Reader Email: Lufthansa Miles&More Doesn’t Follow Its Own Miles Expiration Policy

A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a note this week that their Miles&More miles had expired instantaneously after canceling and award when they should have been valid for the end of the current quarter (March 31).

Readers are encouraged to send us questions, comments, or opinions by email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll try to cover them here several times a week.

You can access Lufthansa Miles&More here.

Message from the reader:

This is what I sent to Miles and More, after their damn computers removed my expired miles immediately and not on the last day of the calendar quarter (like they should according to T&C). Maybe it would be good to warn your readers about this. Not only they are not extending the miles, they are actively stealing them…

Reader’s note to Miles&More:

Dear M&M,

I am your member REMOVED. Today, on 5 January 2022 around 10am I cancelled my award ticket DXB-GRZ (for 14 January 2022, 2 passengers), and my 90000 miles were returned to the account.

But after just 2 minutes, they have disappeared from the account, and new transaction dating from 1 January 2022 appeared stating “Unused award miles over 3 years old” in the amount of 90000 miles. I should clearly state that I did not have more that 2400 miles on my account on 1 January 2022, so this transaction was not actually made on 1 January 2022, but just 2 minutes after my cancellation of award tickets.

Yes, those miles are over 3 years old, but I was unable to use them due to the pandemic, and according to Miles & More T&C, unused miles over 3 years old should expire on the last day of the current calendar quarter, in my case this is 31 March 2022, and NOT immediately.

I would like to use those 90000 miles, for which I worked hard for and I am not to blame of pandemic is making all of us unable to travel – so I am asking you to reinstate those 90000 miles back to my account.

I had an issue with my expiring Miles&More miles (read more here), and it was challenging to find the exact expiry of them on the Miles&More website (I am sure that it is somewhere). So I ended up redeeming for one intra-Europe economy ticket and using the rest for Apple credit.

Miles&More miles expire in three years after they were earned unless the account holder has an affiliated credit card.

There is a “rule” in place, to my understanding, that if you cancel an award and the miles from the redeposit would have expired under the policy, they will, however, be valid until the end of the current quarter.

Conclusion

I had an exactly similar issue with an award issued using Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles, although they have an extension policy in place (they keep extending expiring miles).

However, some of the miles of the award redeposit expired, and I sent an email to Singapore airlines, thinking that I will never hear from them. They did reply a couple of weeks later and reinstated the miles.

I am not a huge fan of programs that have hard expiry of miles or points in place. Some allow you to extend them for a modest fee, such as Singapore Airlines, and even Miles&More does but with a hefty price.

I hope that reader keeps us informed if they can resolve the issue with the Miles&More.