Miles & More miles expiry is coming for ex-cardholders – what can you book before Friday?

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• Richmod_Surrey says:

  26 Mar26 March 06:52

  I flew to Micronesia on United to burn some miles and booked another flight to Guam, for later in the year. Changes are available for free at the moment, so I plan to move these flights to next year when availability shows on the system.
  These offer great value for miles, as cash fares are very expensive.

  And you can redeem Hilton points in Guam and have cheap trip.

  • Dubious says:

    26 Mar26 March 10:15

    From the USA or elsewhere? I’ve been trying to do something similar for a while (a few years) but can never find availability on miles for this. Perhaps LH M&M has better inventory?

    • Richmod_Surrey says:

      26 Mar26 March 19:38

      From Honolulu. There’s good availability on direct 7h flight. A bit difficult to find space on Island Hopper. Closer to flight dates more availability opened up and I was able to change direct flight to Hopper.
      All booked on a phone with M&M, after checking availability on United website.

      • Dubious says:

        27 Mar27 March 13:35

        Thanks. I’ll keep an eye out then. I’ve been trying to start from the other end – in Manila

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  26 Mar26 March 07:09

  As well as a shoddy loyalty scheme I couldn’t get a refund on flights they cancelled back in March 2020 due to Covid and had to get Amex to refund them. Having such a hard expiry makes the scheme useless for those who don’t travel enough to hit a status level (which last time I checked also protects the miles earned)

  • Jonathan says:

    26 Mar26 March 08:16

    It’s perfectly easy for those who live in a country where an airline that uses M&M not too lose their points, since co-branded credit cards will be very easily available, giving protection from hard expiry

    Although there are enough flaws and silly problems with the scheme that you don’t get with BAEC for instance…

• Dev says:

  26 Mar26 March 07:19

  How easy is it with minimal cost (relatively speaking) to get on the first rung of the M&M elite level?

  What about a few nested XXX-FRA-MUC-XXX trips in admittedly crappy Euro-J?

  • Czechoslovakia says:

    26 Mar26 March 08:22

    Historically, 30 segments (any class) in a calendar year for Frequent Traveller (silver) status was the cheapest method.

    • patrick C says:

      26 Mar26 March 08:31

      It’s 35 now, but it is still the cheapest.
      Status miles on european J make no sense. Senator is incredibly tough to earn unless you fly tons of company sponsored J class flights. (At least 4-5 long haul flights a year)

      • Czechoslovakia says:

        26 Mar26 March 10:00

        Patrick C – Technically, yes 35, but they’ve run the “silver promotion” every year for at least the last 15, and again in 2023

• Vin says:

  26 Mar26 March 07:39

  In 2022 we were able to book long haul to Asia using Lufty miles with relative ease and plentiful choice of dates (142k miles and around £250 in taxes in J).
  This year the story is very different – scant availability and had to compromise on dates for a trip to ICN in Oct (booked in Jan 23).
  And if you use M&M miles on Singapore airlines the rates are much higher.

• Czechoslovakia says:

  26 Mar26 March 08:19

  Don’t forget the “bundle&go” bonus miles promo ends at the end of March if you need need to buy extra Miles for a redemption.

• Concerto says:

  26 Mar26 March 08:29

  I am sure some of us can help out with ideas here. I love this comment in the article: “You can also buy random nonsense from the Lufthansa Worldshop”. That so sums up what the Worldshop is. However, German bloggers assure me that there are one or two items in the Worldshop that are actually worth going for, in the tech section as far as I remember (although this is probably for cash payments rather than using miles – better to use them for something rather than nothing, though). The only thing I have spent miles on at the Worldshop is wine and I was happy with it, but I think that they only deliver to Germany. Similarly, the Swiss version of M&M have good wine offers through the portal offered by the Coop supermarket (they have a pretty good ‘cave’ actually).

  Imagine, you have rented a place for a week’s skiing or just a holiday in the coming weeks or months, in either Germany or Switzerland. You could get a 6-pack delivered to wherever you’re staying (or even poste restante to a Swiss post office, this latter is extremely efficient and you usually get at least a week to pick things up) and you’ll easily get through 6 bottles during your stay or on an evening when you have a party. Probably would work in Austria too, given the presence of M&M and Austrian Airlines. Could also do this for items other than wine which they don’t deliver to the UK. You can part pay with cash and the miles don’t have to be exact amounts.

  • lumma says:

    26 Mar26 March 09:22

    The point is though, you’re still only getting 0.3p per point if you buy from there as you can pay cash.

  • Bagoly says:

    26 Mar26 March 11:55

    I used the otherwise-useless points I got for signing up to their business scheme to get a pretty good headtorch which lasted for many years. I seem to remember that delivery cost was minimal.

  • Lady London says:

    26 Mar26 March 18:18

    tech is excellent and I bagged a couple of items when flights were impossible and Iwas dumping Lufthansa. You have to choose the .de version to see the best selection. (It varies in all categories by country – for instance Amazon vouchers were available in either de or uk but not both (I took one, I forget which but it must then be used on the same countrt amazon version).

    Price is the same flat rate few extra thousand miles, to send to most other countries. The extra miles needed for sending caught me out a couple of times so check this first. Other vouchers are also available in .de version and UK has a different selection; many country versions have none.

  • Alex Sm says:

    26 Mar26 March 22:47

    I bought two very good LH branded backpacks – one still lasts! and two suitcases from their shop in the last 10 years. Germany quality at its best! Prices are less so but still better then just let miles go

  • Andrew. says:

    27 Mar27 March 09:25

    Had a stack from their business scheme to get a kettle and toaster for the office (obviously had to change the plug).

    Now, I’ll be back on JDB’s naughty list for this, but I’d noticed some negative value out of stock items on the M&M shop list and out of an abundance of curiousity added them to my basket.

    You’d never guess what happened. 😉

• Metty says:

  26 Mar26 March 09:09

  Thanks for the reminder. Just tried to convert to Heathrow Rewards…. can’t do via M&M as link doesn’t work, can’t do by HR site either. After much faffing, Zoe on chat at heathrowrewards says ‘Regrettably, we are unable to assist you further, as milesandmore does not work with Heathrow anymore.’ Marvellous.

  • Lady London says:

    26 Mar26 March 18:21

    Not that Heathrow Rewards has done anybody the courtesy of advising cardholders of this?

• TeesTraveller says:

  26 Mar26 March 09:30

  So I have 2,200 miles expiring which are obviously pretty useless for a trip. I popped down to the Lufthansa Worldshop which offered me the chance to cash them in for a luggage tag or a rain poncho. Delivery charge is €34.95….

  • Skywalker says:

    26 Mar26 March 18:54

    Pretty useless then. Is there any way you can donate the points to charity?

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