Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Good Lufthansa / SWISS business class flight deals to Asia and Africa

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Lufthansa and SWISS are offering some good Business Class fares from the UK to Asia for the next few days.

You need to book by 18th November.  A minimum stay of six days is required.  With a few exceptions for the Africa deals, you can book up to a year ahead.

You can depart from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh or Glasgow.  You will be changing planes in Germany or Switzerland.  I also saw the occasional option on Austrian via Vienna.

Lufthansa SWISS sale to Asia

Headline prices are:

  • Hong Kong £1699 Business, £599 Premium Economy (in reality you can find fares for £1399)
  • Shanghai £1499 Business, £589 Premium Economy
  • Beijing £1699 Business, £649 Premium Economy
  • Mauritius £1799 Business, £999 Premium Economy
  • Addis Ababa £1349 Business, £549 Premium Economy
  • Delhi £1199 Business, £662 Premium Economy
  • Nairobi £1399 Business, £704 Premium Economy

The Lufthansa home page is here and the SWISS page is here.  Either site will show prices across Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian.

I reviewed Lufthansa’s current Business Class seat recently – see here.  If you are travelling on your own, I would suggest using SWISS if you can because they have a lot of solo seats whilst Lufthansa is 2 x 2 x 2 throughout.

Your best option to maximise your miles when paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  This offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.  Our review of Amex Gold is here.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 70,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards (July 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 15th July 2025, the sign-up bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card is TRIPLED to 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. This would convert into 25,000 Avios or into 40 other airline schemes. It would also get you at least £300 of Marriott hotel stays based on our 0.5p per point low-end valuation. Other T&C apply and remain unchanged. Click here for our full card review and click here to apply.

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 Card

60,000 points (to 15th July) and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

Category

Lufthansa and Miles & More

Comments (120)

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

  • Georges says:
    31 Oct31 October 11:42

    My Heathrow Express offer is different. 15% statement credit on a purchase of £35 or more but it is available on all 3 cards (BA, Gold and SPG)

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:
    31 Oct31 October 11:48

    OT (two days in a row). Has anyone managed to get access to the Aer Lingus lounges in LHR and DUB using BA Gold status with just the in-app virtual card?

    A few years ago I tried it and was told I needed the physical card (so I just went to the Plaza Premium instead as I had my PP card).

    I have no idea where my BA card is as I never need to use it when I’ve been flying BA or other oneworld carriers.

    • bsuije says:
      31 Oct31 October 17:53

      Would your ticket alone not suffice, given that it states your status on there?

      • Lumma says:
        31 Oct31 October 18:05

        You wouldn’t have any status listed on an aer Lingus ticket as they’re not part of Oneworld. I wonder if they’d accept the bag tags from BA although I don’t think they have expiry dates on them

  • js54156 says:
    31 Oct31 October 11:49

    with Curve, the amex spending requirement for bonus can be much more easily triggered..there are still ways to do manufacture spending

  • S says:
    31 Oct31 October 12:56

    Ot £200 off £600 spend on Amex Travel

    Booked some hotels on Saturday (non FHR/HC), got an email about triggering the offer, but I haven’t been charged for them. Both pending transactions have disappeared from my statement.

    Should I ring? Would be a shame to miss out on £400 in credits.

    • Brian says:
      31 Oct31 October 13:09

      If you got the email, you should be fine. Wait for a bit…

    • SG says:
      31 Oct31 October 13:57

      Hi
      About to book a hotel to trigger the offer.
      Not quite sure how Amex travel processes a free cancellation purchase.
      Do they charge and then refund if cancel,ex.Kaligo,or they will charge you at the date the free cancellation expires?
      Was your a free cancellation or advanced purchase?

      • Rob says:
        31 Oct31 October 18:01

        They won’t charge you at all. The hotel will charge you at check-out as usual. It therefore won’t trigger the £200.

        • S says:
          31 Oct31 October 22:13

          That’s the case only for the Hotel Collection and FHR, no?

          • Rob says:
            1 Nov1 November 04:39

            Those are two examples but not necessarily all. Easy to check anyway by doing the booking and seeing if Amex asks for money!

    • AndyGWP says:
      31 Oct31 October 15:09

      Likewise bought flights and they were pending then vanished. Waited a few more days tho and they appeared… a further few days letter and the credit hit

      Worked out the same price to buy PE as it would have cost for E so quite happy ????

    • A270 says:
      31 Oct31 October 19:03

      It took mine about 11 days to show properly on my account and for the £200 to be credited. Mine vanished from the account too.

  • xcalx says:
    31 Oct31 October 18:00

    @ shoestring
    Harry, may I suggest some holiday reading Shakespeare’ All’s well that ends well.

    • Shoestring says:
      31 Oct31 October 18:43

      Yep I never said never, just wanted confirmation 🙂

      • Shoestring says:
        31 Oct31 October 18:44

        So essentially the system can do it, just need to find the agents who are going to help you achieve target 1

    • BJ says:
      31 Oct31 October 18:49

      So … Much ado about nothing last couple of days 🙂

      • Shoestring says:
        31 Oct31 October 18:58

        Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t

        • BJ says:
          31 Oct31 October 19:05

          All part of the fun, this is the good stuff, not the unchallenging tedium of 29 Ways.

        • Shoestring says:
          31 Oct31 October 20:16

          Better ask xcalx for a tip BJ

        • BJ says:
          31 Oct31 October 21:01

          Harry, talking of tips, have you found those Tesco peaches at 0p yet? I told you about them months ago; the answer is staring you in the face and that is the last tip I’m giving you 🙂

        • BJ says:
          31 Oct31 October 21:04

          Bah humbug it is not 🙂

        • Shoestring says:
          31 Oct31 October 21:08

          A woman was arrested for shoplifting.
          Standing before the Judge, she was asked, ” What did you steal?”
          “A can of peaches,” she replied.
          The Judge then asked her why she had stolen them.
          “I was hungry,” she said.
          The Judge then asked her how many peaches were in the can.
          She replied, “6”.
          The Judge then said, “Then, I will give you 6 days in jail.” But before the judge could actually pronounce the sentence, the woman’s husband spoke up and asked the Judge if he could say something.
          “What?” said the Judge.
          The husband said, “She also stole a can of peas.”

      • BJ says:
        31 Oct31 October 21:29

        🙂 not so bad, my partner would have claimed I stole a bag of rice!

        • Andrew M says:
          31 Oct31 October 21:41

          So that may have been the last tip for Harry. Now where’s mine? 🙂

        • BJ says:
          1 Nov1 November 10:09

          Every piece of the jigsaw has been covered on HFP at some point, no new knowledge is required! I am reluctant to share it as I believe some of our legal experts might argue exploiting it could be fraudulent, and for that reason I have refrained from exploiting it myself. Discovered it by accident so nothing smart about it, verified it once and never used it again.

    • Tescococo says:
      1 Nov1 November 08:00

      Another tip for us dummies?

  • ScienceTeacher says:
    31 Oct31 October 19:23

    OT: Anybody know if Lloyds Avios cards treat a payment to a Brighton based company through Curve as a cash advance? Cheers!

    • BJ says:
      31 Oct31 October 19:42

      If you don’t get an answer try a small payment to check. Somebody commented on this sibce tge changes but I forget what they said.

    • Bazza says:
      31 Oct31 October 19:49

      No. You can pay it. No worries. Can pay anyone with curve. They all know they can charge u bit none will. Sweet as..

      • Rob says:
        31 Oct31 October 20:11

        Except Tesco Bank.

        • BJ says:
          31 Oct31 October 20:19

          Does this mean that Curve no longer have an issue with the practice now they label transaction types?

          • Rob says:
            31 Oct31 October 20:38

            Of course they have an issue with it, because they risk losing their Mastercard licence, they are just doing a bad job of implementing it.

    • S says:
      1 Nov1 November 11:36

      So, when Curve will take Amex again, will I be able to pay the said Brigthon company with the Amex I have linked to my Curve card? 😀

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

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