The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Miles & More is changing the rules - what frequent Lufthansa flyers should be aware of

2022-12-25T19:01:07.504Z


2023 will be the last year in the old Miles & More system. In 2024 there will be massive changes and of course winners and losers. An overview.


Enlarge image

Miles and more:

The new system rewards those who fly a lot, cheaply and on short intercontinental routes with the Lufthansa Group.

Photo: Jens Büttner/ dpa

In January 2024 the time has come: Miles & More, Europe's largest frequent flyer program, will switch to a new system for assigning frequent flyer status.

This was actually announced in 2019, but then Corona threw a spanner in the works.

A general trend in frequent flyer programs is that there are different "currencies" for status allocation and award miles.

For example,

B. British Airways between Avios (Award Miles) and Tier Points.

At Air France, in addition to the miles, there are so-called Experience Points for status assignment.

New point system for status assignment

From 2024 Lufthansa Miles & More will distinguish between award miles (as before) and "Points", "Qualifying Points" and "HON Circle Points" for status assignment.

·

Points

are collected on all flights in the Star Alliance.

·

Qualifying points

are only available on flights with the Lufthansa Group (Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Eurowings Discover, Air Dolomiti) or with the co-issuing Miles & More airline partners (Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines and Luxair). ).

·

HON Circle Points

behave like Qualifying Points, except that they are only awarded in Business and First Class.

Scoring Criteria

Only the travel class (economy, premium economy, business, first class) and the distinction between continental and intercontinental flights count when determining the number of points.

Continental flight credits are per flight segment from 2024

Economy class 20 points / qualifying points

· Premium Economy Class 20 Points / Qualifying Points

Business Class 40 Points / Qualifying Points / HON Circle Points

· First Class 40 Points / Qualifying Points / HON Circle Points

Credits for intercontinental flights are per flight segment from 2024

· Economy class 60 points / qualifying points

· Premium Economy Class 80 Points / Qualifying Points

Business Class 200 Points / Qualifying Points / HON Circle Points

· First Class 300 Points / Qualifying Points / HON Circle Points

A Business Class return flight from Frankfurt to Dubai, for example, earns 400 points.

And if you fly with an airline in the Lufthansa Group or with jointly issuing Miles & More airline partners, there are even 400 Qualifying Points and HON Circle Points, since Business Class.

status qualification

With 650 points and 325 qualifying points in one calendar year, you receive frequent traveler status and with 2,000 points and 1,000 qualifying points you receive senator status.

So you have to fly half with the Lufthansa Group or with the jointly issuing Miles & More airline partners in order to be able to achieve frequent flyer status at all.

HON Circle Status is available from 6,000 HON Circle Points.

Status validity has been reduced from two years to one year.

Earning award miles remains unchanged.

As with any major change, there are winners and losers depending on the customer group.

Winner of the new Miles & More

The new system rewards those who fly a lot, cheaply and on short intercontinental routes with the Lufthansa Group.

This is partly against the trend with other bonus programs, e.g.

B. have introduced a revenue-based component in America.

Sales are irrelevant in the new Miles & More.

who e.g.

For example, if you book your ticket early, you might pay 3,500 euros for a Los Angeles Lufthansa Business Class flight.

Those who are late, on the other hand, pay 7,000 euros, twice as much.

So far, this has usually been accompanied by a higher mileage credit thanks to a higher booking class - from 2024 both tickets will be treated equally.

Up until now, the flight distance flown, in addition to the booking class, was decisive for the allocation of status miles.

Under the new system, someone flying to Dubai will get the same points credit as someone flying to Singapore, twice as far away.

So everyone is a winner

· who always book the cheapest flight tickets (especially in business class).

who travel intercontinentally on shorter routes (e.g. Dubai, New York)

· who fly within Germany or within Europe every week with inexpensive Economy Class tickets.

In the past, it was not possible to achieve Senator status in this way.

Now 100 flown segments per year are enough.

· who primarily fly with the Lufthansa Group

The official anchoring of a lifetime frequent traveler or senator status is also positive.

The former are available from 30,000 lifetime qualifying points, the latter from 40,000.

Loser of the new Miles & More

For the most part, the losers are mirror images of the winners.

are losers

· Business travelers who usually book their tickets at short notice and at high cost

· Travelers who tend to travel longer distances intercontinentally (e.g. Asia, South America)

· Premium Economy Class travelers, who now earn little more points than Economy Class travelers.

In the old system, there are even the same number of status miles for premium economy class flights as for cheap business class flights.

· Travelers with changing frequency of flights over time, as the new system requires a certain number of flights every year to maintain status (in the old system only every two years)

· Travelers who are increasingly traveling outside the Lufthansa Group with other Star Alliance carriers, since in the new Miles & More half of the status must be flown in with Qualifying Points.

But the biggest disadvantage of the new Miles & More is that the status is only awarded for one year instead of the previous two years.

Conclusion

After several years of hanging up, the time has finally come from 2024.

Lufthansa Miles & More introduces a new status system that awards fixed points based on travel class and continental vs. intercontinental flights.

The main rewards are flying a lot and cheaply.

Business travelers, who are usually traveling on more flexible and more expensive tickets, are at a disadvantage.

Since the new status will only be granted for one year instead of two as before, it is recommended for most of them to carry out the status (re-)qualification in 2023.

Alexander Koenig is the founder of First Class & More, the largest German-speaking consulting portal for cheap business and first class flights and the optimal use of frequent flyer and hotel programs.

In his column "Koenigs Klasse" he regularly addresses topics that are of interest to frequent flyers and travellers.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-12-25

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-07T14:06:13.318Z
News/Politics 2024-02-05T12:50:19.451Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z
News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.