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Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or are no longer be available. You can view current offers here.
Update July 1, 2014:
The current offer on the Premier Miles & More® World MasterCard® is 20,000 miles after first purchase and payment of $79 annual fee.
- Earn 20,000 award miles after your first purchase or balance transfer
- Earn up to 15,000 award miles with balance transfers (1 mile per $1 transferred) within 30 days of account opening
- Earn 2 award miles per $1 on ticket purchases directly from Miles & More integrated airline partners
- Earn 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases
- Annual Companion Ticket after first purchase
- No foreign transaction fees on purchases made outside the U.S.
- Redeem miles for flight awards and upgrades on Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, SWISS, Star Alliance airlines and other partners
- $79 Annual Fee, waived for SEN and HON Circle Members
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There is one week left to get the Premier Miles & More® World MasterCard® with 50,000 bonus Lufthansa miles after spending $5,000 in the first 90 days. The offer expires June 30, 2014.
The normal bonus on the card is for only 20,000 miles. I got the card last year and racked up 73,000 Lufthansa miles. I’ve booked myself a few awards between the mainland and Hawaii, since Lufthansa charges fewer miles for the exact same United flights than United charges.
- Anatomy of an Award: Using Lufthansa Miles for a Hawaii Award in a Flat Bed
- Why I’ll Never Use United Miles to Hawaii (United economy between Chicago and Honolulu with Lufthansa miles)
Comparing United and Lufthansa miles is natural because both are Star Alliance members with (basically) equal access to award space on all Star Alliance partners.
Between Hawaii and the mainland isn’t the only route where the United and Lufthansa award charts differ. I’ve compiled three charts to show whether Lufthansa miles or United miles are cheaper to any given destination in economy, business, and first class.
- For which destinations are United miles cheaper?
- For which destinations are Lufthansa miles cheaper?
- What about fuel surcharges?
Economy Award Charts
All award charts show the one way price in thousands of miles.
In economy, Lufthansa offers cheaper prices on flights within the continental United States and to Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and Europe.
United offers cheaper prices on most of the farther international routes and to Canada.
Business Class Award Charts
Slashes indicate the price for United metal/partner metal. Since United’s February 2014 devaluation, it charges extra miles to fly partner Business and First Class.
Lufthansa offers cheaper business class awards within the United States including Alaska and Hawaii. Lufthansa awards also cost fewer miles than United awards to much of the world including Europe and East Asia in business class.
United awards cost fewer miles to India, Northern South America, South Africa, and Canada.
First Class Award Charts
Lufthansa’s award chart in First Class is pretty terrible, and so is United’s chart for partner First Class.
The cheapest awards are in United Global First booked with United miles. That’s a solid business class product in my experience, but not a world class First Class.
Fuel Surcharges
Awards booked with United miles never include fuel surcharges.
Awards booked with Lufthansa miles always include the fuel surcharges that would be present on a paid ticket. You can verify fuel surcharges by using the ITA Matrix.
As a rule of thumb, there are rarely fuel surcharges on tickets within the Western Hemisphere like the United States to:
- Hawaii
- Alaska
- Canada
- Central America
- Caribbean
- South America
There are almost always fuel surcharges on flights that leave the Western Hemisphere. Note that there are low fuel surcharges on LOT Polish flights to Europe and teeny-tiny fuel surcharges on Air China flights to Asia.
Lufthansa awards will usually only be a better deal than United awards when Lufthansa collects fewer miles or about the same number and there are no or low fuel surcharges on the ticket.
Recap
There is one week left to get the Premier Miles & More® World MasterCard® with 50,000 bonus Lufthansa miles after spending $5,000 in the first 90 days.
Lufthansa and United have equal access to award space on Star Alliance partners, but they charge different miles prices on most routes.
Use the better miles for your next award, taking into account the possible differences in fuel surcharges.
See Also
See also my United Award Chart vs. LifeMiles Award Chart post from a few weeks ago.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.
That first class award comparison chart is irrelevant… you write that United Global F is a solid biz product – I agree – by no means it’s an F product (they don’t even give out PJs).
So you should have compared United partner F to Lufthansa F. The chart would have been much more in LH’s favor.
Overall I think neither is particularly useful for F awards.
Just a quick question, would I be able to book United’s partner flights using Lufthansa miles? I am new to collecting miles and have been trying to get answer for days with no luck. To be specific I am trying to book a ticket to Kauai, HI and have found United flight that will get me there, however there is no space available going back except for partner flights. So would those partner flight still be bookable using Lufthansa trick?
United and Lufthansa have pretty much the same partners… what flights are you looking to book?
Booking awards with Lufthansa is not a trick… it’s a legit ff program.
You can book all Star Alliance partners with Lufthansa miles. If you are seeing flights on Hawaiian or Island Air, those are NOT bookable with Lufthansa miles.
Well those the only 2 carriers that have flights available from that island and I didnt want to end up using my UR miles. I have checked multiple dates and there is barely any space available. We were looking to go on vacation there next year, sometime in april/may but I dont know if I should wait for the space to open up or just go ahead and book it now. I’d really like to use up those Lufhansa miles + plus its cheaper.
It’s always a tough call whether to wait or lock something in. It just comes down to how stressful you find not having a ticket locked up to be.
how much is it to change dates or redeposit miles with lufthansa?
If you redeposit with Lufthansa, they charge $60/ticket.
I was just talking with a Lufthansa agent to redeem a domestic award on United, and she was expressing how relieved she was that taxes and fees are only $5.00. About three times, without any prodding from me, she expressed how dreadful the fuel surcharges are on flights to Europe.
Yes, on all partners except LOT they are terrible. On LOT, they are tolerable.
[…] Lufthansa miles can be used for flights on all 26 Star Alliance airlines including United. Lufthansa has a competitive award chart with many destinations costing fewer Lufthansa miles than United miles to reach. See “Comparison of United and Lufthansa Award Charts.” […]