Anatomy of an Award: Booking Lufthansa First Class with United Miles

Last week my friend flew 24 hours of Lufthansa First Class and had a 3.5 hour layover in the famous Lufthansa First Class Terminal, which he booked for 125,000 United miles and $58.

Cheapest Way to Fly Lufthansa First Class: 40k Points + $203 Europe to USA

Forget paying 110,000 United miles one way for Lufthansa First Class. You can book the same flight for 40,000 points + $203 (and there is even a way to avoid the $203.)

Lufthansa First Class flying from Europe to the United States is a fantastic product.

The onboard First Class product is solid--a step above American carriers and a step below Asian and Middle Eastern carriers.

And the ground experience in Frankfurt is my favorite in the world.

50,000 Lufthansa Mile Credit Card. Good Deal?

The Miles & More® Premier World MasterCard® comes with 20,000 bonus Lufthansa Miles & More miles after first purchase and 30,000 more after spending $5,000 in the first 90 days for 50,000 total bonus miles.

The card also comes with two complimentary Lufthansa Business Lounge vouchers annually.

The card earns 2 miles per dollar on ticket purchases made directly from Miles & More integrated airlines and 1 mile per dollar on all other purchases.

Miles &

Comprehensive Spread Sheets of Eight Star Alliance Award Charts: Cheapest Awards to Every Region

Updated 1/29/16 to reflect new Aeroplan award prices effective for awards booked 12/15/15 or later.
Updated 10/6/15 to reflect new ANA award prices effective for awards booked 10/15/15 or later.

In the last few weeks, I have published some comparative charts of Star Alliance award charts. I'm putting all of those charts into this post for easier reference.

You can use any type of Star Alliance miles to book almost any Star Alliance flight. (Swiss, Lufthansa, and Singapore hold back some premium cabin award space for their own members.

After 15 Months, LifeMiles Can Book Lufthansa First Class Again

Since August 2014, Avianca LifeMiles, one of my favorite types of Star Alliance miles, could not book Lufthansa First Class, one of my favorite Star Alliance First Classes.

Now LifeMiles can book Lufthansa First Class again for 87,000 miles one way from the United States to Europe with NO fuel surcharges.
How to Book Lufthansa First Class with LifeMiles
On lifemiles.com,  click Air Tickets under Enjoy.

Search for the Lufthansa First Class segment you want, selecting Lufthansa under "Preferred carrier" if you'd like.

Award space should show up whenever Lufthansa has released it, which is only within 15 days

Lufthansa Business Class Fully Flat on All Planes

All 106 Lufthansa longhaul planes now feature fully flat beds in Business Class, following the completion of Lufthansa's four-year retrofit.

That's great news since Lufthansa offers a ton of transatlantic Business Class award space that you can book with United, or any other Star Alliance, miles.

Lufthansa serves 18 American destinations.

If you don't live in one of those, you can connect to the United hubs easily in United First Class for zero extra miles.

Anatomy of an Award: Using Avianca LifeMiles to Buy Business Class Ticket Between US and Europe for $1,040

Update: LifeMiles are now on sale for as little as 1.4 cents each through September 30, 2015, which allows you to follow the steps in this post.

Last week I published How to Consistently Buy Business Class Tickets to Europe for about $1,000, which explained how to purchase Avianca miles and use them to book award tickets, so that the total cash outlay is far less than just purchasing a ticket.

Yesterday, I had the chance to book my friend into Lufthansa Business Class from Tallinn, Estonia to Chicago for $1,050 for a flight this weekend.

Booking one

DREAM BIG: Five Things I Can Do with My Miles that I Wouldn’t Do with Cash

Cash is great because it can buy everything from travel to your basic necessities. But sometimes miles are better. There are a lot of things I can easily do with miles that I would never do with cash (at least until my bank account had a few more zeroes.)

Dream big with your miles. Better yet, dream big before your miles. Then get the right miles to turn that dream into a reality.

Lufthansa First Class to Europe for 40,000 Points + $311

Updated June 3: The Asiana miles showed up today, meaning the transfer took 14 days. My last transfer in September 2014 took 17 days. In the interim, I've decided not to book Lufthansa First Class from Europe to the United States in June, but the Asiana award chart is so good that I don't mind have 60,000 points on hand. That's almost enough for Business Class one way USA to Argentina (35k) + First Class USA to Hawaii (27.5k).

You can book Lufthansa First Class for 50,000 Asiana Club miles--40,000 Starpoints--one way.

Anatomy of an Award: Flights to Cuba with Miles

I just booked myself a trip to Cuba with miles. One direction I am flying on a single award from the United States to Cuba. On the return, I am flying two awards: Cuba to Colombia and Colombia to the United States.

I used American Airlines, Asiana, and Lufthansa miles, all of which are easily available to Americans.
Can Americans Travel to Cuba?
Here is the State Department's page on visiting Cuba.

I am going to travel to Cuba on a general license as a journalist.