Lufthansa Miles & More: Business Class US to Europe for as little as 10K one-way

Lufthansa Miles & More isn’t a program that we write much about, as it only has one credit card with a usually modest welcome offer, and it’s not a travel partner of any of the major transferable currencies. Outside of last year’s incredible promotion with booking.com (that I took full advantage of), there’s not often much to write about for US-based frequent travelers, simply because the miles aren’t very easy to come by.

However, Miles & More recently changed to dynamic pricing, whereby the cost of flights changes according to demand. After that change, there’s some bizarre pricing going on for business class flights on Lufthansa and Swissair, with some US to Europe routes being sold for as little as 10,339 miles one-way from the East Coast and 16,858 miles one-way from the West. For some routes, dates are wide-open, even for multiple passengers and in the middle of the Summer.

This seems to be unintentional, as it’s less than the cost for economy class seats on the same flight. There’s an insane amount of fees involved (~900 EUR), but for that might still be worth it for some folks that have Lufthansa miles, given the rock bottom miles pricing.

This only seems to be affecting flights from the US TO Europe. Return flights are pricing more normally, as far as I can tell, starting at ~41,000 miles + $600 EUR to the East Coast.

The Deal

• Business class awards between the US and Europe are being sold for as little as 10,339 miles one-way via Lufthansa Miles & More.
  • Flights from the West Coast start at 16,858 one-way (LAX/Seattle –  Munich)
  • Fees are exorbitant, around $1000 US.
• Routes for 10K include:
  • JFK – Geneva (Swissair)
  • Newark – Zurich (Swissair)
  • Tampa – Zurich (Swissair)
• Routes for 15K include:
  • Atlanta – Frankfurt (Lufthansa)
  • Dallas – Frankfurt (Lufthansa)
  • JFK – Frankfurt (Lufthansa)
  • Newark – Frankfurt (Lufthansa)
  • Detroit – Frankfurt (Lufthansa)
  • JFK – Brussels (Swissair / Lufthansa)

Quick Thoughts

This is a bizarre one, and is almost certainly a mistake. The fees are crazy, but many of these flights price out at around $5-7K round-trip, so you’re effectively getting a ~$2000 discount for 10-20,000 miles.

Using seats.aero, you’ll find pages of flights available for less than 10-17K, and when I looked on Miles & More, there were many other dates and routes. Here’s the first page on seats.aero:

I confirmed that the first ten flights were all pricing at 10,339 miles and, when clicking through, found additional dates for that price as well. Currently, there are about 4 pages of 10K flight dates listed on seats.aero. Note that the prices for seats in economy are 25K each.

Here’s the first page of Los Angeles to Munich (a flight that routinely sells for $7-8K in the Summer):

Lufthansa isn’t known for having the best business class product in the world, even on these newish A380s. The cabins are in 2-2-2 configurations, which means that the window seats don’t have direct aisle access. That said, the availability and low cost in miles will be a win for some, especially for those with unused Lufthansa miles. If you’re interested in booking with multiple passengers, do it ASAP to lock in the dates you want.

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