to use Seats.aero, which has a Lufthansa first class finder, showing the routes with award availability at the last minute. Just keep in mind that inventory isn’t always real time, so you’ll want to cross reference availability directly with an airline program as well.

There’s still value to searching directly with airlines, since you may see availability sooner, and there’s often lots of competition for those seats.

Lufthansa uses married segment logic for awards

Lufthansa uses married segment logic for award tickets in all cabins, including first class. Rather than explaining this in great detail and complicating this unnecessarily, let me just share the takeaway.

Essentially Lufthansa will make different numbers of first class award seats available depending on whether you’re connecting or not. For example:

• Lufthansa might not have first class award availability on a Chicago to Frankfurt flight if you’re simply booking a ticket between those two airports
• Meanwhile Lufthansa might have first class award availability on the Chicago to Frankfurt flight as part of a larger itinerary, like if you’re connecting to Paris on the same ticket

So if you want to maximize your odds of finding first class award availability, search for a connecting itinerary. Sometimes significantly more award seats are released in those cases.

Bottom line

Lufthansa offers a solid first class product, and it’s bookable with miles close to departure. While it can take some work to find availability, and while the timeline isn’t ideal for those who like to plan in advance, it’s the best and most readily available way to cross the Atlantic in first class using miles without paying fuel surcharges.

Realistically speaking, I wouldn’t expect seats to open up more than four days before departure, so that’s when I’d start searching. The closer to departure you are and the more first class seats are still for sale, the better your odds of finding award availability. I pretty consistently find a way to cross the Atlantic in Lufthansa first class, though sometimes it requires routing through a non-ideal gateway.

If you’ve redeemed miles for Lufthansa first class, what was your experience like?