Guys, I’m trying to help my dad log into his Lufthansa Miles & More account, and if this were any more complicated, they’d rename the frequent flyer program Allegris (or Bilt? Too soon?)…
In this post:
I had an epiphany with my dad’s Miles & More account
As is presumably the case for many in the OMAAT community, I manage frequent flyer accounts for my entire family. Earlier this month, I came to an interesting realization.
I had written a post about my take on Lufthansa, addressing whether I’m a fanboy or hater. As I explained in the post, Lufthansa had a fond place in my heart in my childhood, given that my family is from Germany, my dad worked for a German company in New York, and he flew Lufthansa all the time.
After writing that post, I realized something — my dad had high tier elite status with Lufthansa Miles & More for many, many years (we’re talking about the 1980s and early to mid 1990s). Then I realized “hey, Lufthansa has since introduced lifetime Senator status, so I wonder if dad actually has that status, without realizing it.”
Miles & More only introduced lifetime elite status within the past several years, and my dad hasn’t really been actively engaged in Lufthansa’s loyalty program in nearly 30 years. But lifetime status is supposed to consider lifetime activity, and he did credit all of his flights to the program (as far as I know), and he did a ton of premium cabin transatlantic flying.
It sure would be nice if he had lifetime Senator status, since it would get him Star Alliance Gold status, and would get him access to SWISS first class awards (okay, I’m also looking out for myself here). 😉 Let me of course add that I have no clue how many lifetime qualifying points my dad actually has — he could’ve more than qualified for lifetime status, or we could be totally off.
So I figured “okay, let’s look into this.” My dad isn’t terribly high tech (to put it politely), and he had absolutely no clue what his Miles & More number is. So I set out to get that information, and figured a quick phone call would solve everything. Well, weeks later, let me share how that’s going…
How hard is it to recover a Miles & More number?
Let me start by acknowledging that I’m sure a lot of these complexities have to do with German consumer protection laws, or something. Anyway…
My dad and I called the Miles & More service center, thinking they’d be able to help us with getting his Miles & More number. They stated they could only provide his Miles & More number if he knew his five-digit PIN, which he no longer knows.
They said he’d have to submit his request through the Miles & More website, including uploading a copy of his ID, to prove his identity. Fair enough! We submitted the request on January 3, and finally heard back on January 21. Yay, right?
The email contained his 15-digit “service card number,” and the email encouraged him to log into his account with that and his five-digit PIN. There was also a link to reset the PIN, which we followed. However, after entering the account number, the message said “a technical error has occurred.” I tried a different browser, tried clearing cookies, etc., and no matter what I did, the same thing happened.
We phoned up the Miles & More service center, and their solution was that we needed to again submit a form on the Miles & More website, for the PIN to be reset, because there’s nothing they can do by phone.
So I suspect it will now be another roughly three weeks before we hear back, and then let’s see if the PIN reset actually works. Either way, I’ve gotta say, this has to be the most complicated and drawn out system I’ve ever seen for trying to recover frequent flyer account details.
Sorry, I realize this is maybe anti-climactic. But I’ve become oddly invested in this, and I’m checking his email account multiple times per day waiting for a response. So to finally get a response after roughly three weeks, to then only have to start the process all over again, is sort of frustrating.
I’m just curious to see how many qualifying points he has over the course of his lifetime. It could be not that many, or it could be more than enough for lifetime Senator. Or it could be that his activity just didn’t track correctly, due to how long ago it was? Funny enough, my dad has million miler status with Delta SkyMiles, despite not having flown the airline much at all in the past 30 or so years. He really only learned about this on a recent flight, when he messaged me the below.
He doesn’t even remember flying Delta a lot back in the day, which is why I’m sort of optimistic about his Lufthansa situation, since he flew the airline constantly back in the day.
Bottom line
I recently started wondering if my dad might have lifetime elite status with Lufthansa Miles & More, given how frequently he flew the airline back in the day, combined with the airline retroactively rolling out lifetime status. Since he didn’t have his Miles & More number anymore, the adventure over the past few weeks has been trying to recover that.
Unfortunately it looks like we’re (best case scenario) halfway through this process, so please cross your fingers for us, that there’s some meaningful number of qualifying lifetime points in his account. If anyone is interested, I’ll report back… or maybe y’all can just tell based on how quickly my dad and I take a SWISS first class flight. 😉
The other thing - people who flew a lot before the 1980's before the FF programs - have no credit for all those earlier flights. Airlines should give people of a certain age - some bonus miles in the Lifetime miles.
I thought I was one of the only ones who kept thorough records. I wish you and your dad very good luck! Keep pursuing this. Let us know the results. I’m rooting for you!
Hey Ben. Quite the timely blog. For, since ever, I had CO/UA membership. Over the years, I climbed up in status. Finally, right after CO/UA buyout, I was awarded lifetime Premier 1k status.
When we retired to Malta six years ago, it came in handy, being able to gain access to Senator Lounges.
In mid 2025, my wife and I joined Miles and More to earn miles. By the end of 2025, we achieved their...
Hey Ben. Quite the timely blog. For, since ever, I had CO/UA membership. Over the years, I climbed up in status. Finally, right after CO/UA buyout, I was awarded lifetime Premier 1k status.
When we retired to Malta six years ago, it came in handy, being able to gain access to Senator Lounges.
In mid 2025, my wife and I joined Miles and More to earn miles. By the end of 2025, we achieved their biz status. With our planned trips for 2026, we will hit Senator status. We are treated well, flights are good regarding flights and soft products.
But something just came up that baffles me. When we joined Miles and More, we were assigned member numbers(god awful long ones. Now that we reached the biz traveler level, we have a new number. With nine trips already booked for this year, some have number from last year when we booked some this year's flights. And some have the new number.
In all the years with CO/UA, I had the same number. So, the specific question is how do they calculate our lifetime status if we have two numbers? And will we get a third onewhen we reach Senator status this year? Either I am overcomplicating this, or LH has a terrible system for monitoring this. Help,
Whysoever, Miles and More creates a new membership number every time when you achieve another tier status. That can be irritating, but that´s the way it works. When my tier status changed from zero to FTL (frequent traveller = *alliance "silver"), I was confused recieving a new membership number on the new card and I called the service. They told me 2 very important things: 1.) the LAST number is always the actual number that...
Whysoever, Miles and More creates a new membership number every time when you achieve another tier status. That can be irritating, but that´s the way it works. When my tier status changed from zero to FTL (frequent traveller = *alliance "silver"), I was confused recieving a new membership number on the new card and I called the service. They told me 2 very important things: 1.) the LAST number is always the actual number that you must use collecting and spending reward Miles and achieving tier status. 2.) ALL membership numbers that have ever been issued on your name/ account stay in the M&M system as long as you use this account. Hope this will be helpful....
Very helpful Klaus. Thanks.
p.s. What genius devised this approach?
Good question, the genius deserves a free flight. The only solution: Excel.... for not loosing the oveview (I have 3 membership-numbers...). The interesting fact: When I was booking a LH-flight years ago and didn´t have the membership number so I created a new account (was not necessary, I could have had credited the miles at the check-in, but I didn´t know that at that time and didn´t want to wave miles). Later on I called...
Good question, the genius deserves a free flight. The only solution: Excel.... for not loosing the oveview (I have 3 membership-numbers...). The interesting fact: When I was booking a LH-flight years ago and didn´t have the membership number so I created a new account (was not necessary, I could have had credited the miles at the check-in, but I didn´t know that at that time and didn´t want to wave miles). Later on I called the service center if they could combine the two accounts so that I could skip one numer. The M&M- guy told me that both numbers were already assigned to ONE account, that he can´t erase an "old" number, that I should and will keep ALL numers as long as I keep the Account and that I allways should use the YOUNGEST number. Weird, but it works....
Just to see if the phone number in Malta for M&M was valid, I called them. Yup, a human answered.
1. Has no idea how the changing number system evolved.
2. Said ONLY use the newest number you receive, if you were upgraded in status at end of a year.
3. As I currently have nine active trips planned for this year, he went through each one, and updated the older member...
Just to see if the phone number in Malta for M&M was valid, I called them. Yup, a human answered.
1. Has no idea how the changing number system evolved.
2. Said ONLY use the newest number you receive, if you were upgraded in status at end of a year.
3. As I currently have nine active trips planned for this year, he went through each one, and updated the older member numbers.
4. And told me that when I receive my Senator card at the end of this year, review all trips booked for 20027 to ensure newest number used.
to your results:
1. Maybe you get more precise information calling the German M&M- hotline in Frankfurt under
+49 69 - 209 777 777 daily from 7AM to 10PM central european time. They have an option "to continue in English please press 2". Hopefully they don´t forward you to an overseas callcenter... fingers crossed.
2. I was right, so I deserve the free flight :o)))
3. The most important thing for...
to your results:
1. Maybe you get more precise information calling the German M&M- hotline in Frankfurt under
+49 69 - 209 777 777 daily from 7AM to 10PM central european time. They have an option "to continue in English please press 2". Hopefully they don´t forward you to an overseas callcenter... fingers crossed.
2. I was right, so I deserve the free flight :o)))
3. The most important thing for these future flights would be that you ask/ check during check-in if the actual/ correct membership number will be in the system for every flight to ensure that all miles and points will be credited correctly.
4. Yes, i agree and would advise the same. Second free flight for me...
The Malta number connects in Germany, like ticketing line. And they answer the call in English. Great service. The call was answered within ten seconds! Just like in the States.
Regretabbly for many, when the current system was introduced, LH converted over "status star points", which were credited for every day someone had a status with LH.
That conversion was favorable for those with little flying activity, but otherwise many of us would already have LT status.
M&M went through multiple iterations of lifetime status tracking. Rule of thumb conversion for legacy members is 28 years of Senator membership is required for lifetime qualification. Perhpas you find this useful.
Would making a (dummy) LH booking for your dad, including his M&M number, result in his status being pulled from the system without having to log in using the PIN?
As far as I understand Bens post they have neither the M&M membership number, nor any PIN (I thinks it´s quite possible that there never has been any PIN cause when this account was used between 1993 and 1996 maybe there was no digital account with PIN, password and email, only a plastic card...)
I have similar issues with IBERIA: I have been asked to update my password, but when trying, the link does not work, because many years ago I registered also accounts of my kids with the same email.
I called them, wrote to them etc, but nothing works. I also cancelled the kids' accounts to only have one open account with my email, but no success either.
Meanwhile - this has gone for more than a year by now - I guess all my miles (around 200.000) expired...
Look forward to hearing the outcome! I would be very impressed if they LH credit flights from 1980
They won´t because Miles and More was established in 1993. What happend before is irrelevant for current tier/ status....
Please tell me your response to how did he become a million miler was "by flying a million miles with them."
I think part of it has to do with if the account is still active. If there is no recent activity it may not be active and the account may be closed because of inactivity. Furthermore, I suppose you could get his account number from an old boarding pass if you have it still. Also, if you are managing the accounts for the family does he have a new LH account that could be merged? Your dad just finding out about his million mile status and what it means - lol.
OMG we SO want to hear back!
“Benny, ziss iss so exciting!”
We love your Dad!
If he was using MM many many years ago, he will most likely not have lifetime status, especially not through lifetime QPoints.
QPoints are fairly new and have only been around after the recent changes. However if you had Status Star Points before that, those were converted to lifetime QPoints. But then again, the Status Star system was only put in place in 2013. Miles and More tried to take previous years of status into...
If he was using MM many many years ago, he will most likely not have lifetime status, especially not through lifetime QPoints.
QPoints are fairly new and have only been around after the recent changes. However if you had Status Star Points before that, those were converted to lifetime QPoints. But then again, the Status Star system was only put in place in 2013. Miles and More tried to take previous years of status into account when introducing Status Stars, but that did not properly work for everyone.
It was also previously possible to earn lifetime Senator through earning 1M qualifying miles within 10 years while holding the status for 10 years. Once you reached the age of 60 you were given the status if you had such a stretch in the past. However, LH being LH this did also not work for everyone. This has now been replaced with the more transparent new lifetime system.
Long story short, it could be that his old status was taken into account for status star points and then those were converted into lifetime Qpoints. However he would have needed to be Senator for 20years+ for the conversion to end with a lifetime status now. Only people who have been HON for 10+ years before thr new system automatically received lifetime senator now. :)
This "More" guy Miles is hanging out with doesn't seem to be a good influence :)
Given my personal experience with the LH group, it's not surprising that something as simple as an account access reset requires what you are having to do.
I wonder how much personal experience with other companies do you have when it comes to reset an account access without recieving the most important information such as membership number and/ or PIN? How fast will these other companies fix the problem while violating international data protection laws and personal rights? Do they need only seconds or just a few minutes?
Ben, I have to ask, whatever drives your LH obsession?
It would appear to so left of arch for a U.S. resident.
Doing a very similar thing, but instead it is a retirement account from an old job. They will put nothing in an email or over the phone. I was told to fax a form. The first one never reached them. Let's see who gets theirs sorted out first! My bet is on you.
On the bright side, Lufthansa is quite modern in German standards and let you submit the request via a web form and provides a response via email.
I had numerous occasions in Germany when I needed an account access to be restored, the only way to do it was via phone and letters to/from a German address ! Everything takes weeks not days.
Well, it took you and your dad more than 30 years to find out about his former Miles and More account, maybe you should be a bit more patient to get this fixed at MM, if possible at all. Of course they need at least SOME information from you since you don´t even know the most important thing which is the membership number. Data protection is taken seriously not only in Germany but at least...
Well, it took you and your dad more than 30 years to find out about his former Miles and More account, maybe you should be a bit more patient to get this fixed at MM, if possible at all. Of course they need at least SOME information from you since you don´t even know the most important thing which is the membership number. Data protection is taken seriously not only in Germany but at least all over western Europe and I think it´s quite O.K. I would not want that anyone could just call a company and say: „Hey my name is Mr. X, I forgot everything, don´t have any PIN, but please restore an account on my name with all associated data and miles.“
Correct. Especially, because they had a lot of problems with fraud.
Because of GDPR they don't even tell you your own email. They're not allowed to.
And then, one has more than one Service Card Number anyway. I have three. The one when I became a member, the one when I became FTL and the one when I became Senator.
Agree. Some other information might be interesting for Ben, unless he does´t already know: Lufthansa Miles and More was established in 1993, and before that there was no other LH- loyalty program. In the 90ies you must collect 100.000 status miles for the senator status in one calender year. Once you became Senator you got this tier status for 2 years before you had to requalify (I guess it worked like that until the end...
Agree. Some other information might be interesting for Ben, unless he does´t already know: Lufthansa Miles and More was established in 1993, and before that there was no other LH- loyalty program. In the 90ies you must collect 100.000 status miles for the senator status in one calender year. Once you became Senator you got this tier status for 2 years before you had to requalify (I guess it worked like that until the end of 2023). If Bens Dad was a senator in 1996 and could requalify for another term his senator tier status expired latest in February 1999. I´m quite sure that the account still exists since Miles and More accounts don´t expire (unless you quit them) but I´m also quite sure that there are no more miles at all (neither status cause they expiered after a non- requalification nor bonus miles cause they expiered at the latest after 24 months without status or LH-MM credit card). But let's wait and see what Ben reports – it remains exciting!
No Miles, that is correct. But the Stars never expire. I had some from the 2000s, and they are still good and were converted into lifetime points.
But a few years won't be enough for 40.000 qualifying points.
This post should have started with a trigger warning.
Ben, take deep breaths and find your happy place. The likelihood that your dad has neither Delta status nor Lufthansa status is, um, let's just say "nonzero".
@ DenB -- Hah! In fairness, I have confirmed my dad has lifetime status with Delta. I had even told him about it before (since he wasn't aware), but clearly he didn't remember. :-)
If your Dad flew Pan Am a lot he might have received Delta status that way. I did. Pan Am World Pass miles transferred over to Delta's frequent flyer program when Delta acquired Pan Am's routes, which included German domestic routes.
Shades of my experience. CO sucked up my miles with EA, and then was sucked up into UA. And now retired and have lifetime Premier 1k. Sometimes you can actually win!
It is part of a larger problem.
Many older folks are not tech-savy and run into issues when they cannot access banking or administrative services.
AARP has programs to help the seasoned humans become more familiar with technology.
Unfortunately private businesses (especially FFPs) have no incentive to do the right thing. In fact one could argue they are more incentivized to make it harder for old folks.
lol I'm shocked Luftkafka is making a process difficult. shocked!
SHOCKED?!
Ben, Are you sure the account wasn’t closed for inactivity? American Airlines pulled that BS with me and I lost all my past lifetime flight miles and had to create a new account.
Your dad just casually finding out about his Million Miler status is hilarious and adorable!
Lufthansa doesn't seem to keep Miles and More numbers very long for inactive accounts. I signed up in 1998, flew and redeemed an award last in 2013. Upon checking in 2025, the account is gone. I have my old number but could not get into my account.
So Ben's father might be in a similar situation. Activity up to maybe 2000 then nothing?