Lufthansa Miles & More Loyalty Program Review

Lufthansa Miles & More Program Overview

Lufthansa’s frequent flyer program is called Miles & More, and the airline miles that you earn are called Lufthansa miles.

The Miles & More program can be a great way to fly a Star Alliance airline partner like United Airlines.

You’ll earn 3 different kinds of miles in the Lufthansa Miles & More program.

The first type is called Award Miles. These miles are for award flights and are valid for 36 months.

For Frequent Travellers (lowest elite level), Senators (mid-tier elite level), HON Circle Members (highest elite tier), and JetFriends (under 18 years old), award miles remain valid as long as you maintain your elite status.

The second type is called Status Miles. These miles determine your Frequent Traveller and Senator status, and are counted in the calendar year in which they are credited. Every status mile is also counted as an award mile.

The third type is called HON Circle Miles. These miles count towards achieving HON Circle status, and they are counted over 2 successive years.

Lufthansa miles can be earned in many ways; here are the 2 most common:

• Flying Lufthansa or its partner airline flights
• Earning with Lufthansa’s hotel, travel, and car rental partners

Joining Lufthansa Miles & More

The Lufthansa Miles & More program is free to join by simply completing this application.

Once you complete your application, you’ll have the ability to earn miles by flying with Lufthansa or its partner airlines, earn elite status, and redeem miles for award flights.

How to Sign in to Your Lufthansa Miles & More Account

Head to the Lufthansa login page and enter your membership number and password.

Hot Tip: Lufthansa requires you to have at least 7,000 miles in your account to search for an award flight. If you don’t have 7,000 miles, you’ll want to use the program’s mileage calculator to determine the number of miles required for your flight. 

Viewing Your Account Activity

The easiest way to check your Lufthansa mileage balance is to:

1. Log in to your account
2. Hover over My Miles & More on the right side of the page
3. Select Mileage Account on the left side of the page

Points Expiration

Lufthansa miles expire at the end of the quarter 36 months after the miles were earned.

For example, miles earned in October 2019 will expire December 31, 2022.

The program does allow you to extend the expiration of your miles in 2 ways:

• Hold Lufthansa elite status
• Hold a co-branded Lufthansa credit card, make at least 1 purchase per month, and have an account that’s been opened for at least 3 months

Lufthansa Miles & More Mileage Program

Lufthansa Elite Status

Lufthansa’s Miles & More program has 3 elite tiers: Frequent Traveller, Senator, and HON Circle (highest tier).

Once you qualify for elite status in a calendar year, the benefits begin immediately and are valid for 2 years.

Frequent Traveller: The lowest elite tier offered by Lufthansa, which comes with the following benefits:

• No mileage expiration
• Earn up to 50% more award miles, 25% more miles towards elite Status
• Additional baggage allowance
• Access to the business class lounge

Senator: After earning this status level, you’ll have access to additional benefits including:

• All of the benefits of Frequent Traveller, plus;
• 2 vouchers to fly one class higher
• Access to Senator and Star Gold lounges
• Additional flight award availability

HON Circle: The highest elite tier that you can earn comes with the following benefits:

• All of the benefits of Senator, plus;
• 6 vouchers to fly one class higher
• First class check-in at the First Class Terminal in Frankfurt
• Access to the Lufthansa First Class, SWISS First, and Austrian HON Circle Lounges
• Limousine and transfer service for flights

If you’re interested in diving into more detail about the Lufthansa elite benefits at each tier, go here.

Value of Lufthansa Elite Status

Earning elite status with Lufthansa makes the most sense if you fly Lufthansa, Austrian, or Swiss regularly — or if you are looking for elite benefits when flying a Star Alliance partner like United Airlines.

If you meet one of these criteria, access to premium lounges, additional award availability, and mileage earning bonuses are all reasons as to why you might want to earn elite status.

Earning Lufthansa Elite Status

Miles & More is the free frequent flyer program for not only Lufthansa, but also major airlines including Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, and LOT Polish Airlines.

By signing up for a Miles & More membership, you’ll have the ability to earn and redeem Lufthansa Miles, as well as work your way toward elite status.

The Miles & More program requires you to earn miles or board a certain number of flights in a calendar year to reach elite status.

Miles & More calculates the miles you earn on flights differently for each airline that is a part of the program, using different factors to determine the number of miles you earn.

For Lufthansa, the Miles & More program calculates the miles you earn by multiplying the fare by a factor of 6.

As an example, if you take a $290 round-trip flight from Frankfurt to Munich on Lufthansa, you’ll earn 1,740 Lufthansa miles ($290 fare x 6).

Lufthansa and its partner airline flights are eligible to earn Lufthansa miles.

How to Earn Lufthansa Miles

The Miles & More program offers 2 primary ways to earn airline miles:

1. Earn miles from spending on Lufthansa credit cards
2. Earn miles from flying with Lufthansa

While it’s challenging to earn Lufthansa miles, when you pair the options above together, you’ll at least have a couple of ways to earn Lufthansa miles.

Earning Miles Through Flying

The Miles & More program calculates miles earned based on the distance flown and booking class.

For European flights, the booking class is a flat rate. For intercontinental flights, mileage is calculated by multiplying the booking class by the distance flown.

Branded and Partnered Credit Cards

Lufthansa Credit Card

Barclays offers a co-branded credit card for the U.S. market, and it often comes with a sizeable sign-up bonus.

Other Hotel Partner Credit Cards

Transferring other hotel points to Lufthansa will result in less than a 1:1 transfer ratio, so we don’t recommend this as a way to earn Lufthansa miles.

If you are topping off an airline account or are in a bind, transferring other hotel points to Lufthansa can be an option.

How to Redeem Lufthansa Miles

The Miles & More program uses both an award chart and a mileage calculator.

Before booking your award flight, it’s important to reference both to know the amount of miles required for your route.

Hot Tip: If you’re looking for ways to use your Lufthansa miles, we put together a guide on the best ways to use Lufthansa miles. 

Star Alliance Partner Awards

Since Lufthansa is in the Star Alliance, you can use Lufthansa Miles to fly on any other airline in the alliance as well.

The Lufthansa search engine requires 7,000 miles in your account to search for an award flight. Unless the miles are already in your account, we recommend using United or Aeroplan to find Star Alliance availability.

Oneworld Partner Awards

Lufthansa also partners with airlines outside of the Star Alliance like Cathay Pacific.

For Oneworld partner flights, we recommend using the British Airways and Qantas websites to search for award availability.

Booking Online

If you do not have the minimum required miles in your account, you’ll need to call Lufthansa Miles & More team at 800-581-6400 to confirm the award space you find and ticket the award flight.

Hot Tip: Child tickets for flights on Adria Airways, Austrian Airlines, Air Dolomiti, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Eurowings, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Luxair, and SWISS can be booked at a 25% mileage discount.