As has been widely anticipated, Lufthansa has announced that Miles & More will convert to a revenue based program beginning with flights booked on March 12, 2018 and afterward.
As is typical for a revenue-based model, the more you spend on airfare, the more award miles you will earn for your account. Obviously, this favors passengers that book higher level Economy class tickets, Business, and First Class tickets.
The way Lufthansa is going to do it is by assigning ‘multiples’ based on the airline operating your flight. You then multiply the ‘eligible’ part of your fare (including surcharges) by the ‘multiple’ to calculate how many miles you’ll receive.
For flights operated by Lufthansa Group airlines (Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Eurowings, Brussels), a base ‘multiple’ of 4 will be used to determine your award miles credit. For example, if your fare has $400 basis (inclusive of surcharges), you’ll earn 1600 miles for the booking.
According to the somewhat poor details in their press release, it appears that the 4 ‘multiple’ will apply to other Miles & More member airlines such as (LOT, Croatia, etc.).
For passengers holding status with Miles and More (Frequent Traveler, Senator, Hon Circle), the multiple will be higher. For these passengers, the ‘multiple’ will be 6 for flights operated by Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, United Airlines, Air Canada, LOT Polish Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Adria Airlines and Air Dolomiti. A multiple of 5 will be used for flights operated by Eurowings, Brussels Airlines, and other Miles & More airlines not mentioned in the previous sentence. There will no longer be a separate ‘Executive Bonus’ calculation. This has been factored into the higher multiples being awarded to members with elite status levels.
According to the release, the determining factor for how miles are credited will be based on your ticket number. For example if you book your Lufthansa-operated flights through a travel agent and that travel agent assigns a ‘Eurowings’ ticket number to it, you will earn your miles based on the ‘multiple’ in place for Eurowings. So be careful when using a travel agent when booking a ticket and make sure they ticket it to the airline that you are actually flying in order to ensure the full mileage credit that you paid for!
With this announcement, no changes are being made as far as how you earn elite status within Miles & More. The same terms and conditions stay in place for status qualifications.
As far as the currency calculation being used to calculate your fare and award miles, all ticket sales will be converted to Euros for the basis of determining the amount spent on your ticket. For example, lets say you spend $720USD to buy your ticket, at the time of sale the $720 will be converted to Euros at current ‘FX’ rates. This Euro amount is what will be multiplied by the earnings multiple to determine how many miles you’ll earn. So if the $720USD translates into €611, the €611 will be multiplied by the multiple to determine award miles earned. A bit unfair if your currency is worth less than the Euro, but it is what it is. It probably would take too many abacuses to keep track of all of the different currencies for the purpose of calculating miles.
ALSO, and a big ALSO:
If your ticket is issued by any other carrier within Star Alliance not mentioned above, and you have the miles from that ticket being credited to your Miles & More account, NOTHING CHANGES. Those tickets will continue earning under the existing terms and conditions and are not subject to this revenue based models. For example, you book a ticket issued by Singapore Airlines, and credit your miles to MM, you’ll continue earning your award and status qualifying miles under the ‘old’ system.
Lufthansa has created a dedicated webpage to help communicate the details of these changes, you can find it here.
