Lufthansa Credit Card Review
Summary - The Lufthansa frequent flier program is the Miles and More Program. They have two versions of their credit cards, which we will explore here. For those of you who fly Lufthansa frequently might want to consider either of these cards. We will also offer an alternative card that also allows you to earn Miles and More "miles".
Miles and More World MasterCard - The lower tier version is the Lufthansa Miles and More World MasterCard. This card allows you to earn one mile for every dollar that you spend on the card (yes, that means no double miles). The annual fee for this version is $59. If you are a Senator or HON Circle member of their frequent flier program, then the annual fee is waived. As far as sign up bonuses go, you get 15,000 miles after your first purchase and 10,000 additional bonus miles after you transfer a balance to the card! To keep your miles from expiring, you have to use your card once a month. You will be able to receive a companion ticket once a year.
Miles and More Premier MasterCard - The upper version is the Miles and More Premier MasterCard. This card (unlike the World MasterCard version) allows yo to earn double miles when you use the card to purchase tickets from Lufthansa and their airline partners. These partners include Adria Airways, AirDolomiti, Austrian Airlines Group, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Lufthansa Regional, Lufthansa Private Jet, Luxair and SWISS. The annual fee is $79, but once again, if you are a Senator or HON Circle member, the annual fee is waived. There is a higher sign up bonus: 20,000 miles after your first purchase and an additional 15,000 miles after you transfer a balance to the card. Like the previous card, you need to use your card once a month to keep your miles from expiring and you can also receive a companion ticket once a year.
Miles and More Platinum MasterCard - If you are approved for neither of the above cards, then you will be approved for the Platinum MasterCard version. This version has no annual fee, but you can only earn one mile for every two dollars that you spend on the card. The sign up bonus is also less, 5,000 miles after the first purchase.
Terms and Conditions of The Companion Ticket - The companion ticket must be a H class economy ticket (ie full fare - no deep discount ticket) and the ticket accompanying it also has to be H class economy ticket. The flight has to depart the US to Europe on Lufthansa only (and not their partners).
Lufthansa is also a Starwood Preferred Guest Partner
One thing that you have to note is that Lufthansa (or rather Miles and More) is a partner of the Starwood Preferred Guest program. That means that you can earn Starpoints on a Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card and transfer them to Miles and More miles on a one for one basis. Furthermore, if you transfer 20,000 starpoints to Miles and More miles, Starwood will give you an additional 5,000 bonus Miles and More miles! The Starwood credit card has a $65 annual fee and allows you to earn one point for every dollar that you spend, but more on Starwood Hotels. I'm mentioning this because under some circumstances, you might be better off with this card than the Lufthansa credit card.
Lufthansa Miles and More Credit Card - Ideal If You Fly To Europe Often
Verdict - The Lufthansa is a pretty interesting card in a couple of ways. I'll focus in on the premier MasterCard version because most airline credit cards are configured that way - earn double miles, charge an annual fee and give a free annual economy companion ticket. The unique thing about these cards is that if you are an elite member of Miles and More, ie Senator or HON Circle member, you actually pay no annual fee (which is a really good deal). You also get a decent sign up bonus too, although I'm really puzzled as to why they require you transfer a balance to earn 15,000 bonus miles? I would like to think that most folks who are frequent fliers pay their bills in full.
So here's what I think, if you fly to Europe via Lufthansa a lot and you are a Senator or HON Circle member, then you might want to consider this card. I would go with the Premier version because you can earn double miles. But if you are not a frequent flyer of Lufthansa or do not fly to Germany or Europe that often, then perhaps the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card would be a better card as it gives you flexibility to transfer points to over 30 airlines (Lufthansa's Miles and More being one of them).
