All About Lufthansa Miles-and-More Changes 2024

Since January 1, 2024, regardless of when you’ve booked your flight, Lufthansa has made changes to their Frequent Flyer Program, Miles-and-More.

You earn Points instead of Miles.

With the new status program, you will get different Points, Qualifying Points, and HON Circle Points instead of status and HON Circle miles when you fly.

Only two things will decide how many Points you get: the type of class (like business or economy) and whether your flight is a continental or intercontinental. This makes it easier to understand how close you are to getting status – you can quickly see how many Points, Qualifying Points, or HON Circle Points you’ll earn for a flight.

3 different Frequent Flyer Status Levels:

• Frequent Traveler: 650 Points and 325 Qualifying Points in a year
• Senator: 2000 Points and 1000 Qualifying Points in a year.
• HON Circle: 6000 HON Circle Points in a year

How to achieve a frequent flyer status?

In the new program, you need Points, Qualifying Points, or HON Circle Points to reach frequent flyer status. To become a Frequent Traveler or Senator, you must earn a specific amount of Points and Qualifying Points each calendar year.

Only the HON Circle Points you get from Business or First Class flights count for becoming a HON Circle Member.

The different Points can be earned with these airlines:

When you fly with an airline which is not listed below, but which is part of Star Alliance, like Thai Airways, will only earn Points, NO Qualifying or Hon Circles Points.

How many Ponits will you earn with flights?

Everyone gets the same amount of Points, Qualifying Points, and HON Circle Points. This means the Executive Bonus won’t be a part of the new system, but it will still be considered for award miles.

Here’s an example in Economy and in Business Class:

Zurich (ZRH) to Bangkok (BKK) in Economy Class with SWISS

You earn 60 Points, 60 Qualifying Points but no HON Circle Points.

Zurich (ZRH) to Bangkok (BKK) in Business Class with SWISS

You earn 200 Points, 200 Qualifying Points and 200 HON Circle Points.

Continental Flights vs. Intercontinental Flights

The new Miles & More status program is simple to understand. If you leave from a country in the same continent, it’s considered a continental flight. If your departure is from a different continent, you get points for an intercontinental flight. The distance of the flight, whether it’s 100 miles or 5,000 miles, doesn’t matter.

How are the different continents defined?

The following map shows how continents are defined by the new Miles-and-More program:

Extra Benefits for Status Levels

• Frequent Travellers

• Senators

• Hon Circle Members

Status only 1 year valid

The option to achieve a status for two years will no longer be available. Starting in 2024, qualification requirements must be met anew each year. A status with Miles & More will now only be valid until the end of the upcoming calendar year or until the end of February of the following year. For example, if you achieve a status in June 2024, you will hold that status until the end of February 2026.

It might be worthwhile to take advantage of the old system for status qualification in 2023. A status earned in 2023 will be valid for two full years, until the end of February 2026.

For HON Circle Members, there is a transitional arrangement due to the two-year qualification period. This applies to HON Circle Members whose status expires in February 2025. The relevant qualification or requalification years are 2023 and 2024, spanning both the old (2023) and new system (2024). In 2023, HON Circle Miles will be collected as usual. From January 1, 2024, HON Circle Points will be credited for flights in Business and First Class. Previously collected HON Circle Miles will be converted. 100 HON Circle Miles correspond to two HON Circle Points. Therefore, 300,000 HON Circle Miles equal 6,000 HON Circle Points.

Status runs

A complete guide to Lufthansa on Miles&More status runs can be found here.

Bottom Line

As with any program modification, there are advantages and disadvantages.

A big drawback of the new system is that the status is now valid for only a complete calendar year, plus the qualification year and an additional two months.

However, whereas many frequent flyer programs base miles and status on the amount paid, Miles-and-More takes a different approach. This opens up options for cheap business class deal hunters to earn a status as well.

You will earn 480 points by taking one intercontinental business class round-trip journey, with one stop. This amount represents over 70% of the 650 points required to achieve Frequent Traveller status.

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