Lufthansa Miles & More has announced a special campaign that will run throughout 2021, crediting double status miles for all flights as well as double HON Circle miles for tier members.
Additionally, those members with Frequent Traveller and Senator status can now also earn status miles (up to 30,000) when using their Miles & More Credit Card.
Lufthansa has decided this is the best way forward and instead of imposing a blanket amnesty / status extension for all members they allow those who still have some activity with the airline or the affiliated credit card to boost their miles in order to extend their status.
Right off the bat the most important points of this announcement are:
- Miles & More members automatically earn double status miles for flights
- Status members earn double HON Circle miles for the first time with flights in First and Business Class
- In addition, frequent flyers with Frequent Traveller and Senator status can now also earn status miles when using their Miles & More Credit Card
You can access the news release through the Lufthansa Media Center here.
For frequent flyers, it is currently not easy to maintain their status or to qualify the current low number of flights. The Lufthansa Group is now making this much easier with far-reaching, one-time special offers. Status miles and HON Circle miles will be automatically doubled this year, regardless of booking class. In addition, Frequent Travellers and Senators will also be able to earn status miles with the Miles & More Credit Card. All goodwill offers are valid for the entire year 2021.
“We are currently flying by sight and are aware of the difficult situation the Corona pandemic poses for our customers as well. Unfortunately, we cannot predict how travel options will develop this year. That is why we create reliability for our most loyal customers by making it much easier to maintain and achieve the frequent flyer status,” says Joost Greve, Head of Loyalty at the Lufthansa Group.
How does this look like for the customer?
Earn double status miles and HON Circle miles for flights
As a special offer, status miles for Frequent Travellers and Senators will be automatically doubled, regardless of booking class. For the first time, all status members will also earn double HON Circle miles for First and Business Class flights. The credits are completely automatic and apply retroactively to flights made since January 1st, 2021. No registration is required. The promotion is valid on all Lufthansa Group flights operated by Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa and Lufthansa Private Jet, SWISS, Eurowings, Brussels Airlines, Air Dolomiti and Edelweiss Air. It also applies to flights operated by the partner airlines Croatia Airlines, Luxair and LOT Polish Airlines on which status miles and HON Circle miles are awarded.
Important: The double status miles are only given for flights of the Lufthansa Group as well as Miles&More partner airlines. Those flights completed with Star Alliance airlines will only receive the regular published amount of status miles. The press release makes it look like this offer is intended only for members with tier status.
However, the email I received on one account that is just a basic M&M Blue however says otherwise:
… Since we are genuinely interested in helping you achieve Frequent Traveller status, we are offering you the following:
On all flights operated by the airlines of the Lufthansa Group1 in 2021, we will credit you with twice as many status miles2 as before. Whatever the booking class. And now, for the first time, you can also earn double the HON Circle miles in First and Business Class. This will happen completely automatically, and even retroactively for any flights you have taken since 1 January 2021. No registration is required …
So from this it can be confirmed that the double miles are indeed valid for ALL customers, even basic members with a blue account.
Earning status miles with the Miles & More Credit Card
Frequent Travellers and Senators can now also earn status miles outside of flying: for every euro spent with the Miles & More Credit Card, two status miles are credited and count towards the status extension or upgrade to Senator. …
Every Frequent Traveller or Senator who has a Miles & More Credit Card will be given a one-time credit of 5,000 status miles. The same applies to a successful new application during the promotional period. The accumulated status miles are automatically displayed in the Miles & More mileage account. The maximum value of the promotion is 30,000 status miles in total. The only restriction is that no Select Miles are awarded for status miles earned via the Miles & More Credit Card.
This is extremely easy. Every Euro spent received two status miles plus a 5,000 miles bonus. You can collect an easy 30,000 miles this way although it’s a bit unclear to me if the 5,000 bonus miles for just having the card are included in this amount. It says “total” so should be this way I guess. Those FTL/SEN members who don’t have a credit card yet can apply for it and still be eligible.
This announcement talks about Euro but Lufthansa offers credit cards in many different markets.
The M&M credit cards overseas will also receive this bonus, for example 2 Status Miles per US$1 spent with the Barclaycard issued in the U.S. and 4 Miles per 15 RMB with the Huaxia Card issued in China.
HON Circle
The Lufthansa Group had already made special offers for Miles & More status customers in 2020. At the end of the year, for example, it was announced that HON Circle miles earned in the 2019 calendar year would be credited again and counted toward renewed requalification in 2020 as well as in 2021.
These goodwill miles have already posted last week to members accounts.
Conclusion
Lufthansa makes it relatively easy for those existing tier members to keep their status active. Frequent Travellers will have it the easiest. Senator members still need to fly a bit and HON Circle members a lot depending on how many goodwill miles they received from 2020.
Business travel will remain more or less at a standstill during 2021 except for some very urgent things such as production and engineering. Personal travel be it for holidays or to visit friends and family is still highly restricted through closed borders and health certification requirements. Racking up a substantial amount of miles through international flights this year will prove difficult.
Nevertheless I applaud this approach. Hospitality companies have to at some point move away from blanket extensions for everyone and give some reward/incentive to those customers who are still spending money. The entire travel loyalty landscape might change in some ways during the next couple of years, the least change would be for some customers with zero activity in 2020/2021 to start from a lower loyalty tier level again. Worst case from zero. It’s also a good opportunity for many to reconsider which loyalty schemes still make sense and which ones don’t as the requirements to maintain status are simply to high until previous travel volume returns.
