How to Redeem Lufthansa Miles & More to Central and South America With No Fuel Surcharges
The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More Card is currently offering 50,000 miles after spending $5000. (Update: This offer has now ended). Usually, this card only offers a 30,000 mile bonus and the 50,000 mile bonus is only around until December 15. While this is a great bonus, the main challenge for most is the unfamiliarity with the Lufthansa Miles & More programs: the rules, how to book, where to fly. The other uncertain part of the Lufthansa Miles & More program is the fact that fuel surcharges are being charged on some routes.
However, Central and South America are destinations where you can fly with no fuel surcharges and get great value with Lufthansa Miles & More Miles. You can fly many Star Alliance carrier to Central or South America and not pay any fuel surcharges. These include:
- United Airlines flights within North American and South America.
- All US Airways flights.
- TAM flies to South America.
- Avianca flies to Central and South America
- Taca flies to South America.
None of these airlines will charge any fuel surcharges when you fly from North America to Central or South America. Also keep in mind that, although Lufthansa Miles & More can be redeemed on US Airways and TAM right now, both these airlines will be exiting the Star Alliance and joining oneworld in March of 2014.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I receive a commission for applications approved through my link. I always include the best offer I can find regardless of referral. You don’t have to use my links, but if you do, thank you very much for your support!)
How Much Do Awards Cost?
The Lufthansa Miles & More program charges very standard rates for economy and business class flights to Central America and South America. One major positive is that flights on US Airways and United Airlines are two cabin planes. That is, redeeming miles in business class actually gets you into BusinessFirst, which includes flat beds on both airlines. In fact, US Airways has its Envoy Suites that fly to South America at a business class price.
After meeting the minimum spending requirement on the current Lufthansa Miles & More sign-up bonus, I will have 55,000 Lufthansa Miles & More. I still haven’t been to Argentina and this is almost enough for a round-trip in economy to Argentina. It is also enough for a one-way flight in BusinessFirst.
You can find the full Lufthansa Miles & More Award Chart here, but here is the award pricing for Central and South America.
Central America and Caribbean
- Economy: 35,000 miles round-trip or 17,000 each way.
- Business class: 60,000 miles round-trip or 30,000 each way
- First class: 85,000 miles round-trip or 40,000 each way.
South America:
- Economy: 60,000 miles round-trip or 30,000 each way.
- Business class: 105,000 miles round-trip of 52,000 each way.
- First class: 170,000 miles round-trip or 85,000 each way.
Visiting Multiple Destinations with Stopovers
If you’re heading to South America and want to visit a few destinations, then Lufthansa Miles & More can give that extra flexibility without paying extra miles. When redeeming Lufthansa Miles & More for a round-trip to a different region, you are allowed one stopover in each direction.
What that means is that you can visit three destinations in South America on a single trip. You can visit Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Iguassu Falls all on one trip.
Of course, there are a few restrictions:
- Two stopovers and two open jaws are permitted on round-trip awards between different regions. One stopover is permitted in each direction.
- At most three segments in each directions are permitted.
- A stopover in the starting region is not permitted. That is, no stopping in the US if you start in the US.
Although allowing two stopovers in each direction is very generous, the fact that only three segments are allowed in each direction is somewhat limiting. Allowing three segments essentially means that you can only have two connections. As an example, if you are trying to fly to Buenos Aires, you can fly:
New York – Charlotte- Sao Paolo – Buenos Aires
But you cannot fly
New York – Charlotte- Rio de Janeiro – Sao Paolo – Buenos Aires
as that includes four segments and three connections.
Searching for Award Availability
I find the easiest place to search is the United Airlines website. It has an extremely easy to use interface and displays award availability for the five above carriers very well and accurately.
As an example, I will show how to search for round-trip awards from New York to Buenos Aires in the spring.
You will want to visit the United Airlines website. Next, simply type in your dates and make sure to check the button for Award Travel.
On the next page, we will see all available flights for our dates. Now, we want to only focus on routes that are in Blue. Stay award from the yellow routes. The blue routes will be what we can book with our Lufthansa Miles & More. Also, keep in mind that you are only using the United Airlines website to search for flights and we will not be booking with United Airlines miles. You will need to write down the flights you want and then call Lufthansa Miles & More customer service to book the flights.
In this case, I would simply write down that I am looking at flights UA 31 EWR – Sao Paolo and UA 861 Sao Paolo – Buenos Aires on March 1. You’ll need to give this information to Lufthansa Miles & More customer service later when booking your flights.
Booking the Award with Lufthansa Miles & More
Lufthansa Miles & More only allows bookings online for airlines in the Lufthansa Miles & More program. These include Lufthansa, Swiss, Adriatic. For all other airlines, you need to call customer service at. When calling, it is best to already have your flights prepared and searched. That way, you can easily give the customer service agent your flights. I always like to do my own research prior to calling customer service and have the flights ready. It makes the whole booking process much smoother.
To book your ticket, you need to call the Lufthansa Service Center at 800-581-6400 and speak to a customer service agent.
