Get 10,000 Mile & More miles with the UK credit card – biggest bonus in 11 months

Lufthansa and MBNA have brought back a decent sign-up bonus for the Miles & More credit card.  This is the first increased bonus on this card since November 2015 and the first since the 0.3% cap on interchange fees came into place.

Normally the bonus is a dull 1,500 miles. However, until 30th November you will receive 10,000 miles.

Full details can be found here.

The card has no fee.  The representative APR is 22.9% variable.   This is 6% higher than it was a year ago.

The miles are paid in two instalments:

1,500 miles with your first purchase (as per normal)

8,500 miles when you spend £1,000 within 90 days

You will also receive a £15 discount code valid against a future Lufthansa flight booking.  I would not value this highly as such codes are commonly available as regular HfP readers will know.

The cards come as a double-pack with an Amex and a Visa. The earnings rate is surprisingly good – 1.5 Miles & More miles per £1 on the Amex and 0.75 miles per £1 on the Visa.

You also receive a 33% miles bonus on ALL your spending for the first six months, on both cards. This takes the Amex up to 2 miles per £1, a very impressive earnings rate for a free card.

One of the key benefits of the Miles & More credit card is that it stops your Miles & More miles expiring. Without the card, your miles have a 3-year expiry. Unlike Avios, Miles & More miles expire after three years even if you have earned other miles in the meantime.

The card has no annual fee.

The issuer is MBNA, which also issues the American Airlines, Etihad, Emirates, Virgin and United cards in the UK. They are generally quite good at accepting modest earners (my Mum, who is retired on a modest pension, got a BMI card with no problem a few years ago).

You cannot churn MBNA cards. If you have already had the Miles & More card, you should not receive a second sign-up bonus if you apply again although they are happy to give you the card.  In reality, if it has been a few years, you may find that you do get it – but don’t count on it.

Miles & More miles only have value for long-haul redemptions, due to the crazy taxes on short-haul flights. These are often higher than the cost of buying a cash ticket outright ….

Miles & More does runs monthly mileage sales which often have very good bargains – see this example for example.

Miles & More is NOT an American Express Membership Rewards partner, so you cannot top up your balance directly using Amex points. The only option would be to transfer Amex points to Starwood and then to Miles & More, but that only gets you 0.5 M&M miles per 1 Amex point, or 0.625 if you transfer 20,000 Starwood points at once to get the 5,000 miles bonus.

You could, of course, also get the Starwood Amex card (review here) with a sign-up bonus 10,000 points and transfer those into 10,000 Miles & More miles.  Lufthansa is also a Heathrow Rewards partner if you have any of those to convert.

You can find out more about this sign-up bonus on the Miles & More website here.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.