Miles & More


Miles & More is the largest traveller loyalty programme in Europe with 25 million members as of March 2014. It offers rewards to passengers of the Star Alliance travelling on certain types of tickets. The programme was launched by Lufthansa in 1993 and has about 40 airline partners, including the 28 airlines of the Star Alliance. The programme enables its members to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles on all of the fully integrated airlines, all Star Alliance members as well as several other partner airlines. Furthermore, there are more than 270 non-aviation companies affiliated with the programme. These include partners from the hotel, car rental & cruise industries, subscriptions & books, banks & insurance, telecommunications & electronics industries as well as shopping & lifestyle. Customers are able to build status, which gives them access to certain privileges. Miles & More is free of charge.

Partnership history

Fully integrated airline partners

The following airlines are partners of the Miles & More program:
There are two types of miles within the programme.

Award miles

These are miles that can be collected in the account of a member and be used to buy flights, upgrades, merchandise from the Lufthansa WorldShop and other Miles & More partners. For standard Miles & More members they retain validity for 36 months, after which they expire.. For Frequent Travellers, Senators and HON Circle Card holders, the miles have no expiration date. However, as soon as a customer does not hold any of these cards any more, the expiration date of all miles is set to 36 months counting from loss of frequent flyer status. For Miles & More Credit Card holders issued in several countries, miles have no expiration date as long as the card is held and/or used. If the credit card contract is ended, the original expiry date of the miles is reinstated; although the earliest miles can expire is at the end of the quarter after the credit card contract is ended.

Status miles

Status miles can only be earned when flying on the fully integrated partner airlines or on Star Alliance members. There is no other way to earn these miles. In addition, status miles expire at the end of each calendar year. They are used to identify the frequent flyers and members that are able to qualify for a higher status on the basis of the status miles that they have collected in one year.

Special form of status miles: Select miles

Select benefits are advantages that can be earned in addition to the status benefits, as part of the programme called Miles & More Selections while the status is still valid. Once the member has reached specified mileage levels by flying, additional advantages can be selected. With every mileage level reached the range of select benefits increases. The selection of the select benefits varies from the status the member has. The select benefits for Frequent Travellers e.g. include business lounge vouchers, e-vouchers or mile exchange, the ones for Senators a Hilton Gold Membership, in addition. For HON circle members additional benefits such as coupons up to a value of 100 Euro as well as additional Senator partner cards are available.

Special form of status miles: HON Circle miles

HON Circle miles can only be earned when flying in business or first class on the fully integrated partner airlines and Air-Rail trains in Germany. They are necessary to attain the top-tier status on Miles & More – HON Circle. Until April 1, 2006 it was possible to also collect this type of mile on United Airlines. This option no longer exists. HON-miles have to be accumulated within two calendar years. Only Senators with an account balance of more than 300,000 status miles over two years, and existing HON Circle members, can see these miles on their account statement. HON Circle qualifying miles balance is also visible to Frequent Traveller and Senator members when logged in their Lufthansa iPad or Android app.

Flying

The miles that a member receives after having completed a flight depend on the Airline issuing ticket, mileage flown, the class of service and the booking class.

European flightshttps://www.miles-and-more.com/online/myportal/mam/de/earn/flight/offer?nodeid=2507840&l=en

Tables show the number of miles earned with Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and SWISS. The number of miles earned with other airlines can be calculated using the Mileage Calculator available at the .
Class of serviceBooking classFixed mileage
Economy ClassK, L, T125
Economy ClassQ, S, V, W250
Economy ClassH, M, U500
Economy ClassB, Y1000
Business ClassP500
Business ClassZ1000
Business ClassC, D, J1500

Class of serviceBooking classFixed mileage
Economy ClassK, L, T125
Economy ClassS, W500
Economy ClassH, Q, U, V750
Economy ClassB, M, Y1250
Business ClassP750
Business ClassZ1250
Business ClassC, D, J2000

Intercontinental flights

Class of serviceBooking classMiles receivedMinimum mileage
Economy ClassK, L, TMileage flown x 25%250
Economy ClassQ, S, V, WMileage flown x 50%250
Economy ClassH, M, UMileage flown x 100%500
Economy ClassB, YMileage flown x 150%750
Premium Economy classE, GMileage flown x 150%750
Premium Economy classNMileage flown x 100%500
Business ClassPMileage flown x 100%500
Business ClassZMileage flown x 150%750
Business ClassC, D, JMileage flown x 200%1,000
First ClassA, FMileage flown x 300%1,500

These mileages apply for flights operated by Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and SWISS. There is the possibility to earn 10,000 miles on all flights operated by the Lufthansa Private Jet.

Other earning opportunities

always has a number of promotions, most lasting for 1–2 months only. They include double mileage on new routes, extra miles for using electronic check-in and alike. Some of the promotions are restricted to residents of certain countries and others are restricted to certain customers.
There are other ways to collect award miles when not travelling. The Lufthansa Miles & More Credit Card can be subscribed to and at least one award mile for every two Euro spent. A one-time sign-up bonus is given and sometimes introductory promotions may apply, such as double or triple award miles for an introductory period.
Award miles can be earned on certain Deutsche Bahn trains, when staying in certain hotels, shopping in certain shops, renting cars, investing in certain funds, opening an account with certain banks, picking up a catalogue in a Bang & Olufsen store, and others.
For all offers see as offers vary between countries. However, all these offers do not earn any status miles.

Redeeming miles

Once a member has collected the necessary number of miles, they can be used to buy flights, upgrades and products from the .

Redeeming miles for flights

Miles in a member's account can be exchanged for award flights on all the fully integrated airline partners and all of the Star Alliance carriers. The number of miles that is deducted from the account depends on the origin and destination of that flight. The number of miles that is required can be checked . Additional fees and taxes will still apply for award flights. Since the beginning of 2017, with “Cash & Miles” members have been able to use miles flexibly for their flights, and thus, to reduce the amount of money to be paid.

Fuel surcharges on award tickets

Lufthansa does add fuel surcharges hidden as fees on award tickets. This is prohibited for US based carriers. A transatlantic award flight with Miles and More can cost up to 500 EUR in additional taxes and fees whereas the same itinerary booked with the US based Star Alliance partner and their miles would cost less than 100 EUR in fees and taxes. So Miles and More may have a much lower value than US based Miles.
In September 2016, Miles & More adjusted the flight award table, thereby reducing the international / national surcharge per flight distance for domestic European premium flights. Miles & More thereby takes over a part of the regular surcharge. Participants now pay €5 instead of €35 in economy classes and €20 instead of €43 in business class with Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and brussels airlines. The number of miles required for a flight award inside Europe was adjusted slightly, increasing by 5,000 award miles for return flights.

Redeeming miles for upgrades

Miles can be redeemed for upgrades on all fully integrated carriers of Miles & More and on the following Star-Alliance partners: All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, Condor Airlines, Singapore Airlines, TAP Portugal, Thai Airways International, United Airlines. Again the number of miles required depends on the destination of the flight. The exact number is found on . Passengers are only allowed to upgrade one class of service. Only certain booking classes qualify for upgrades.

Redeeming miles for car, hotel, shopping etc.

Miles can be redeemed for rental car, hotel, shopping, banks & insurance, telecommunications & electronics industries etc. Moreover, the Miles & More GmbH also continues to expand its offers in relation to travel. The hotel booking portal Miles & More Hotels already makes it easier for users to book the accommodation they need quickly, giving members the opportunity to earn at least 1,000 miles per night or to redeem their miles. In addition to this, the Miles & More rental car service allows members to redeem miles to book rental cars. Avis car rental in US costs 47,000 miles at the minimum, finding a Hilton hotel and shorting the list based on miles is impossible, selection of hotels in Best Western is very limited.

Miles & More Credit Card

Members of the programme also earn award miles when paying their purchases with their Miles & More credit card. Holders of the Miles & More Credit Card Gold benefit furthermore from unlimited mileage validity. Programme members use more than 1.4 million Miles & More Credit Cards in Germany and 22 additional countries, primarily in Europe, America and Asia.

Status

On Miles & More all customers can build status through collecting status miles. The status miles from 1 year only count towards status. Status is important as there are many privileges and advantages that status holders receive.
There are four status levels on Miles & More:

Miles & More member status

This is the normal status that everybody gets after they join the program. This status does not receive any officially documented privileges. A Miles & More member starts with a temporary paper-card, which is usually cut out from one of the Lufthansa magazines or printed from the internet; a plastic card is sent once the member has credited at least one award mile to their Miles & More account.

Frequent Traveller status

The frequent traveller card is given to all Miles & More customers that received a total of over 35,000 status miles or had 30 flights. This status remains valid for two years and a member can requalify in any one of those two years. All status cards expire in February of the third year, i.e. if status is earned in November 2018, the status will be valid until February 2021.
As a frequent traveller a passenger receives a number of privileges:
Having collected 100,000 Status Miles within one calendar year, Miles & More members will receive "Senator" Status with a validity of at least two years.
The main benefits of Senator status are:
Having collected 600,000 HON Circle Miles within two calendar years, Miles & More members receive HON Circle Status with validity of two years.
The main perks of having HON status are: