Lufthansa Miles and More Award Chart Devaluation

The Lufthansa Miles & More Award Chart Will Suffer a Devaluation on May 9, 2019. While Lufthansa miles tend to be collected more by German clients or those who regularly fly Lufthansa or Swiss, the miles can be useful when you want to book Lufthansa First Class in advance, since Lufthansa generally only releases Lufthansa First Class award availability to Star Alliance partners 15 days in advance of departure. For that reason, I redeemed Miles & More miles recently for a Lufthansa First Class flight later this year, since I needed to be sure of getting a couple of us on the same flight together on a particular date.

Here's the current Lufthansa Miles & More Award Chart, effective until May 8, 2019:

And here's the new Lufthansa Miles & More Award Chart, effective May 9, 2019 (so far only available in German):

Key Changes

Fortunately, for those who mostly use Miles & More miles for Lufthansa First Class and Lufthansa Business Class awards between North America and Europe, the devaluation isn't too bad:

Lufthansa First Class between Europe and North America increases from 85,000 miles to 91,000 miles each way (7% increase)
Lufthansa or Swiss Business Class between Europe and North America increases from 52,500 miles to 56,000 miles each way (just under 7% increase)

The above increases also apply for those flying between Europe and South Africa, and other increases for Lufthansa First Class between Europe and Asia or Southeast Asia are ~6%.

There's a big devaluation, however, for Miles & More members living in Israel, Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Syria. That's because with the current award chart, these members pay the Europe award rate for awards starting in the member's country of residence. So for example, a Miles & More member in Israel traveling from Israel to the U.S. would pay the Europe to North America rate of 85,000 miles for Lufthansa First Class, if there's award availability.

That changes on May 9, when these members will pay the rate for Middle East/Caucasus/North and Central Africa, and will thus have to use the special 3 region award rate, as these flights will of course connect in Europe.

First Class increases from 85,000 miles to 155,000 miles one way (82% increase)
Business Class increases from 52,500 miles to 97,500 miles one way (86% increase)

Do you plan to redeem Lufthansa Miles & More miles before the May 9 devaluation?