Update: Current Offer is for 20,000 miles with first purchase. Consider instead applying for another credit card on the Best Travel Credit Cards page.
The 50,000 Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard offer is back, and I've added it to the Best Travel Credit Cards page.
Here are the offer details:
- 20,000 Miles & More miles after first purchase
- Additional 30,000 Miles & More miles after spending $5000 in the first 90 days
- $79 annual fee is NOT waived
- Earn 2 miles per dollar spent on tickets purchased directly from the Lufthansa group
- Earn 1 mile per dollar spent on all other purchases
- Annual Companion Ticket (Note: this in general is NOT a good deal and not a reason to get the card: see my analysis in Lufthansa Miles & More Companion Ticket Worth It?)
Both my husband and I have this card, and plan to use the miles for future travel from Europe in Lufthansa First Class. When flying first class from Frankfurt, you have access to the Lufthansa First Class Terminal, which is exclusively for Lufthansa First Class passengers.
1. Advance Award Booking of Lufthansa First Class
With my Award Booking Service, I regularly get requests from prospective clients for Lufthansa First Class using United miles. Sorry, but no Award Booking Service can conjure up advance awards in Lufthansa First Class for dates 6 months in the future using United miles. Miles & More miles, however, will enable you to book Lufthansa First Class awards in advance. Yes, there are fuel surcharges, but for most folks it's well worth being able to book Lufthansa First Class in advance and better plan their trip.
Keep in mind that fuel surcharges on one way awards from Europe to the U.S. tend to be less. For example, as I highlighted in Best Ways to Use the Lufthansa Miles & More Award Chart, Lufthansa First Class Frankfurt to West Coast for 85K Miles & More Miles + ~$270–and if you have the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®, your 40,000 signup bonus becomes 46,000 miles after making the required $3000 minimum spend, worth $460 as a travel statement credit, which can easily be used to reimburse the cost of the fuel surcharges, as long as you charged the taxes and fees to your Arrival card when booking.
If you don't want to put the requisite spend on the Miles & More card to earn the additional 30,000 miles needed for the one way 85,000 first class award, you can transfer 25,000 SPG points to Miles & More, which will give you 30K Miles & More miles. See SPG Airline Partners: Transfer Starpoints into Miles.
Do note that it's no longer possible to book SWISS First Class awards, unless you happen to be a Miles & More Hon Circle member or Senator. See SWISS First Class Miles and More Awards End December 31, 2013. But SWISS Business Class is a very good business class product, and there is greater award availability if booking with Miles & More miles than with United or other Star Alliance miles.
2. 3 Flat Bed NYC-West Coast One Way United Flights with No Fuel Surcharges
If you're dead set against paying fuel surcharges, you can also use Miles & More miles to book transcontinental flights on United for fewer miles than United charges, and no fuel surcharges. You can fly flat bed on a transcon United flight for 17,000 miles for a one way trip. That's because of the advantageous Lufthansa Miles & More Award Chart for domestic flights:
Domestic Award Chart
- Economy: 25,000 Miles & More miles roundtrip
- Business: 35,000 Miles & More miles roundtrip
- First: 50,000 Miles & More miles roundtrip
Since a nice perk is that Lufthansa Miles & More rounds down for one way flights, a one-way business class anywhere in the contiguous 48 states, for example from NYC-LAX in United BusinessFirst, is just 17,000 miles. Beward that you'll pay 25,000 miles for a one way domestic first class flight in US Airways, however, because US Air codes its domestic first class as First, not Business.
3. Kids Are 75% of the Miles of a Regular Award
As I mentioned in 50,000 Miles Lufthansa Miles & More Card Worth It, a nice benefit for families is that awards on Lufthansa Group airlines for kids 2-11 are 75% of adult prices. It's very rare for kids to get a discount for awards booked with frequent flyer miles, so this is a nice benefit. As noted, it must be a Lufthansa Group airline: Adria Airways, Austrian Airlines Group, Air Dolomiti, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Luxair and SWISS. You do NOT get a child discount when booking other Star Alliance awards using Miles & More miles.
4. One of the Two Best Barclays Cards
In my view, the 50K Lufthansa Miles & More card is one of the two best Barclays cards, along with the Barclays Arrival Card, which you can use to get reimbursed for the fuel surcharges you pay for Lufthansa, SWISS and other award flights. If you're aiming to spread your credit card applications among the different issuers, these are the first two I'd look to get from Barclay's.
Good to Know
There are some things to know when applying for this card:
- $79 annual fee is NOT waived, unless you hold Miles & More Senator or HON Circle status
- 50,000 miles bonus is for new card holders only
- This is not a great card to put spend on, unless you do a lot of paid flying on Lufthansa, SWISS or Miles & More airlines
- Barclays does NOT like to see a lot of recent credit card applications. If you've been churning heavily, you likely won't get approved for this card
Do you plan to apply for the Lufthansa Premier Miles & More MasterCard?
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