The airlines of Lufthansa Group are changing how award miles are credited to participants in the frequent flyer and reward program Miles & More. Beginning in March 2018, the number of award miles that are credited will be based on the price of the flight, i.e the price of the ticket plus any additional fees charged by the respective airline, and on the frequent flyer status of the participants in the program. Under the old system, booking class or rather booking class and the length of the route determined the number of miles that were awarded.
Going forward, Miles & More participants will be receiving four to six award miles per euro spent, corresponding with their particular booking habits and flight patterns. The new reward system applies to flights with the Lufthansa Group airlines Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings, as well as to all other Miles & More partner airlines, provided the ticket for the flight was issued by a Lufthansa Group airline.
Specifically, this means that Miles & More participants will always receive at least four award miles per euro spent on flights with the previously mentioned airlines. Members with frequent flyer status will receive six award miles per euro on flights with Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines as well as with United Airlines and Air Canada. This means that the bonus award miles that status members receive for flights with the network airlines and transatlantic joint venture partners will be doubling to 50 percent, from currently 25 percent. The same applies to the airlines Adria Airways, Air Dolomiti, Croatia Airlines and LOT Polish Airlines, which also participate in the Miles & More frequent flyer and reward program.
On flights with Eurowings, Brussels Airlines and all other Miles & More partner airlines, the award mile bonus will remain at 25 percent, which means that status members will receive five award miles per euro spent. Award miles can only be credited according to this new system if the tickets for the flight were issued by a Lufthansa Group airline, not by other airlines.
The frequent flyer status of participants, the privileges associated with that status and the allocation of status miles will not be affected by the new system for award miles. This change will also not have a fundamental impact on the number of award miles that are distributed by the airlines over all, or on the availability of flight rewards.
With this change, Lufthansa Group is setting up a flexible system for crediting award miles that links the number of awarded miles to the price of the ticket. With this change, the leading European aviation group is rewarding the purchase of higher-priced tickets more strongly than is currently the case.
The current system for crediting award miles, which is dependent on booking class or rather on booking class and the length of the route, will largely be eliminated for flights with Lufthansa Group airlines. In future, award miles will only be assigned according to the present system in rare cases. The old system will only be applied if Miles & More participants are traveling with a Lufthansa Group airline, but the ticket for the flight was issued by an airline outside Lufthansa Group or as part of a package tour. If the flight is booked with a different Miles & More partner airline and operated by one of those airlines, participants will also be awarded miles according to the old system.
The new reward system will be applied for the first time on March 12, 2018. This will give customers of the Lufthansa Group airlines and participants in the Miles & More program enough time to take the transition to the new reward system into account in their travel plans. Miles for tickets that are booked before March 12, 2018 will be credited according to the present system, even if the trip itself begins on or after the cutoff date.
The number of award miles that are credited per flight has repeatedly been brought in line with the development of ticket prices in the past, and lowered, especially in the lower-priced booking classes. The new reward system will result in an automatic allocation of award miles based on the sales volume that is generated by the purchase of the ticket. With this move, the Lufthansa Group airlines are creating a consistent system for assigning award miles. And frequent flyers will continue to benefit from high levels of comfort and convenience when they travel: the length of the route will still be the relevant factor for awarding status miles, and privileges linked to frequent flyer status will remain in place.
