The Fly Smart discount – a potentially good use of your Miles&More miles
Lufthansa’s regular Mileage Bargains are a popular and often good value way to spend your Lufthansa Miles&More miles. Given Lufthansa’s high tax charges, getting a substantial discount on the miles you pay when redeeming them can make all the difference between a good, and very bad, value redemption flight.
The problem we have with the Mileage Bargain option is that availability is always very limited in terms of where you can fly to, and the available dates.
As a result, one useful alternative we use is Lufthansa’s Fly Smart flight awards. In short, these discount M&M redemption flights by roughly 50% of the miles needed, provided that you book online between a maximum of two weeks and a minimum of two working days prior to departure.
Per Lufthansa’s own example, a return flight between two European destinations will cost you 15,000 award miles, instead of 30,000. 15,000 Miles&More miles for an intra-Europe flight with Lufthansa is excellent value, and a business class flight on the same route is a mere 25,000 points.
The full mileage redemption table is here:
| Economy Class | Business / Comfort Class | |
| Flights within | ||
| Europe | 15,000 | 25,000 |
| Middle East, South America, south-east Asia | 15,000 | – |
| From Europe* to (or flight in opposite direction) | ||
| North/central Africa, Middle East, Caucasia |
35,000 | – |
| North America, southern Africa, India |
50,000 | – |
| Central America, Caribbean | 60,000 | – |
| South America, central and south-east Asia, Far East | 70,000 | – |
*Also Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia
Fly Smart applies to flights operated by Adria Airways, Austrian Airlines Group, Brussels Airlines, Condor, Croatia Airlines, Germanwings, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa and SWISS, and whenever I have booked, availability has been generally good.
The inevitable bad news in all the above is the additional requirement for Lufthansa’s eye-watering tax payments. Where you’re paying 15,000 miles for a European flight (or 25,000 Business Class), this still generally makes the redemption value, but do bear it in mind. You will find taxes lower on non-Lufthansa Airlines, including LOT.
Almost without exception, the “sweet spot” is the 25,000 miles Business Class flight.
If you want to get value for your M&M miles and are struggling with Mileage Bargains, we strongly recommend a look at Fly Smart.