Earlier this year, Lufthansa Group’s Miles & More program announced it would adopt dynamic award pricing. There’s now a major update, as the changes are live as of today (June 3, 2025). So, how bad are these updates? At first glance, it would appear that they could’ve been worse, but the thing about dynamic award pricing is that it can always evolve without notice.
In this post:
Lufthansa adopts dynamic pricing for award flights
The Lufthansa Miles & More program has completely overhauled mileage redemption rates. There are several components to this, so let’s discuss them, roughly in order of importance.
First of all, for flights on Lufthansa, SWISS, and Austrian, there’s longer an award chart with fixed pricing. Instead, award pricing is based on the ticket price set by the airline, and mileage requirements are then calculated on the basis of the fare you choose, travel class, route, etc.
Award flight options also align with the carrier’s traditional fare bundles, so award flights book into Light, Classic, or Flex fares for flights within Europe, and Light, Basic, Basic Plus, and Flex fares, for intercontinental flights.
The fare bundle you book determines your seating inclusions, baggage policy, change and cancelation policy, etc. Mileage bargain awards have also been eliminated, since award pricing is now dynamic. We’ve also seen the elimination of the award option where you can redeem extra miles to pay lower fees, though rumor has it that this will return later in 2025.
Here’s the part that’s worst of all, though, if you ask me, at least on paper. Typically when airlines switch to dynamic award pricing, the selling point is that you can basically book any seat on any flight. That’s not the case here. Miles & More is continuing to use the same saver level award availability fare buckets (“O” for first class, “I” for business class, and “X” for economy class) in determining whether miles can be redeemed for a flight.
The cost of a flight in miles is based on what the revenue fare would be at the time that you book. Obviously it’s not quite that straightforward, since it’s not that each mile is worth a certain dollar amount toward a ticket. So a ticket that could cost $10,000 doesn’t require 50x as many miles as a ticket that would cost $200. Instead, there’s some other factor at play as well.
With the new pricing having just gone live, it’s hard to get a big picture overview of how major these changes are, especially since it’s possible that some aspects of this are still being tweaked. However, the program shares the following about new award pricing on Lufthansa, SWISS, and Austrian:
- Some economy awards within Europe and in select intercontinental markets now require fewer miles; we’re seeing a “slight increase” in mileage amounts for flights to the Middle East, North and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, etc.
- Some premium economy awards maintain the previous pricing, while most regions are seeing an increase in premium economy pricing
- Business class awards within Europe largely maintain the same pricing, while business class awards to other regions generally now require more miles
- First class awards are becoming more expensive, “due to the exclusive nature of these offers”
When it comes to partner awards (on airlines other than Lufthansa, SWISS, and Austrian), there’s also a new award chart, with pricing increasing in a majority of situations (though few awards are getting cheaper). Below is the new Miles & More partner award chart, as of June 3, 2025.
Below is the previous Miles & More partner award chart, through June 2, 2025.
Just to look at awards between Europe and North America, for roundtrip travel:
- Economy awards have decreased in cost from 60,000 miles to 50,000 miles (so that’s at least good news)
- Premium economy awards have increased in cost from 80,000 miles to 85,000 miles
- Business class awards have increased in cost from 112,000 miles to 125,000 miles
- First class awards have increased in cost from 182,000 miles to 215,000 miles
It’s worth noting that Lufthansa is describing these changes as positive for travelers. Lufthansa has suggested these are “exciting changes,” and the company’s “goal is to continually improve what [they] offer [us].” This reminds me of when Lufthansa eliminated free food and drinks in short haul economy, claiming it was due to “customer feedback.”
My take on these Miles & More program changes
The trend of seeing loyalty programs move toward dynamic award pricing is nothing new. What’s frustrating about Lufthansa’s version of this is that the airline is continuing to use traditional award fare classes, so it’s not like the move to dynamic award pricing comes with access to every seat on a plane. So it kind of seems like the worst of both worlds.
The other thing that many people won’t like is how there are now “basic” award tickets, which come with greater restrictions, high cancelation fees, etc.
So, how is Lufthansa’s new dynamic award pricing? At first glance, some awards are a little cheaper than before, while many are more expensive than before. Looking at first class (which is what I’m sure people are most curious about), some awards are moderately cheaper than before, while many awards seem to cost nearly twice as much as before.
What’s interesting is that the origin now impacts redemption rates. In other words, a Belgrade to Munich to Chicago award flight could cost less than a Munich to Chicago award flight.
What I find most interesting about these changes is that in many situations, this incentivizes Miles & More members to redeem for travel on partner airlines, where there are still fixed award costs. Furthermore, it also incentivizes travelers to redeem other points currencies for travel on Lufthansa Group carriers, rather than Miles & More miles.
As of now, it seems like there aren’t any changes to partner airlines having access to Lufthansa awards, including in first class, so that’s good news at least.
Bottom line
Lufthansa’s Miles & More program has moved to dynamic award pricing. With this change, the program is still limiting members to saver level award availability, but the pricing of those awards is now tied to how much a ticket would cost in cash. Furthermore, partner award costs have been updated as well, largely for the worse.
These changes are now live, but I’d expect to still see some significant adjustments in terms of pricing. As expected, premium awards, especially on long haul flights, are largely more expensive. Furthermore, many people won’t be a fan of the introduction of “basic” awards, which limit flexibility.
The good news is that awards continue to be bookable through partner programs as before, so for most people, that’s the best way to redeem on the airline group.
What do you make of these Miles & More program changes?
Does anybody understand why Basic fares are refundable for free while Basic Plus fares have a fee for refunds? Or do we just chalk that down to German logic?
Lovely move after they spent the past 2 years selling "bundles". What seemed like a good way for an American to get into the M&M market now seems more like a bait and switch.
I wonder whether the recent changes have any effect on upgrades.
Website crashed again. Down on Sunday. Down Tuesday after a few hours of operation.
LH M&M IT systems - no one is surprised!
There’s a pretty thorough analysis of the changes by this German website: https://reisetopia.de/stories/erste-eindruck-meilenpreise-miles-more/
They also have two articles with the different mileage values needed per departure point in Europe for more than 50 routes all over the world. Pretty fascinating as there seem to be some very cheap First Class pricing when departing in Sofia or Prague - on the exact same flight.
Really bad i live in zrh so before first class to mexico via fra was 101k one way now it's 158k - same flight out of fra is 124k so it's 50% more expensive now for me
Ben - while non-dynamic awards were supposed to be bookable through the end of June 2, Lufthansa ended up shutting down their booking engine through all platforms all day yesterday so it was impossible to book any first class awards all day. Some of the changes are also really bad - on June 1 the JFK-MUC flight was available in first class for August 12/13 at the standard 115,000 and now that flight is 259,814...
Ben - while non-dynamic awards were supposed to be bookable through the end of June 2, Lufthansa ended up shutting down their booking engine through all platforms all day yesterday so it was impossible to book any first class awards all day. Some of the changes are also really bad - on June 1 the JFK-MUC flight was available in first class for August 12/13 at the standard 115,000 and now that flight is 259,814 miles, so more than double. It’s really disappointing that Lufthansa removed the ability to book these awards a day early.
I’m seeing several EU to US flights at 47K (instead of the previous 56K) in business, which is good. Though, the biggest negative change in my view, which you don’t mention, is that they have done away with the option to pay more miles to reduce the fees. These fees are generally above $1K for a US-EU one-way in business, which makes an award ticket totally worthless.
@ Frog -- Good point about that redemption option, I just updated the post to reflect that.
Well you say there is no change to First class award availability, but allegris isn't bookable with miles right?
@ Cedric -- Correct, Allegris first class isn't bookable with miles both before and after the change.
Honestly this is something along the lines I expected. M&M still remains as an alright mileage Programm for the German market. Happy that first class awards are „only“ around 20% more expensive - could’ve been worse. Also the award chart remained the same for a really long time before this. Sweet spots like ANA F NRT-HNL or UA‘s island hopper still remain (if bookable)
Uhm. You forgot to mention that Lufthansa has probably the highest fees of any program. In the past I could buy tickets on Lufthansa for less than what Lufthansa wanted for miles + their fees.
I'm not a fan of how United has gutted their frequent flyer program but at least when you find a ticket with miles you aren't paying the rough equivalent of a new MacBook Air purchase in fees everytime you want...
Uhm. You forgot to mention that Lufthansa has probably the highest fees of any program. In the past I could buy tickets on Lufthansa for less than what Lufthansa wanted for miles + their fees.
I'm not a fan of how United has gutted their frequent flyer program but at least when you find a ticket with miles you aren't paying the rough equivalent of a new MacBook Air purchase in fees everytime you want to redeem for a long haul flight. I think only BA/IB comes close in Europe when it comes to the sky high fees.
In my eyes Lufthansa was uncompetitive even before these changes. Makes much more sense to credit to Air Canada or possibly United than Lufthansa even on their own metal.
My last redemption on IB cost less than €120 in taxes and fees for 12 hours in business class. BA are on a different level, of course.
I don't grasp the fascination some people have with Lufthansa.
Fascination may not be the right word for all of us who are interested in developments at the airline.
For a substantial amount of city pairs within Europe there's just no real alternative to the LH Group. You might get lucky and find a LCC flying on the day you need to travel- if not, you'll need to spend lots of time and money on car/train journeys in order to avoid Lufthansa and friends.
The...
Fascination may not be the right word for all of us who are interested in developments at the airline.
For a substantial amount of city pairs within Europe there's just no real alternative to the LH Group. You might get lucky and find a LCC flying on the day you need to travel- if not, you'll need to spend lots of time and money on car/train journeys in order to avoid Lufthansa and friends.
The above doesn't mean that you necessarily have to get involved in Miles and More. I'm not, but I need to be extra careful with booking classes- I normally have to buy tickets over the phone at least twice a year in order to avoid K/L/T in economy or P in business- to ensure that I don't inadvertently fail to renew my *G status and end up being even more miserable when I have to fly LH yet again. Someone who can't be bothered with researching that sort of thing would be more likely to gravitate to M&M and become invested in the programme and its currency.
The other issue is the relative security stemming from the lack of large-scale transfer partners. IAG have created an entire ecosystem of airlines using their miles and sell gazillions of them through every imaginable channel. AFKL have gone on record as actively wanting to focus their frequent flyer programme on prioritising points transfers and credit card users from a different continent. This type of thing creates serious inflationary pressures which often turn into devaluations that are often unannounced (e.g. the recent Iberia one) and/or brutal (e.g. Flying Blue increasing redemption costs to Africa and S. America by 70% overnight). I'm sure that a fair few people prefer sticking with an airline which is known for a more conservative approach that's not as likely to result in the annihilation of the value of their miles.
Yes, it's neither a great airline nor a fantastic FFP. But not everyone can avoid them.
Good post Throwawayname
Hi Throwawayname!
I've got a question, as I'm based in Vienna I'm very dependent on LH group and I have the same problem with booking classes as I credit all my miles to Miles and Smiles by Turkish Airlines in order to maintain Star Alliance Gold. Could you please explain the process of getting a better booking class via telephone? How much more does it cost approximately?
Thanks!
It's a reasonably straightforward process.
The Lufthansa website does show booking classes, they're typically displayed in the popup bit that compares the various fare families (e.g. light Vs classic Vs flex). If it shows a booking class that doesn't work for you, you then call their reservations call centre and ask them to book the flights in the desired booking class (e.g. Z for business), explaining that you need it for mileage credit purposes. They'll...
It's a reasonably straightforward process.
The Lufthansa website does show booking classes, they're typically displayed in the popup bit that compares the various fare families (e.g. light Vs classic Vs flex). If it shows a booking class that doesn't work for you, you then call their reservations call centre and ask them to book the flights in the desired booking class (e.g. Z for business), explaining that you need it for mileage credit purposes. They'll quote you a price which includes something like €35-40 in booking fees. 9 times out of 10, I reiterate that there's no way of booking the itinerary online and manage to get them to escalate to a supervisor who's then able to waive the fee. If that doesn't happen for whatever reason, you can either HUACA or just pay up if you can't be bothered.
You sometimes get quicker and/or better service if you choose to speak in a language other than English as offshore call centres don't tend to employ many people who can speak Polish, Italian, Greek etc.
I should've clarified that the fare cost for booking e.g. Z instead of P or S instead of L can easily be found by playing around with flight dates and combinations.
For example, if you want to fly VIE-ZRH-MAD in November and you're seeing only the very cheapest fares in K because flights are unlikely to fill up, check out some September dates when they'll be a bit busier and you'll know exactly how much...
I should've clarified that the fare cost for booking e.g. Z instead of P or S instead of L can easily be found by playing around with flight dates and combinations.
For example, if you want to fly VIE-ZRH-MAD in November and you're seeing only the very cheapest fares in K because flights are unlikely to fill up, check out some September dates when they'll be a bit busier and you'll know exactly how much you'll be charged to book in S within the fare family you want. It's never a lot of money within Europe (although I almost always fly with a connection so I am not really familiar with hub fare structures for direct flights ex-VIE).
RE: "The good news is that awards continue to be bookable through partner programs as before."
I *had* to fly LH F 2X last week just in case partner awards pricing spiked today. ;)
Grateful that LH seats (especially in the O bucket) are still bookable at the same awards rates with AC's program, at least for the time being. I hope this lasts a while.
Typical Lufthansa move. I get that they’re trying to churn money until the last drop, but what annoys me the most is that they always try to cover up these moves as 'something beneficial for the customers.'