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Miles and more - what you need to know about it

Miles and more - what you need to know about it

Lufthansa Miles and More is a frequent flyer program and offers the opportunity to collect and redeem miles in numerous ways. However, the program has long been worthwhile not only for frequent flyers. What exactly Miles and More is and how you can travel more comfortably with Miles and More, we will show you in detail! For this purpose, we would like to give you a rough impression of the program on this overview page and also show you the details on the respective topic in individual guides.

What is Lufthansa Miles and More and how does it work?

Introduced as Lufthansa's frequent flyer program, Miles & More is now an independent company and goes far beyond flying alone. The underlying principle of Miles and More is to reward customers for their loyalty to certain companies. These are, of course, primarily Lufthansa and its subsidiaries, but other Miles and More partner companies also indirectly reward customers for their loyalty. This loyalty is rewarded with miles, which you can earn after free registration with numerous partners. Afterwards, the program offers you the possibility to redeem the collected miles for awards of all kinds. Parallel to Miles and More, there is also the Lufthansa PartnerPlusBenefit program for companies, with which additional points can be earned in parallel.

In addition to earning and redeeming miles, Miles & More also rewards real frequent flyers with a so-called frequent flyer status. Those who fly a lot receive certain benefits whenever they fly with Lufthansa or its partner airlines and Star Alliance partners. These benefits include, for example, access to lounges or prioritized check-in. In our guide to the status levels and status benefits with Lufthansa, we have summarized all the information on this topic for you.

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How does earning miles with Miles and More work?

As already mentioned, Miles and More is based on earning and redeeming miles. You can earn and redeem miles in many different ways.
However, the two most important types of miles are award miles and status miles. You can earn the former in numerous ways - even independently of flying. Miles and More has numerous partners in the travel industry, but also in completely different industries, where you can earn miles. In addition, the Miles and More credit card offers you the opportunity to earn miles with every euro you spend.

Status miles, on the other hand, are only earned when you actually fly, as they determine which frequent flyer status you achieve. You can earn them with the partner airlines of Miles and More, as well as with all member airlines of the Star Alliance. Status miles are always considered over the course of a calendar year and are therefore reset on the first of January of the new year. Award miles, on the other hand, only expire after 36 months, unless you have unlimited mileage validity through one of the options.

In general, it is important to note that miles are not usually earned free of charge. You will only earn miles if you buy products or services from a certain company, so there will always be a cost associated with earning miles. Of course, it is optimal if you would have spent the amount anyway and now receive miles for it. However, you should be aware that miles have a value and are often seen as a kind of shadow currency. However, you cannot buy Miles and More miles directly, although there are some detours that come very close to buying miles.

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How does Miles and More mileage redemption work?

Now that we've looked at how earning Miles & More miles works, let's move on to the second part of the program: redeeming them. There are numerous options for this, ranging from awards in the Miles & More World Shop to flight or upgrade awards. In general, it can be said that redeeming miles in the World Shop is almost never worthwhile. In this context, the value of a Miles & More mile is particularly relevant. Unlike other bonus programs, this value is not fixed, but increases and decreases with the individual redemption for which you use the miles. Depending on the value of the redemption, values between half a cent and five cents per mile come out - a more than relevant difference.

How does the redemption of miles for flights work with Miles and More?

As already mentioned, redeeming miles for flights is not quite as simple as it might seem at first glance. Basically, a distinction is made between different awards at Lufthansa Miles & More that are related to flying.

These are:
- Flight awards
- upgrade awards
- Mileage bargains
- FlySmart awards

These differ in terms of the airlines you can book and certain conditions that must be met for the booking. Also different is the value you receive for your miles with each award.

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What status levels and benefits are there with Miles and More?

Of course, as befits a frequent flyer program, the Miles & More program also has various status levels that reward frequent flyers for their loyalty. These are generally qualified by reaching certain thresholds of collected status miles.

Miles and More has a total of three status levels:
- Lufthansa Frequent Traveller Status
- Lufthansa Senator Status
- Lufthansa HON Circle Status

Each individual status level is valid for two years and, once qualified, brings certain benefits on flights with Lufthansa and its partners for the entire duration of the status.
The individual benefits of status with Lufthansa are many and varied, ranging from upgrades and access to lounges to dedicated treatment at the airport and personal service. With HON Circle status, for example, you as a Lufthansa passenger enjoy the same benefits as if you were flying in First Class - with a Business or Economy ticket, of course.

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Is it worth participating in Miles and More?

In general, participating in Miles & More is always worthwhile. Why is it worth it? Because the program is permanently free of charge and registration only costs a few minutes. So there's no doubt that it's worth signing up for Miles and More. Much more exciting, however, is the question of whether earning miles with Miles and More is worth it. This is a bit more difficult to answer, because collecting miles is, as we have already stated before, usually not free of charge. Generally speaking, you can say that earning miles is worth it in any case if money is spent on certain things anyway.

However, the situation is different if you are looking for flights and would book them only of the miles at Miles & More. This is usually only worthwhile if you also collect a certain amount of miles before they expire and can get real value from them. In addition, it is important that you set yourself a goal that you want to fulfill with the miles. For example, a mileage bargain to a certain destination. It also doesn't hurt to consider what value a mile has for you. This way you know approximately how much earning miles is worth to you and when a mileage earning promotion is worthwhile and when it is not.
Often, attractive offers from Miles & More partner companies can be extremely exciting and therefore worth the money paid for the miles alone. If you follow this strategy and always use attractive deals to earn miles with Miles and More, you can quickly enjoy an award flight in Business or First Class. It should also be mentioned that with an award ticket at Miles and More, you have the opportunity to fly in Business Class or First Class at such a low price as is otherwise seldom the case.

Conclusion on Lufthansa Miles and More

Although the program certainly has its weaknesses, Miles and More is one of the most attractive frequent flyer programs on the market. If you use Lufthansa Miles & More correctly, you can undoubtedly derive enormous added value from the program. However, you have to consider in each situation whether earning miles is a premium compared to other providers and what miles are worth to you. We've been able to have some extremely awesome experiences through Miles and More and consider the program to be valuable for just about anyone who wants to travel cheaply and luxuriously!

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