by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 12, 2017 | Business Class, Featured, First Class, Miles & More, Voucher |
I normally don’t speculate on rumors but one caught my attention today thanks to FlyerTalk’s ‘NewbieRunner’, who pointed out a thread written by a ‘HON Circle’ member suggesting that Lufthansa may be set to relax their upgrade rules as far as moving to First Class is concerned.
Back in 2012, Lufthansa stopped the practice of allowing Miles & More members to use their E-Vouchers to upgrade from discount ‘Z’ Business Class fares to First Class seats on long haul flights. Passengers could only upgrade to first if they had booked full fare business class tickets. This was also the time that Lufthansa unveiled ‘P’ fares, that were ‘deep discount’ business class fares. They too were ineligible for upgrades.
Interestingly enough, SWISS, the only other LH Group airline that offers long haul First Class seats has always allowed discounted Business Class fares to be upgradeable to First.
Now it appears that the policy may be revised to once again allow discount Lufthansa Business Class fares to be eligible for upgrades to First. According the aforementioned thread, it may be that a Lufthansa staffer inadvertently told this ‘HON’ that this change is coming.
The timing of this ‘leak’ may be reasonable since Miles & More is set to announce wide ranging changes to the terms of the program, including a likely shift to a revenue based model as far as earning status is concerned. This widely expected shift would simply be in line with what the rest of the industry has already done, or is in the process of transitioning to.
If this comes to pass it will be a very positive development. My only concern is what will be taken away or changed that will make this positive development seem trivial. Lately, most program changes have taken away more than they have given as far as benefits are concerned.
Expect an announcement from Miles & More in the coming weeks regarding program changes for 2018.

by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 4, 2017 | Austrian, Brussels, Fare Sale, Featured, Lufthansa, Star Alliance, Swiss, United |
If you haven’t acted yet, you have 2 days left to take advantage of Lufthansa’s fare deals for travel to the USA. The fares cover travel on Lufthansa Group airlines as well as Air Canada and United.
The sale covers Business Class with fares starting as low as €1500 from most Lufthansa / SWISS / Austrian origination cities in Europe. Most of the USA’s east coast can be reached for only €1500-€1600, while the midwest and west coast can be booked for only €1800-€2000.
Canadian destinations have even better pricing with fares to Montreal or Toronto coming in at only €1300.
This fare sale is set to expire on September 6 so there is are 48 hours to take advantage.
The rules and fine print of the deal:
Minimum stay of 7 days is required
Tickets must be booked 60 days prior to departure
Travel must be complete by October 12, 2018

by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 11, 2017 | Featured, First Class, Mileage Plus, United |
In the July version of United’s Mileage Plus, you can earn us much as 60% in bonus miles when adding miles to your account. This ‘Flash Sale’ lasts only until July 16 so if you need to add a few miles to your account, this may serve as a good time to do so.
The promo is tiered. If you buy between 5,000 and 14,000 miles you’ll earn a 20% bonus. If you buy between 15,000 and 29,000 miles you’ll earn a 40% discount. Buying between 30,000 and 89,000 miles will yield you a 60% bonus. If you buy 90,000 miles, you’ll get 60,000 bonus miles; basically a 66% discount and be paying about 2.1 cents per mile.
I like these sales because they let passengers add miles to their accounts for relative attractive pricing and then turn those miles into First Class or Business Class on Lufthansa, or Business Class on SWISS, Austrian, or BRUSSELS.
Remember you can only buy 150,000 miles a year for your account and the sale ends at midnight on July 16, 2017.

