Miles & More introduces new benefits – but not if you fly on Star partners

Lufthansa’s Miles & More, the Lufthansa / Swiss / LOT / Austrian / Adria / Croatia / germanwings / Luxair / Brussels loyalty scheme, is a bit of mess.

Earning rates have been cut back sharply, especially if you are not on a full fare ticket.

Short haul redemptions are pointless because of the ludicrous taxes, which are often higher than a cash ticket. 

Long haul redemptions in business class are hampered by poor lounges and (on most Lufthansa aircraft) sloping seats. 

Long haul redemptions in First Class are now effectively banned on Swiss and hard to find on Lufthansa after the 747 cabins were cut to 8 seats from 16.  LOT and Austrian do not offer First at all.

Miles & More is now trying to drive a wedge between itself and its Star Alliance partners with the introduction of ‘Miles & More Selection’.

Backdated to January 1st, members will now collect a third sort of miles – ‘Select Miles’ – to add to the current ‘Status Miles’ and ‘Bonus Miles’.  ‘Select Miles’ will ONLY be earned when you fly with an airline in the Lufthansa family.

The more ‘Select Miles’ you earn, the more ‘gifts’ you can claim.  If you have Silver / Frequent Traveller status, you receive your first at 50,000 miles.  If you are Gold / Senator, you receive your first at 125,000 miles.

It isn’t clear exactly what the ‘gifts’ will be, but Lufthansa says they will include:

World Shop vouchers

Lounge access vouchers for Business, Senator and First Class Lounges

Additonal eVouchers for Senator and HON Circle members

Ability to gift status to another person

On the face of it, anything that means more benefits for flyers should be welcomed.  Whilst the exact details have not been released, however, it does seem particularly weak.

If I done enough flying to earn 125,000 ‘Select Miles’ then I would be a bit insulted to receive a couple of lounge vouchers (which I wouldn’t need anyway as I would have status) or a few € of shopping vouchers.

Full details can be found here on the Miles & More website.

Here is how ‘Concerto’ on Flyertalk summed it up:

But it really does, just once again, predictably, seem to be another absurd lot of nonsense designed to provoke only the ire and scorn of their so-called best customers. There just seems to never, really never, be any attempt at intelligent marketing or making the programme any better.