Miles & More

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Miles & More GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1993
Seat Frankfurt Airport , Germany
Number of employees Around 300 (as of 2017)
sales 196.5 million euros (2011)
Website miles-and-more.com

With more than 30 million members, Miles & More is the largest frequent flyer and rewards program in Europe. The Miles & More program started on January 1, 1993 with seven program partners and Miles & More GmbH has been operating as an independent company since September 2014. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the company is based in Frankfurt am Main.

Miles & More members can collect and redeem miles with more than 300 partners. This includes 40 airline partners, including the 28 airlines of the Star Alliance as well as around 270 companies outside the aviation sector from the hotels, rental cars, cruises, subscriptions and books, banking and insurance, telecommunications and electronics as well as shopping and lifestyle sectors.

Participating societies

In addition to Lufthansa, other aviation companies belong to Miles & More. These are Austrian Airlines Group (since 2000), Swiss (since 2006), Air Dolomiti (since 2008), Brussels Airlines (since 2009) and Eurowings (since 2010), which have since become Lufthansa subsidiaries through takeovers, as well as those of Lufthansa-independent Star Alliance members LOT (since 2003), Croatia Airlines (since 2005) and Luxair (since 2009). Other participants include the other Star Alliance members, many of whom run their own frequent flyer program.

Operator and profitability

The program is operated by Miles & More GmbH based at Frankfurt am Main Airport . This GmbH is a 100 percent subsidiary of Lufthansa AG.

From a business perspective, the frequent flyer program is extremely lucrative for the Lufthansa Group: According to industry experts, the program, whose profit contribution has not yet been officially published in the group annual report, contributed around EUR 700 million to consolidated profit in the 2012 financial year.

Users

In February 2011, the Miles & More program had 20 million participants worldwide, including 6 million in Germany and one million in Switzerland. According to information at the time, an average of 5,000 new members would be added every day. Every month, 50,000 new participants register to collect and redeem award miles with partner companies. At the end of 2012 the program had 23 million participants and in March 2014 more than 25 million.

According to the operator, the average age of the participants is 46 years. 60% of users are male, 40% female. In 2010, participants accumulated a total of 198 billion miles. At the end of 2012, Lufthansa customers had 205 billion bonus miles. The company booked their value internally at 1.66 billion euros ( deferred income ). About 20 to 30 percent of the miles are not used.

Miles & More GmbH does not provide any information about the number of members with the highest status, HON Circle Members. In March 2007 there should have been almost 3,000 HON Circle Members. Later estimates put the number between 2000 and 4000 in 2011.

miles

First version of the customer card in 1993

The unit of account of the program is "miles". These are divided into status miles and award miles. Miles are personal. They are not transferable to other participants.

Award miles expire after 36 months, unless the holder has a status, a (chargeable) Lufthansa Gold credit card or a (chargeable) Austrian Airlines Miles and More credit card Gold or Platinum or is under 18 years of age and has a Jetfriends card . Holders of the Miles & More Credit Card Blue also have unlimited miles validity from 1,500 miles for credit card transactions.

Status miles

Status miles are used to determine the frequent flyer status. These can only be purchased with flight tickets that have been purchased and flown from Lufthansa , Swiss , Austrian , Germanwings and other Star Alliance partners. They expire at the end of a calendar year .

“HON Circle” miles

The “HON Circle” miles are a special type of status miles. The collection options for these are more restrictive than for normal status miles. If a customer collects 600,000 HON miles in two years, he receives HON status as the highest frequent flyer status of Lufthansa. Since September 1, 2012, these HON miles can only be earned in Business Class and First Class.

Select miles

Select miles represent a further form of status miles. The amount of the collected Select miles is the same as the collected status miles, with the difference that only flights of the LH Group, Air Dolomiti, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines and Luxair are taken into account. Depending on the customer's frequent flyer status, rewards are available once certain thresholds have been reached, such as vouchers for the WorldShop, lounge vouchers, upgrade eVouchers or partner cards (possibility of assigning a status to a third party). Frequent travelers get the first Select award with 50,000 Select miles, Senators with 125,000 Select miles, the first award for HON Circle members can be redeemed from 650,000 HON Circle miles.

Award miles

current version

Award miles can be redeemed for flight and material awards. In addition to flights, miles can also e.g. This can be collected and redeemed, for example, at hotels, rental car companies, Travel Value and Duty Free Shops or Lufthansa's own WorldShop (a total of more than 270 cooperation partners worldwide, as of 2017). They usually expire after three years at the end of the quarter. Award miles from status customers (Frequent Traveler, Senator, HON) or owners of a Lufthansa Miles & More Gold credit card do not expire. Owners of a Lufthansa Miles & More Blue credit card protect themselves against the expiry of the award miles from a turnover of 3000 euros per year.

Purchase of miles

Miles are primarily earned through flights with Star Alliance companies, but also through credit card transactions. Other sources include special customer bonuses, telephone services, special flight bonuses, hotel bookings, purchases, and car rentals.

The amount of miles credited on flights depends very much on the booking class. In principle, more miles are credited in higher classes than in lower classes. A distinction is also made between individual tariffs. The calculation is usually based on fixed mileage values ​​without reference to the actual distance traveled. For flights with partner airlines, sometimes - depending on the booking class - no miles are credited at all.

On European flights you receive between 125 and 2,000 miles per flight, depending on the booking class. On intercontinental flights, you get 0.25 to 3 times the great circle distance in country miles per booking class . The minimum amount credited to these flights is between 500 and 1,500 miles.

The regulation of the credit based on a factor multiplied by the route actually flown has been used since the introduction of the frequent flyer program and changed on March 12, 2018. All flights booked from this point onwards on tickets issued by the Lufthansa Group are then based on the ticket price and thus remunerated in direct relation to the costs and no longer on the basis of the flown route. However, the exact calculation of miles differs between airlines of the Lufthansa Group and partner airlines and also depends on the status in the program. Members without status receive four times the ticket price (tariff and international surcharge YQ). Status customers receive a credit of four times the ticket price.

Doctors who identify themselves as such before the flight can receive additional bonus miles.

Writing hotel reviews on HolidayCheck also enables you to collect miles.

Redeem miles

With the award miles z. B. Seat class upgrades (Economy → Premium Economy → Business → First Class) or award flights can be booked. Originally, these were the only uses. Economy guests can upgrade to either Premium Economy Class or Business Class. Otherwise, you can only upgrade to the next higher service class, i.e. from Premium Economy to Business and from the latter class to First Class. Since the beginning of 2017, with “Cash & Miles”, participants in Germany have for the first time been able to use miles flexibly for their flight and thus reduce the amount of money to be paid.

The suitability for an upgrade depends on the booking class, for which the participating airlines have their own sets of rules. Upgrades are not possible in some “cheap” booking classes. Since May 2008, it has also been possible to redeem airport taxes and fees on intra-European flights, which contributed to winning the golden “Freddie” at the Freddie Awards for frequent flyer programs. Miles can also be donated, but these donations cannot be directed to climate compensation projects and can now only be directed to a Lufthansa-owned aid organization .

With the growing range of "sources of revenue from miles", the possibilities for use also gradually grew. Today, if you have enough miles, you can pay for entire trips, rent cars, shop in the Lufthansa Worldshop or in the Travel Value and Duty Free shops at many airports. Two separate platforms have emerged from the “Miles & More Hotel & Car Awards” portal for redeeming miles for hotel and rental car bookings. On the one hand, members can find accommodation via the hotel booking portal Miles & More Hotels - they collect at least 1,000 miles per night or can redeem miles for this. The counterpart Miles & More Rental Cars complements the travel-related offer with the option of redeeming miles for booking rental cars.

Taxes and fees on award flights

Award flights are not free flights, but discounted, sold tickets, as normal taxes and fees have to be paid in addition to the corresponding award miles. These always include the kerosene surcharge (the so-called "YQ tax"), which can amount to several hundred euros. In contrast to taxes, the amount of the kerosene surcharge is determined by the airline itself. It is not transferred to third parties and remains with the airline. Only the booking fee does not apply. However, the amount of the additional payment depends heavily on the airline and flight route. Transatlantic flights with Lufthansa, for example, usually have taxes and fees of several hundred euros due to the kerosene surcharge. For example, an award flight (return flight in economy class) from Frankfurt to New York costs 60,000 miles and around 420 euros in taxes and fees (as of September 2014). An award flight with United Airlines within the USA costs just a few euros in taxes and fees. Other airlines that can be booked with Miles & More miles and require low taxes and fees are, for example, Air New Zealand or Avianca. Eurowings and Germanwings award flights are a cost-effective option within Europe. For example, Miles & More award flights (economy return flight) from Cologne to Palma de Mallorca for 25,000 miles and a little more than 32 euros in taxes and fees can be booked with Eurowings (basic tariff, as of July 2016). In general, the taxes and fees for Eurowings and Germanwings award flights are only a fraction of what would be due on comparable Lufthansa flights.

In September 2016, Miles & More adjusted the flight award table and reduced the international / national surcharge per flight segment for intra-European award tickets. Miles & More will then pay part of the regular surcharge. Participants now pay 5 instead of 35 euros in surcharges in Economy Class and 20 instead of 43 euros in Business Class at Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels airlines. This is offset by a premium increase of 5,000 miles per ticket (for return flight awards). One-way and children's flight awards were increased proportionately.

The monetary value of miles

The monetary equivalent of a mile for a customer cannot be precisely quantified due to the different rewards to be redeemed for it. Taking the “shopping vouchers” or “financial services” awards as a benchmark, it is around 0.3 cents per mile. If, on the other hand, flight awards are used as a benchmark, the value is ten times as high at around 3 cents / mile. Award miles could also be purchased directly until mid-2014. The prices were between 2.42 and 3.5 cents per mile. In a case before the Cologne Regional Court (Az .: 14 O 245/11), Lufthansa set the mileage value at 2.77 cents in 2011. In 2008, Lufthansa made 0.73 cents per mile as a provision in its balance sheet. In its 2012 annual report, Lufthansa only rated a mile with an average of 0.31 cents.

Miles devaluation

At the beginning of December 2010, Lufthansa announced changes to the flight award catalog as of January 3, 2011 online. As a result of the change, the miles required for intercontinental business class flights were increased by an average of 15% and for intercontinental first class flights by an average of 20%. The flight award maturity for continental and European domestic flights as well as for intercontinental flights in economy class remained unchanged. As a result, the value of the individual miles decreased accordingly.

A frequent flyer sued the Cologne Regional Court in 2011 against the invalidation of his mileage account. The district court ruled in favor of the frequent flyer. The company should have announced its new terms with four months' notice to avoid being penalized. Lufthansa should have continued to apply the old award levels for all miles acquired by the plaintiff before the changeover.

Lufthansa appealed against this judgment to the Cologne Higher Regional Court . This overturned the ruling of the regional court and decided in favor of Lufthansa. Lufthansa reached an agreement with the plaintiff immediately before the deadline for the appeal. Lufthansa has undertaken to announce future changes in the Miles & More bonus program at least 3 months in advance. In return, the plaintiff waived further legal action against Lufthansa.

Frequent flyer status

Miles & More has five categories for participants:

Provisional members
receive a blue "Miles & More" paper card with the card number 9999xxx when registering using a paper form.
Basic members
from the first mile (blue map or old gray map; starting with 9920)
Frequent traveler
from 35,000 status miles per year. Valid for two calendar years. The 35,000 status miles must be acquired again in one of the two calendar years before the status expires in order to maintain the status. In addition, since 2010 there has been the option of obtaining or extending the status of certain airlines over 30 so-called segments (flight segments or status-relevant flights) (silver card).
Card number starts with 9922xxx
Frequent travelers have access to the business lounges of certain airlines, but only if they have a boarding pass, but this can also be valid for economy class, earned award miles remain valid indefinitely during the status period, check-in at the business class counter, waiting list priority, 25% Surcharge on all distance miles or fixed mileage value (Executive Bonus), Frequent Traveler Hotline and free baggage allowance of 40 kg for certain airlines with a weight concept.
senator
from 100,000 status miles. Valid for two calendar years. The 100,000 status miles must be acquired again in one of the two calendar years before the status expires in order to maintain the status. It is possible to extend Senator status for a year for a fee of 2,000 euros, even without reaching the status miles.
Card number starts with 2220xxx
In addition to the Frequent Traveler options, Senators have access to the Lufthansa Senator Lounges (also upon arrival) and the Star Alliance Gold Lounges, whereby, in contrast to the Frequent Traveler, they can also take people without the appropriate status with them, First Class Check- in, second highest waiting list priority, booking guarantee up to 48 hours before departure in Business Class, increased flight award availability, Senator hotline, preferred baggage transport, additional free baggage allowance on all flights operated by the Star Alliance (exceptions apply to light tariffs), two electronic upgrade vouchers upon appointment to senator and extension of status.
HON Circle Member
from 600,000 HON Circle miles in two consecutive calendar years (black card).
In addition to the aforementioned options, HON Circle Members receive access to the Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt including a limousine service to and from the aircraft, access to the First Class Lounges in Frankfurt and Munich, six electronic upgrade vouchers upon appointment as HON Circle Member and extension of the Status, Senator card for the spouse or partner, maximum flight award availability, booking guarantee up to 24 hours before departure in Business Class, highest waiting list priority, Lufthansa HON Circle Credit Card without annual fee and other advantages with selected partners. The abbreviation HON stands for "honorary". The card number starts with 3330.

Frequent flyer status with Star Alliance

The Miles & More status also extends to companies in the Star Alliance of which Lufthansa is a member. The frequent traveler status is assigned to the Star Alliance Silver status ( * S ). Senator and HON Circle status is recognized as Star Alliance Gold status ( * G ).

Miles can usually be earned on Star Alliance flights; individual booking classes of some airlines are excluded from this. The purchase of award flights is possible from all Star Alliance members. An upgrade of the travel class using award miles can be carried out with many Star Alliance airlines.

Legal

Miles transferability

In June 2013, the Cologne Higher Regional Court declared clauses in Lufthansa's General Terms and Conditions to be ineffective, according to which awards could only be given to friends and relatives, but not sold to third parties. Lufthansa announced that it would appeal to the Federal Court of Justice . The general terms and conditions of Miles & More GmbH stipulate that the miles and the mileage account cannot be transferred to third parties.

Private use of miles earned on business

In April 2006 , the Federal Labor Court ruled in favor of the employer on the question of whether miles earned on business trips in the Miles & More program can be used privately or not . According to this, the employer can request that the miles earned on business trips be returned and, in particular, that they be used in the employer's interest.

The bonus miles affair became known in 2002. On the one hand, the behavior of various members of the Bundestag who used bonus miles earned on business trips contrary to the regulations for private flights was criticized. On the other hand, the data protection in dealing with the bonus miles evaluation was criticized.

Eligibility of bonuses

The Association against mischief in trade and commerce complained in 2001 against their opinion, illegal bonuses away from the core business of Lufthansa. The Regional Court of Cologne initially approved this action in the first instance, but the Higher Regional Court rejected these actions in the second instance.

taxation

The bonus miles earned on business trips and the rewards received for them are taxable benefits in kind . Initially, Lufthansa took over the income taxes incurred for this . In 2002 this was a flat rate of 2%. In 2008, the Federal Ministry of Finance regulated the handling of bonus miles in the wage tax guidelines for the first time . This determined a flat tax rate of 1.5%. In 2012, the flat tax rate for bonus miles according to Section 37a of the Income Tax Act is 2.25%. The assessment basis is the value of the premiums.

Cooperations with railway companies

Deutsche Bahn

At the beginning of 2000 there were talks between Deutsche Bahn and Lufthansa to make train journeys collectible. From March 1, 2001, bonus miles could also be collected for selected Deutsche Bahn trains ( ICE Sprinter , Metropolitan , AIRail trains) as part of a pilot project . In particular, the organized travel of railway lines was considered an opportunity for a relatively long time to acquire bonus and status miles relatively quickly and cheaply. However, Lufthansa stopped this procedure by changing the general terms and conditions.

Western Railway
This article or section needs to be revised: As of 2019, there is nothing to suggest that this cooperation still exists.
Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

Since December 11, 2011, the Austrian private railway Westbahn has been cooperating with the Miles & More program. The customer receives two award miles for every euro of ticket sales.

CAT

Passengers who travel to Vienna Airport with the City Airport Train can receive three award miles for every euro they spend online.

literature

  • Rüdiger Sterzenbach, Roland Conrady, Frank Fichert: Air traffic - business instruction and manual . 4th edition. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58537-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Participating airlines at miles-and-more.com
  2. ↑ Lufthansa AG - Annual Report 2015 p. 186: "Major Affiliates" (PDF file; 4.4 MB)
  3. ↑ Lufthansa wants to set up Miles & More. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 9, 2013, p. 21
  4. ↑ Record with Miles and More: 20 million participants. (No longer available online.) In: Lufthansa press release. February 11, 2011, archived from the original on February 17, 2011 ; accessed on October 10, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b The Air Miles Junkies. In: 20 minutes , January 12, 2012
  6. ↑ Michael Reidel: Below and above the clouds. In: Horizont 20/2017, May 18, 2017, p. 16.
  7. ↑ Annual Report 2012. Lufthansa AG (Ed.), P. 62 (PDF file; 4.6 MB).
  8. ↑ Miles & More bonus business is to be spun off into a subsidiary. ( Memento from March 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Deutsche Lufthansa AG (Ed.), Press release from March 12, 2014.
  9. ↑ Christian Wermke: The Miles & More principle. In: Handelsblatt - Das Magazin 2, April 7, 2017, pp. 40–41.
  10. ↑ Sample process between frequent flyers and Lufthansa begins. ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: airliners.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.airliners.de
  11. ↑ a b c Jens Koenen, Susanne Metzger: The trouble with the bonus miles . In: Handelsblatt . No. 113 , June 17, 2013, p. 20 .
  12. ↑ o. A., Collecting miles for the environment , Der Spiegel 12/2007, p. 89.
  13. ↑ Austrian Miles & More World Mastercard | Miles & More. Retrieved January 12, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Lufthansa makes it difficult for frequent flyers to access premium status. In: Spiegel online , March 22, 2012.
  15. ↑ How to earn miles with Singapore Airlines. Retrieved September 18, 2011 .
  16. ↑ https://www.miles-and-more.com/online/portal/mam/de/program/information?nodeid=728429825&l=de&cid=18002. Retrieved March 6, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Miles and More will be a revenue-based frequent flyer program . In: reisetopia . December 11, 2017 ( reisetopia.de [accessed March 6, 2018]).
  18. ↑ BonusNews . In: Business Traveler . No. 6 (December / January), 2013, ZDB -ID 1213730-3 , p. 12 .
  19. ↑ Lufthansa: Combine miles and money . In: Touristik aktuell 47, November 28, 2016, p. 14.
  20. ↑ Donate miles - give a future. Retrieved September 17, 2017 .
  21. ↑ meilenoptimieren.com ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ↑ Miles & More: Fewer surcharges for award tickets. June 2, 2016. Retrieved September 17, 2017 .
  23. ↑ 330 miles for 1 euro at Munich Airport. In: miles-and-more.com
  24. ↑ Finances & Credit Cards. In: miles-and-more.com
  25. ↑ Brand one: Good question: The miles puzzle ( Memento from March 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  26. ↑ Financial Times Deutschland: "Miles & Murren bei der Lufthansa" ( Memento from November 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  27. ↑ Buy missing award miles now and get your flight award faster! In: miles-and-more.com
  28. ↑ Lufthansa Annual Report 2008 p. 136 ( Memento of February 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 3.8 MB)
  29. ↑ EUR 38 million calculated future obligations for 205 billion miles to be assessed. In: Lufthansa Annual Report 2012 p. 147 (PDF file; 4.8 MB)
  30. ↑ a b LG Cologne · Judgment of March 16, 2012 · Az. 32 O 317/11. In: openjur.de .
  31. ↑ OLG Cologne · Judgment of January 8, 2013 · Az. 15 U 45/12. In: openjur.de
  32. ↑ Handelsblatt: Lawsuit against Lufthansa: frequent flyer dispute ends with a compromise. In: Handelsblatt , February 11, 2013.
  33. ↑ Information on Frequent Traveler. ( Memento from January 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: meilesammeln.com , accessed on October 10, 2019
  34. ↑ https://www.mittelstands-anwaelte.de/Oberlandesgericht-Koeln-Praemien-des-Miles-%26-MoreProgramms-muessen-frei-uebertragbar-sein-Senat-haelt-Einschraenkungen-in-den-Allgemeinen-Geschaeftsbedingungen- der-Lufthansa-for-ineffective-06-2013 / press release 11/13 of June 12, 2013.
  35. ^ BAG, judgment of April 11, 2006 - 9 AZR 500/05
  36. ↑ OLG Cologne · Judgment of November 30, 2001 · 6 U 103/01
  37. ↑ The rail boss says: No less train will run in Mannheim? In: Mannheimer Morgen . No. 71, March 25, 2000, p. 10.
  38. ↑ “Miles & More” on the rails. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . Issue 2/2001, p. 52.
  39. ↑ Martin U. Müller: The journey is the goal . In: Der Spiegel . No. 2 , 2012 ( online ).
  40. ↑ Miles & More Two miles per euro fare
  41. ↑ Miles & More: Partner CAT City Airport Train