I’ve mentioned ASMALLWORLD before – it’s a rather unusual membership programme where, after paying to join, you can get airline miles, hotel status and other travel perks, as well as access to members-only social events.
Today we’re looking at a new flash sale they’ve just launched:
- Purchase by 30 September
- Prestige membership is available at 25% off for €3,890
- Join and receive 250,000 Miles & More (Lufthansa) miles
The miles will be credited within three working days after paying for the membership. Although the membership package comes with all sorts of perks, the most obvious use — and the one everyone cares about — is essentially buying airline miles.
This promotion works out at 1.56 euro cent or 1.34p per mile, which is the lowest price ASMALLWORLD has ever offered.
If you’re not particularly familiar with Miles & More, that price might not look especially cheap at first glance. But there are a couple of things to consider.
First, Miles & More miles are notoriously difficult to earn. There are virtually no mainstream transfer partners, with the main option being Miles & More’s own Bundle & Go mileage packages. However, once you’ve bought one, it’s apparently quite rare to get another bonus offer. The cheapest regular price is around 1.77 euro cent per mile, which is already more expensive than this ASMALLWORLD promotion.
I recently opened the UK Lufthansa co-branded card precisely because I was short on miles, and even then I had to jump through all sorts of hoops to complete the welcome offer. I still have no idea when those miles will actually arrive.
More importantly, Miles & More miles have become significantly more valuable since dynamic award pricing was introduced. We covered the redemption options in detail, and I’d go as far as saying that they’re currently among the most valuable airline miles out there.
The obvious example is long-haul Business Class. As I mentioned recently, I managed to find and book a Seoul–London flight for early next year. With the 50% discount for a second passenger that comes with Senator status, two tickets cost just over 70,000 miles plus ~£498 in taxes and fees. And we’re talking about the brand-new Allegris seats. Needless to say, I snapped them up!
Hong Kong is also a pretty good option. The mileage requirement is considerably higher at around 80,000 miles per ticket, but the taxes and fees are much lower. Once you do the maths, the overall cost is actually fairly similar to flying from Seoul.
Going from Europe to Asia, Oslo – Beijing is probably one of the cheapest options, at just over 28,000 miles plus ~£430 in taxes and fees:
Shanghai costs around 10k miles more. If you want to save even more by flying Economy, the value can still be pretty good. For example, you can fly from the US West Coast to Europe for 88 miles, although you’ll still have to pay a few hundred dollars in taxes and fees:
For those travelling around Europe, Miles & More can also be surprisingly useful for short-haul flights, and the value is on a par with, if not better than British Airways Avios.
Here are a couple of examples from Munich and Zurich:
One of the less well-known sweet spots is flying to some of the more “obscure” destinations. The Lufthansa Group has an extensive network that reaches all sorts of corners of Europe. You may have to connect, but some of these flights can still be booked for just a few thousand miles.
Belgrade and Ljubljana are two examples:
Since I’m based in the UK, most of the examples above are from / to London, but the same principles apply to other UK and European cities. There are plenty of routes waiting to be discovered.
Enough about Miles & More. ASMALLWORLD Prestige also comes with several other elite memberships, mainly hotel-related:
- Hilton Diamond*
- GHA Titanium
- Jumeirah Gold
- SIXT Platinum
- Bicester Village Level 3
- Crurated membership
Hilton Diamond comes with a 90-day trial, during which you can retain the status by completing ten nights. The other memberships are valid for at least 12 months.
Hilton Diamond and GHA Titanium are both pretty useful, with a generous range of benefits such as room upgrades, complimentary breakfast and late checkout. However, there are quite a few other ways to obtain them.
The more interesting one is actually Jumeirah Gold. I haven’t heard of many easy shortcuts to getting this status, and the benefits are pretty solid:
- Complimentary breakfast for two
- Complimentary minibar
- One-way airport transfer
- 4pm late checkout
- Fifth night free on reward stays
And that’s about it. In short, this promotion is one of the few ways to pick up a large number of Miles & More miles at a discounted price, with the miles arriving quickly as well. The promotion won’t be around for long, so if you’re interested, don’t hang around too long.
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