[Expired] Limited Time: Lufthansa Premier Miles & More Card Raises Sign-Up Bonus to 50,000 Miles
Update: This offer is no longer available.
Last November, the Barclays Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard offered a 50,000 mile sign-up bonus for a limited time and this was an extremely popular card. Though many people did sign up for it, a few missed out when it ended in the middle of December. It has been at 30,000 miles for the past five month, but now the improved 50,000 mile offer is back until June 30. Until then, the card comes with 20,000 bonus miles after the first purchase and an additional 30,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 within 3 months of account opening. The first year annual fee of $79 is not waived, however.
50,000 Lufthansa Miles is enough to reach many destinations immediately so this is a great card to consider. In particular, you can fly in BusinessFirst on United Airlines cross-country for 17,000 miles each way (vs. 25,000 miles with United). Lufthansa also allows you to have one stopover in each direction on international awards meaning you can visit 3 cities on just one round-trip (provided you don’t exceed three segments in each direction).
Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard Details
- Earn 20,000 award miles after your first purchase or balance transfer
- Earn an additional 30,000 award miles when you spend $5,000 in purchases within the first 90 days of account opening
- Earn 2 award miles per $1 on ticket purchases directly from Miles & More integrated airline partners and 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases
- Cardholders receive a companion ticket after first use of the account and annually after each account anniversary
- No foreign transaction fees on purchases made outside the U.S.
- Redeem miles for flight awards and upgrades on Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, SWISS, Star Alliance member airlines and other partners
- $79 Annual Fee. Please see Terms and Conditions for complete details
Overview of the Lufthansa Miles & More Program
The Lufthansa Miles & More program is the frequent flyer program of many Europe-based airlines: Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Swiss Air Lines, Adria Airways, Croatia Airlines, Luxair, Brussels Airlines, and Germanwings. The Lufthansa miles can be used on the full network of Star Alliance partners as well.The Lufthansa Miles & More program may not be for everyone as they do impose fuel surcharges on some of the Star Alliance carriers when traveling to Europe or across continents, but there are certainly many sweet spots in the Lufthansa Miles & More award chart.
You can take a look at the full Lufthansa Miles & More award chart.
Of particular value are:
- 35,000 Miles Round-Trip in First Class on United within the continental US (other airlines will charge 50,000 miles for this award).
- 50,000 Miles Round-Trip in Economy from the US to Europe (other airlines will charge 60,000 miles for this award).
35,000 Miles Round-Trip in First Class on United Within the Continental US
The main attraction to the Lufthansa Miles & More MasterCard for me is the 35,000 mile round-trip award in business class domestically. Since United Airlines is a partner, I can redeem my Lufthansa Miles for business class flights on United’s premium service routes from New York to LA or New York to San Francisco. While these flights will price in business class, these are actually two cabin planes. The 35,000 miles will actually get me into BusinessFirst, which comes with a flat bed and superior service.
Svetlana flew in BusinessFirst earlier this year when visiting me in New York and was amazed by how much difference the flat bed made on her redeye. This is our favorite way to fly from coast to coast!
50,000 Miles Round-Trip in Economy from the US to Europe
50,000 miles for a round-trip in Economy class from the US to Europe is significantly below the standard market pricing of the usual 60,000 miles charged by United Airlines, American Airlines and US Airways. So if you do have a trip to Europe you’re planning, using Lufthansa Miles may very well save you 10,000 miles. At this point, this is pretty much the only card that offers enough miles as a sign-up bonus to redeem for a round-trip to Europe during peak season.
You do need to pay fuel surcharges on most partner flights, but this can be a decent deal regardless as you get a stopover in each direction. That is, you can visit 3 cities on a single itinerary with just one ticket. If you really maximize for all three cities, you can easily save some money on intra-Europe flights to offset those fuel surcharges.
60,000 Miles Round-Trip in Economy from the US to South America
Although you will need to do some spending on the card to get to 60,000 miles and earn those extra 5,000 miles, this is another potential award redemption. The following Star Alliance partners that fly to South America and don’t charge fuel surcharges:
- United Airlines
- Avianca
- Taca
Summary
- Barclays Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard is offering a 50,000 mile sign-up bonus after a $5,000 minimum spending requirement.
- A round-trip in first class within the continental US on United Airlines only costs 35,000 Lufthansa Miles and this is 15,000 miles cheaper than with most other programs. This makes possible flying in flat-bed BusinessFirst on United Airlines from coast to coast for just 35,000 miles.
- With Lufthansa Miles & More, 50,000 miles is enough for a round-trip to Europe in Economy class or 60,000 miles for a round-trip to South American in Economy class.
- The one downside is the Miles & More program will charge fuel surcharges so make sure you understand the costs and benefits before signing up.
Miles Professor:
I’ve signed up for two cards via your site giving you credit, the BA Visa and the Barclays Arrival.
I just tried to use my Avios points for a June 12 – 22 Taiwan to Seattle.
They wouldn’t take points for June 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 or 15. !!!
How r u supposed to use your points?
I may need to fly Seattle to Winnipeg June 19. Any tips to use Avios?
You have to use your points for award seats and do your own searches, unfortunately… customer service is not very good at finding availability for complex routes :( I took a quick look for your dates and did find some availability if you break up your search TPE-LAX on Cathay Pacific with a connection in Hong Kong (search for availability on the BA.com award search website) and LAX-SEA on Alaska Airlines (search on the AA.com website for award availability). Once you find the low level award seats, call British Airways customer service to ticket. The whole thing should cost you 47000 Avios + $180 in fuel surcharges in departure taxes to fly economy. It’s 4500 miles for TPE-HKG, 35000 for HKG-LAX and 7500 for LAX-SEA. Here’s also a quick post on using your British Airways on Alaska Airlines that may help: http://milesprof.wpengine.com/2013/04/23/book-british-airways-avios-alaska-airlines-miles/
Thanks for posting this! I’ve been waiting for this offer to come back.
I applied for my Luthansa card on May 1st after reading the great benefits on your blog, I left for a business trip and arrived home end of June. I called to ask them a question and they said that I only had 30 days to use the card to get the 20,000 bonus miles- I can’t find that anywhere in writing on their paperwork or your guidelines…any advice?
Unfortunately, they are correct. As the offer states, you must spend the $5,000 within 3 months of account opening to get the additional miles. If the account was opened the beginning of May, then you have three months from then to complete the spending. I would try to call and explain the situation saying you didn’t even activate until start of July… perhaps they can extend the spending period… it’s a long short, but worth a try.
no the issue is I understand I must spend a certain amount to get the additional 30,000 bonus miles, but they are saying you must make purchase in the first month to get the first 20,000 miles…I do not see that in print anywhere. I ordered my card on May 1 the day of your blog, and left for a month business trip…..
Oh, I see what you mean now! It doesn’t say in the offer summary you have a month to make the first purchase, but I have to look fully in the complete terms and conditions to see. It just says first purchase or balance transfer. I know someone who forgot to make the first purchase on the US Airways card for 6 months and the miles did post when he finally did. I’d probably just try to make a first purchase and see if the miles post – if they do not post, try calling a few times and explaining your situation and explain that it was not in the offer summary.
I could not find it anywhere either….they did give it to me though after I called and talked to a supervisor