Dating back about a decade, Lufthansa faced a few lawsuits where people tried to claim compensation based on the price at which they sold their miles. At this point Lufthansa decided it was causing them too much trouble, and withdrew all related functionality suddenly. To date it is still the only mainstream airline that doesn’t allow point transfer from Marriott Bonvoy.
Whereas you still cannot purchase Lufthansa miles, they introduced something called Bundle & Go recently which is basically points package in disguise. The bundle includes some other discount and bonus, but I suspect people just buy it for the points.
Until September 30, you earn 60% bonus when purchasing any of the three bundles:
- S: €250 – 10,000 + 6,000 miles
- M: €1,000 – 50,000 + 30,000 miles
- L: €1,750 – 100,000 + 60,000 miles
You can buy up to 500,000 miles per calendar year excluding the bonus. Once you’ve purchased a bundle the miles should be deposited into your account within 5 business days.
If you are interested, the L package works best at 1.09 euro cent or 0.94p per mile. This is a very good price, especially considering how difficult it is to acquire Lufthansa miles.
Lufthansa doesn’t have the most generous award chart, and like all other European airlines their carrier-imposed surcharge is high, so you may be better off redeeming via Aeroplan or United instead. There are some exceptions though:
- One stopover is allowed each way on a roundtrip award
- Partner programs have access to Lufthansa’s first class award space only within 15 days prior to departure
- Lufthansa run frequent Mileage Bargain offers. At the moment a return trip in business class from Europe to certain North America destinations cost only 55,000 miles
- Their redemption chart has some sweet spots (price is for one-way)
- Europe – Middle East: 35,000 miles (B)
- Europe – North America / Africa: 56,000 miles (B)
- Asia – Hawaii: 35,000 miles (B)
- Any Domestic: 20,000 miles (B) or 25,000 miles (F)
One funny restriction is, Lufthansa doesn’t allow you to search award tickets unless you have at least 7,000 miles in your account. Therefore I have no idea how the availability and fuel surcharges are like nowadays.
Important note: Lufthansa miles expire after 36 months and nothing stops it unless you hold elite status or a Lufthansa credit card.
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