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Miles & More discount flight rewards for May launched

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It’s time for our monthly round-up of discounted redemption routes available via the Lufthansa Miles & More programme.

The May list of discounted Miles & More redemptions from the UK is here.  You must book by May 31th for travel by June 16th.

As I say each month, given how high the taxes are, the European redemptions are still not great value.  Neither are the long-haul Economy destinations.

Lufthansa A340

Business class redemptions, on the other hand, do offer genuine value.  Note the reappearance of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha this month.

The following long-haul routes are reduced for May, often sharply, in Business Class:

  • Abu Dhabi
  • Abuja
  • Addis Abeba
  • Beijing
  • Bogota
  • Dallas
  • Doha
  • Dubai
  • Jeddah
  • Johannesburg
  • Khartoum
  • Lagos
  • Montreal
  • Mumbai
  • Muscat
  • Nanjing
  • Seoul
  • Shenyang
  • Tokyo

Whilst Lufthansa’s business class is not the greatest (unless you get a 747-800 with the new fully flat seat), you will also get the discounted prices on Austrian and Swiss where they fly the same route.  Austrian is rolling out its fully flat business class seat and I think Swiss is now 100% fully flat.

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How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards (April 2025)

None of the Star Alliance airlines currently have a UK credit card.

There is, however, still a way to earn Star Alliance miles from a UK credit card. 

The route is via Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty points convert to over 40 airlines at the rate of 3:1.

The best way to earn Marriott Bonvoy points is via the official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. It comes with 20,000 points for signing up and 2 points for every £1 you spend. At 2 Bonvoy points per £1, you are earning (at 3:1) 0.66 airline miles per £1 spent on the card.

There is a preferential conversion rate to United Airlines – which is a Star Alliance member – of 2 : 1 if you convert 60,000 Bonvoy points at once.

The Star Alliance members which are Marriott Bonvoy transfer partners are: Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Avianca, Copa Airlines, Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points for signing up and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

Category

Lufthansa and Miles & More

Comments (6)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Rohan says:
    16 May16 May 07:41

    Does not sound great. Raffles are you able to offer any insight into skywards at all? Or good ways to earn redeem etc. on emirates. I am going to be flying quite a few times later this year on this for holiday and would like to make it count , even it means transferring it to something else for future use?

    • Rohan says:
      16 May16 May 18:53

      Thanks! Wish i was living closer to london then could fly BA for most of my destinations 🙁

  • Daftboy says:
    16 May16 May 14:03

    Just to add that while economy redemptions usually are bad value in any programme, there are highly discounted redemptions via Germanwings (which flies from LHR and STN) at the moment. 10,000 miles, but only for flights to Stuttgart, Cologne and Hannover.

    For someone with me with a very small M&M balance (just over 10,000) that isn’t likely to increase much/at all, that finally provides something usable (unless anyone can point me to another use for 10k M&M miles)…

    • Rob says:
      16 May16 May 14:18

      There will be chunky taxes, probably £100, on those redemptions. A BA Reward Flight Save is 9000 return plus £30 tax.

      M&M allows one way redemptions, so you could get up to enough for a long haul redemption one way with a transfer from Starwood, say. Or wait for the M&M credit card to come back with a big bonus.

      You can cash out small amounts for Heathrow shopping vouchers via WorldPoints, at 1,875 miles per £5!

      • Daftboy says:
        16 May16 May 14:32

        I just checked LHR to Stuttgart and the taxes/fees/charges are £56 for a return; ca. £40 from the UK, £16 from Germany. The same flights are currently at least £200 to buy (more with bags).

        Again, it is only for those three cities, but if anyone needed to get there then it seems like a not bad value, certainly for what I consider to effectively be orphan miles.

        • Rob says:
          16 May16 May 15:48

          That’s not bad … presumably LH’s fuel surcharges are not yet duplicated on Germanwings!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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