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!).
Anyway, it appears that in recent weeks, Lufthansa has added yet another barrier to redeeming for first class. It remains to be seen if this is permanent, or what exactly is going on…
In this post:
Lufthansa first class award availability trends
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. That’s not to say that all available first class seats were made available 15 days out, but rather, that was the outer limit for when space opened up.
In early 2024, that window was narrowed significantly, and ever since, Lufthansa seems to be opening first class awards to partner programs at most three to four days before departure.
Now we’re seeing yet another restriction (thanks to Connor for bringing this up) — in recent weeks, it appears that Lufthansa is only releasing first class award availability to partner programs for long haul flights originating in Germany. In other words, there’s some award space from Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUC) to destinations around the globe, but not in the other direction.
Seats.aero is an awesome tool for searching award availability, and it has a Lufthansa first class award tracker. As you’ll see there, the only first class availability is departing Germany, and that has been the case for some time.
Now, I wouldn’t assume that this change is permanent, as it could change, and it’s not the first time that we’ve seen the airline only release award space in one direction of travel. It’s anyone’s guess how long this lasts, but it’s something to be aware of for the time being.
I think we all know which direction this is headed…
When it comes to redeeming miles for Lufthansa first class, I have to imagine that our best days are behind us:
- Lufthansa is increasingly introducing its new Allegris first class, and that’s blocked for both awards and upgrades
- Lufthansa Miles & More is moving to dynamic award pricing in the coming weeks, and it remains to be seen what that means for premium cabin award costs through Miles & More, or saver award availability through partner programs
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 see Miles & More added as a partner for international transferable points currencies, so that Lufthansa has more control over its award space.
Bottom line
Lufthansa is increasingly restricting award space through partner frequent flyer programs. As it currently stands, expect that you can only redeem partner miles for Lufthansa first class at most a few days out, and only for long haul segments originating in Germany (that latter restriction is new).
It’s anyone’s guess how this all evolves, but I have a hard time imagining that things will get much better. So if you want to fly Lufthansa first class with partner miles, it might not be a bad time to do so…
What do you make of these Lufthansa’s first class award availability trends?
I wonder whether this will affect plus points or mileage upgrade availability. Those use some weird opaque subset of the A bucket.
As of last week, I have seen first class seats bookable on Aeroplan for SFO-FRA. However, they almost get booked instantly.
Yeah, Ben, this isn't true. I saw a few seats BOS-MUC on Monday of this week for same/next day travel. Looks like they are very tightly controlling inventory, but it is not blanket.
This past March I found availability out of SFO to JNB (via Denver A340 connection onto a 747-8i). I ended up deciding on taking QR out of SFO (which I’ve done before). I’m now regretting not jumping on the Lufthansa First experience as it sounds that grabbing First Class using points (on any carrier) is becoming extinct.
Why would anyone waste money on Lufthansa's terrible "first" class anyway? It's a product designed 20 years ago that was uncompetitive even 10 years ago.
The last-minute availability can come in handy for anyone holding a flexible reservation that has them flying a suboptimal routing and/or, God forbid, in Y.
Yes, I understand where you’re coming from, and agreed with you not too long ago. But award seats are difficult to find these days, especially if you’re going to Asia. I’ve flown LH J 4 times over the past 2 years to get to Asia and it’s honestly not bad. It sure beats flying Y. In Feb I flew with LOT in their very basic J cabin on WAW-ICN, and I’ve got to say, I was very pleasantly surprised by it, I even look forward to flying them again!
Glad you liked LOT. I found them averafe at best (though am glad for their lounge at ORD).
This is fake news and happens every year. Demand from US-EU is high so there are no awards and it will reverse in a few months time. There is nothing new here.
The link is literally showing availability to Germany right now. Furthermore, there's also the married segment logic at play, I have seen availability on routes like EZE-FRA-VIE while the long flight doesn't have any on its own.
Go ahead and navigate to Expertflyer or another tool to view fare classes. There are first class seats available for sale and awards. Just not available to partners.
I don't care about what Expert Flier says. I can book DEL to FRA for 165k on United right now.
I can also book DEL-MUC-FRA for 165k miles on United, DMM-FRA for 65k miles on Aeroplan - both for 5/23.
I'm talking about ex-US on partner miles.
That's not what this article is about. Ben claims that he got it from you that, for the last several weeks, LH is only allowing partner awards from FRA/MUC. That is fake news.
I saw partner (Aeroplan, Lifemiles & MileagePlan) first class award availability last week on MEX-FRA and BOS-MUC. You can see from the comments many others also saw availability to Germany.
LH needs to go the route of other programs. Only open first class award inventory to those with LH tier status. Just get it over with. Don't make it a years-long, Allegris-like path of increasing restrictions.
Has LH resolved the issue that made them leave the transferable currency sector, several years ago?
No. But, it has a work-around by selling points bundled with other things. That being said, pricing with LH points is not attractive. And, as has mentioned before, Germany is more of a connection point than a destination for most LH passengers. So, why not simply use another airline?
I don't think this report (that partner first class award space is available only out of Germany) is accurate. Right now, I see awards from DEL and DMM. Last couple of weeks, I saw award space from MEX, BOS and ORD.
I am 100% okay with this—the more restrictions, the better, as Points People just ruin the experience for those of us who use cash.
Huh! How dare you to say that on a "Points People" blog? :-)
Seriously though, why do cash flyers like you hang around here?
This is why I like AF LP -- Very restrictive and no credit card point people ruining the experience.
Fly private then, you peasant.
@Venugopal Sadda, I'm here for the trip-reports and the banter.
Such a snob, you big "Cash Flyer" you :-)
Careful James, as you will know Ben is a highly committed ’points person’.
Ben excepted, I have to say that some ‘points people’ do tend to show themselves up in F & J.
lol v2 Endre
Okay Mr Moneybags we get it, you’re rich
I don't think this is true. I think this is only limited for departures from the US. I see a 05/23 flight from DEL - FRA available on United and I saw PVG - FRA a couple days ago too. However, US to FRA seems to be pretty scarce these days. The added caveat is that Tuesday and Wednesday seem to have way higher partner award availability than any other days.
In the case of the U.S. they only allow it from Germany because no one is actually going there anymore.