Questions and Answers

Okay, I did this to myself.

I have ~135,000 Lufthansa award miles, with ~60,000 expiring at the end of September. I cannot figure out any way at all how to possibly use them; I earned the majority of these on LH long-haul revenue first flights, and I banked them to LH because I try and avoid UA whenever possible. I cannot purchase anything at the World Shop (They don’t ship to the USA), I cannot purchase miles to top up for a first award USA-Europe. I’m not sure what to do. LH business class = no for me, crappy hard product.

I know M&M is a transfer partner with SPG, and I have tons of SPG points, but I cannot for the life of me see how quickly SPG points transfer to M&M accounts. I wouldn’t mind using some SPG points to fund a first mileage redemption for a quick trip to Europe, but again, I’m not sure of the timing. My understanding is I need 170,000 M&M points for a r/t USA-Europe, and I know the fees are high, but that’s not a big deal. I just want to use the points wisely. Yes, this is my own fault.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

(This is really “TravelinWilly” – I get an error saying user names have to be unique, so I’m not sure what I did wrong)

I have ~135,000 M&M points, mostly from flights flown on paid LH first flights. ~60,000 of them are going to expire on 30 September. I thought I was going to be doing more paid flying on LH but the nature of my international trips changed over time.

I cannot purchase anything from the World Shop with points, because they do not deliver to the USA. I would like to redeem an award, however we can no longer purchase points to top up an account. I know that SPG is a transfer partner, and I would like to book a LH first r/t award for a quick trip USA – Europe, but I don’t know how long the transfers take in reality. On FT, I’m seeing conflicting information. I do realize LH charges high fees, but I don’t really care about that.

Anyone know how SPG-to-M&M transfer work, and how long they take? Do I have any other options?

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

Welcome [USER=2274]@TravelinWilly[/USER] – I was looking into this the other day and I saw reports of 4-5 days though it was mentioned that LH will hold a reservation for 5 days while the points transfer. That post was over a year old and am hoping it’s still true.

Can you apply for the M&M credit card from Barclays? As long as you own the card your miles will not expire.

The Barclay card is a good idea but the quirk with the card is that it has to be open for three months and have a purchase every month for your miles to not expire. May be too late to get one…

[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/10/17/lufthansa-miles-expire/[/URL]

Have you considered redeeming the miles for OS biz as an alternative to LH for USA-Europe? I consider OS to have a better hard and soft product to LH.

Have you considered redeeming the miles for OS biz as an alternative to LH for USA-Europe? I consider OS to have a better hard and soft product to LH.

I think you might be able to have SPG expedite the transfer as well. I’ve never done it, but it’s supposedly possible if you call.

Oh, wow, thank you everyone for all the helpful replies! I thought I had only one reply from MidSouth Skier because that popped up in my email box (and I figured I would get a notification for every response, I guess I was wrong), and I was traveling all week (M-Th a lot these days) and I hate typing on my phone, so I didn’t realize how helpful this place really is!

I think I’ll ask SPG to expedite and go that route. The Barclaycard was a great idea, but it’s too bad about it being open for three months. Though OS is interesting as well, seeing as I’ve never flown them or been to Vienna…

[B]Thank you again[/B] to everyone. This place is really fantastic!

TravelinWilly