Miles & More: as a recent collector I’m shocked by the seemingly bad value

[ringingup]

I’ve recently started collecting Miles and More miles as I flew Swiss business intra Europe towards the end of last year. I have some upcoming Lufthansa flights in a couple of months.

Looking at the award chart, I was really surprised to see that a one way flight in Economy from LHR to MUC amounts to 17,000 miles.

With BA, a flight to LIN would be between 4,500 and 5,000 miles. I understand that earning rates might be slightly different, but based on what I’ve earned so far, it’ll take a lot of flying to get to a point where a redemption is even possible.

Perhaps I’ve chosen the wrong StarAlliance scheme?

[BuildBackBetter]

Hasn’t M&M moved to a revenue based redemption model long ago? You could be paying more than what the award chart says.
The program has very few plus points – Rob has talked about it – there might even be an article, but in general, one to avoid.

[Rob]

That’s not entirely true.

It is SHOCKING value for short haul redemptions.

But, for example, look at how cheap Business Class flights are to the Middle East. 35k each way (IIRC), vs 50k-60k on BA.

M&M is also more likely to have reward seats over UK school holidays when BAEC is likely to be a bust. You’ve just got to tease out the sweet spots.

If someone offered to swap my Virgin miles for M&M miles, I’d jump on it – except that the 3-year hard expiry is a killer.

PS. Kids get 25% off the miles needed for a flight too. You don’t get that with BA.

[ringingup]

Thanks, Rob. Problem is… How on earth will I manage to get enough points for a meaningful redemption? 🙂 Now that ITA does not fly to Sardinia, LH/LX seem to be the only feasible options to fly there in business when BA is not flying, but I won’t be flying enough!