50,000 Points for Lufthansa Mastercard: Stocking Up For Star Alliance Travel
The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard®
Q: I’m not a member of the Lufthansa Miles & More program. Why do I want this card?
A: There are a few reasons, but the bottom line is Lufthansa is a member of the Star Alliance which means these points can be used for flights on any Star Alliance carrier.
The offer:
Earn 20,000 miles after your first purchase
Earn an additional 30,000 miles after you spend $5,000 in the first 90 days after you open your account
There’s a $79 annual fee, but there’s also an annual companion ticket on Lufthansa. If you find any value at all in the companion ticket that should more than cover the annual fee
The Star Alliance network is currently the biggest network in the world (though oneworld will do some serious catch-up when US Airways drops from Star and joins OW as part of the American merger). That means you can use your Lufthansa miles to do any of the following:
Book a domestic US ticket on United.
Book travel from the US to Europe on Lufthansa, United or other Star Alliance carriers.
Book travel from the US to Asia or anywhere else the Star Alliance travels.
So, how to go about using those 50,000 miles?
You can book a couple of domestic coach tickets. 60,000 miles (an additional $5,000 spent on the card or 5,000 Lufthansa miles from another source) gets you a coach ticket between North America and Europe. Or, if you’re a bit more adventurous you can save up some Lufthansa miles for business class and first class tickets on Lufthansa (they have a great product for both, IMO).
There aren’t a ton of sign-up bonuses if you are trying to amass points to use on Star Alliance carriers. The majority of the United credit cards are issued by Chase which generally means you only get the sign-up bonus once. The Lufthansa Miles & More card is issued by Barclaycard, which has been reasonable with approvals as of late and gives you an extra chance to add points for a relatively low minimum spend.
Keep in mind you can also use these points for one or two tickets of a family trip and book the rest using United miles, though you’d be on two separate reservations. Combining miles from different carriers in the same alliance is a great way to leverage free travel for the whole family.
I don’t think this is the best card for everyday accrual of miles to use on Star Alliance carriers, but 50,000 points is a nice bump for any collector of miles and points!
50,000 mile Lufthansa sign-up offer.
I do receive a small referral credit if you are approved using the link in this post. This is currently the best offer I’m aware of for this product and I do appreciate your support.
