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Update: AwardWallet members have reported that Miles & More mileage pooling is restricted to members in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Please let us know in the comments if you are able to find a publicly available page that explains the eligibility rules for pooling. (Thank you!)
Lufthansa has added family pooling of miles, and several new features to its Miles & More loyalty program to celebrate its 25th birthday. Lufthansa has not confirmed the exact date that the new pooling will come into effect, although it has indicated that it will happen in May this year. The new program is tailored to families and allows the pooling of miles for two adults and up to five children. According to the Miles and More website, the pooling is only valid for award miles and not status miles.
Other Changes
There are other changes coming to the Miles and More program apart from pooling miles, these include:
- Kids who join Lufthansa’s JetFriends Club will receive a 2,000-mile bonus, and their miles will remain valid until they are 18
- Lufthansa is to start offering more local tailored promotions, with members being able to rate the promos so that they can be further improved
- Miles and More will be holding a drawing to give away 25,000 miles to ten of its members.
Our Take
The key change with Miles and More is the family pooling which makes it easier to accrue miles for your next award. For instance, a family of seven flying New York to Frankfurt in the lowest Business class fare would pick up 26,957 miles.
A lesser known, but potentially far more lucrative option within Star Alliance is EgyptAir, which allows the pooling of both status and award miles. The same family of seven taking the above flights would leave the main account holder just over 3,000 miles shy of Star Alliance Silver, while if the family returned via the same route, the main account holder would be just 6,000 miles shy of Gold status with one trip!
Source: Mommy Points
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Direct quote from Lufthansa M&M Terms & Conditions “Mileage pooling is an offer available in selected countries only (currently in Germany, Austria and Switzerland). MMG reserves the right to check the address, country and age of applicants. Any breach of these rules for admission to Mileage Pooling may lead to exclusion from participation in Mileage Pooling”. Ihre Sprachkenntnisse sind nicht ausreichend!
Thanks for the information. Is there a page that can be accessed without login that shares those terms and conditions?
Here it is, Eric! https://www.miles-and-more.com/at/en/general-information/help-and-contact/help/giving-miles.html
Thanks!
Has this been launched? Cannot seem to find any information about this in Miles and More website.
Wish I could point you in the right direction. The press release stated it was launching in May but that was the last we heard of it.
Wow. Surprised when I came across this article. Nice info to keep in mind
What’s the advantage when crediting UA flights to LH? Isn’t LH’s redemption far pricier in points/miles?
Pooling?
It’s good to see more programs support pooling.
Big advantage: pool also with people not sharing the same address.
Big disadvantage: only two adults in the pool of miles.
Anyway, some advantage also considering the expiration of miles after three years.
Now only if their bonus on their card ever goes higher than 50k – me and my family could all get the card and pool the miles
Nice program addition. Wish more programs would allow this.
@MICHAELJ1 says: “We need to spread the word to airlines that family pooling is a great draw for families.”
Yes, and this blog post, and those that read it and comment, of course, are all part of your desired spreading of the good word!
I have family in Germany but they are always flying someone other than Lufthansa. I think my husband flew them a long time ago, but they didn’t leave a great impression. Do they have any good fare between DE and US? My husband says that coach was tough on that long of a flight then and is nervous about how it would be now.
I keep telling them they should get something that would allow them to earn miles but well not much of a market in Europe. Any thoughts on a general credit card that might give points if a person lives in DE?
Here’s the deal: You don’t need to Fly Lufthansa to leverage pooling of their miles! Who cares what their prices are. Fly United and credit to Lufthansa! 🙂
That’s a great new feature, too bad they are usally more expensive than the competition.
Wow, this is super useful!
waiting for more US airlines to do the same
I’ve used this benefit on Jetblue and it’s great! Glad it’s expanding.
We need to spread the word to airlines that family pooling is a great draw for families.
great program!
this is a nice compliment to their credit card miles
THIS IS FANTASTIC
I AGREE 🙂
great info!
helpful
thanks for sharing
I have been thinking of getting a MileandMore credit card. How many miles does one need for a saver award between USA and Europe? Do they allow a free stopover?
60k in economy and yes.
So I could pool with only one adult member of the household? Not with two or more?
You + 1 other adult.
Man I really wish other companies would do this. I think it would vastly increase brand loyalties for families especially.
I’ll never use this, but thanks for adding another name to the family pooling pool besides JetBlue. Hopefully another airline follow.
I wish AA would do this.
I’m really happy with this. I have some orphaned Lufthansa miles, as does my wife. Now we can combine them. Thanks for the tip. I look forward to the announcement
What a lovely aspect of their program. Love it!
Great to know.
It’s awesome they allow for mileage pooling, now id only wish US carriers would do the same.
You’ll need to stick with JetBlue if you want that.
I wish the USA carriers would do this.
Good to know. Very helpful!
Good to hear some airlines actually value families traveling.
Considering how few miles Lufthansa awards on many of their cheaper tickets, you’d need to pool a lot of family members’ miles to even book a domestic flight! This has to be one of the stingiest legacy airlines in the world!
Is there is any way to avoid M&M miles expiration?
Yes: https://awardwallet.com/blog/lufthansa-miles-miles-expire/
Didn’t know about Egypt Air! Thanks
A real enhancement. It would be fantastic if more programs would do the same!
Shame that only 2 adults are allowed. That obviously limits how much the concept can be exploited. But, at the same time, lots of people have parents, siblings, etc. who are infrequent travelers and would be happy to let their miles go to somebody more inclined to use them.
Instead of thinking about how to exploit the benefit, can’t we just be happy that they’ve added this functionality? Oy!