How to book a first class ticket with Lufthansa using Membership Rewards points
The holy grail of award tickets are unique itineraries such as those that allow you to go around the world [...]
The holy grail of prize tickets are the Unique itineraries such as those that allow you to go around the world and the more exclusive, first-class tickets. If you can then make the pairing by booking a ticket to go around the world in first class, you rightfully enter the Olympus of reward travelers.
In this article:
If all goes well and the travel world is open despite the Covid, next summer I will try what is unanimously recognized as the the best first class in the world, which is ANA's, a ticket which can cost over 15K euros and which I booked for a handful of points thanks to the Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club program.
Flying first class with Lufthansa means being able to visit the German airline's dedicated top passenger terminal, being escorted onto the plane in a Mercedes Maybach, and having a unique experience, even in price.
Most importantly, until the new 777-9s come into service, you will have the opportunity to travel on the queen of the skies, namely the 747/8, and sit in front of the pilots in the nose tip of the world's most iconic aircraft.
How to use MR points to fly on Lufthansa
Serial accumulators of points and miles know full well how difficult it is to reserve one of these seats, the problem with Lufthansa has an additional complication, namely the fact that the German carrier Is not one of the partners of the Membership Rewards program in Italy, and this means that it is not possible to transfer the points accumulated with American Express directly on the Miles&more program.
There is a possibility, however: Transfer MR points to the Marriott Bonvoy program. I Bonvoy points can also be easily accumulated by staying at Marriott group hotels and taking advantage of the many Promotions that allow you to collect a lot of points even with just a few stays inexpensive.
One of the special features of the Bonvoy program is that it allows the transfer of accumulated points to many airlines, and it is here that, by taking advantage of one of these partnerships, it will be possible, among other things, to book a first-class ticket on board the German carrier.
One of the recent changes made by Lufthansa was to make life "easier" for those who want to book an award ticket in this class through Star Alliance partners. The change doubled the time available: before Covid, first class seats for partners were made available only 15 days before the flight, now 30 days in advance.
A small modification, but one that helps so much for those seeking this type of ticket.
The Bonvoy program, as mentioned, allows points to be transferred to many airlines, almost all of them with a conversion rate of 3:1. This means that for every 3,000 Bonvoy points you will receive 1,000 points in the Korean carrier Asiana's loyalty program.
The Marriott Bonus
Also placed in this strategy is a bonus that Marriott grants to all customers who transfer miles to airlines. For 60 thousand bonvoy points transferred, 5000 miles/points are loaded into the preselected program.
How many points does a first-class ticket cost?
To understand how to get this reservation, it is necessary to understand how much the ticket costs, and how many MR points need to be converted first to Bonvoy points and then converted back to Asiana points.
Need 50k Asiana points for a one-way ticket To fly from Frankfurt to the United States, this means that at least 120k Bonvoy points will be needed, or 150,000 MR points. This is because the conversion rate from MR to Bonvoy is 5:4, so by transferring 150k MR points 120k bonvoy points will be credited, which must be converted to Asiana points, to which the 10k bonus points will be added and you will thus end up with enough points to detach the award ticket.
There is, however, a second option, which is to Buy Bonvoy points by taking advantage of the mystery bonus promotion which allows for a bonus of up to 80% over the points bought.
By doing so with less than €1,000 you can get enough points to detach a ticket in Lufthansa's most exclusive class.
- 6,000 Mile Registration Bonus
- Collect miles WITH EACH PURCHASE
- Your miles with no expiration*
- No fees for ATM withdrawals and foreign purchases
- Without having to change banks
- Autonomous card activation
- Multi-function mobile application
- Free travel insurance
- Free credit for up to 7 weeks
- Contactless Payment
- Mastercard® SecureCode