Airlines sporadically have special deals and promos on award flights. While I sometimes peruse these deals, I rarely seriously think about booking anything. Until recently.
Lufthansa just rolled out its latest Miles and More Bargains:
- Book by February 28, 2025 for travel between specific dates this spring (some destinations through June 30)
- Flights are available to Europe from 7 U.S. airports: Boston, Chicago, Denver, JFK, Newark, Seattle, Washington D.C.
- Fly round-trip in economy for 30,000 miles, premium economy for 40,000 miles or business class for 55,000 miles. Wow! See this post on AwardWallet for more details.
These award prices are amazing, especially considering the dates run through early summer and work with many school schedules.
In late 2023, my husband and I each got the Barclays Lufthansa Miles & More World Elite Mastercard when the welcome bonus was 100,000 miles (see this post). I spent a good chunk of those miles on business class flights home from Hong Kong on partner airline Asiana Airlines (see this post). However, we have some leftover miles. Could I squeeze in a cheap solo trip to Europe this June using miles and points? Sure, why not?
Looking for Flight Availability, and the Major Problem
I’m most interested in flying in premium economy for 40,000 miles round-trip. The Miles & More Bargains promo included flights to Belgium and Austria from USA in premium economy. Surprisingly, I found great award availability from IAD (Washington, D.C.) for my desired week in June for up to 2 people. Yay! Of course, I started dreaming about an inexpensive, short trip to Europe.
But there was a problem: the award taxes. They’re high. Taxes for one-person round-trip in premium economy are over $1000. The taxes to Brussels and Salzburg were similar, around $1073. Ouch!
Taxes on economy award tickets are around $500, and business class around $2000 per person round-trip. I could use more miles to pay down the taxes, But Lufthansa miles are not easy to acquire, as they have no bank transfer partners.
My “free” bonus trip to Europe this summer was not looking so free after all. As much as I love a great deal, this deal isn’t for me. I already have a trip to Japan and a trip to Alberta, Canada planned for this summer, and both require out-of-pocket spending. Maybe after my 3 kids are done with college, I’ll feel more comfortable adding a not-so-free trip like this.
I still plan to look at award sales as they happen. Looking is free. However, I need to be realistic about how much a discounted award trip really costs and not let my travel fantasies ruin my budget.
Have you had success booking award flights during promo sales?
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
“Be advised that you can’t cancel or change these awards, so be sure your travel plans are firm before booking.”
With dozen+ years of using miles to buy airline tickets, I still don’t grasp the reality of so called “fuel surcharges” – to me it’s just a simple money grab from the clients who collected their miles in good-faith promise of exchanging those miles for airfare. Airlines don’t sell you a ticket with “fuel surcharges” on top of your fare – it’s already included in the price, so should be the same with “pay with your miles” option.
To me it’s a rip-off. The practice should be discontinued and made illegal. With such widespread of this in travel industry (airfare “fees”, hotel resort “fees”, it started to spill in other areas, such as Uber, etc.)
In Economics 101 – the price is the you pay, and not the price + this + that + fees.
Besides that – fuel prices has been stable for 10+ years, so what “surcharge” is about? Again: the price is the price, and price of fuel already counted in when calculating airfare service. It’s like they saying “Oh, we’re still calculating fuel prices based on 12 years ago when it costs $40/barrel. Sorry but our accountants can’t use current commodity prices.”
It’s like going to KFC and they charge you $2.50 for wings + $2.50 for cooking oil surcharge (because the price of oil raised in 12 years!) Would you be furious about that? Or smile and accept?
Anyhow, Nancy – I agree with you that those are ridiculously high cash fees on award tickets are not worth the hassle (on otherwise reasonable mileage fares). The hard product is not that good as I’ve heard too. You can look into Iberia/BA option for PE flights to Europe in the future or try Alaska partners if they have availability (which become scarce later). And maybe find some niche use for Miles&Smiles as Leana suggested in the comments.
The photo of Salzburg looks dreamy 😉 I wish to visit there again some day – the place does have it’s magic: charming castle with old city (unexpectedly large), imperial quarter with lush gardens on the other side of the river, Mozart house-museum and tasty food options! What’s not to love there.
Happy Travels!!
Yeah, most Miles and More promo tickets aren’t worth it due to high fuel surcharges. A few exceptions are Turkish and Lot Polish, which can be a great deal, since fees are relatively low. Another good niche option I’ve recently discovered is redeeming Lufthansa miles on Edelweiss Air, since you can often get economy tickets for 38k miles one-way with no extra fees. They fly nonstop from Tampa to Zurich, and Switzerland has been on my to-do list forever. I currently have 55k Lufthansa miles and honestly wish I took advantage of that 100k offer in 2023. But at the time I had other plans. Plus, I don’t think we will be going to Europe for at least two years, and by then this deal may be gone. Can’t catch them all!