"I was among the first Italian HON Circle Members, today I decided to leave Miles&More": the tale of a true frequent flyer

Every once in a while in the comments, on social or on the WhatsApp channel, someone thinks that doing so many flights automatically means that they have seen everything, understood everything, experienced everything, but most importantly that the Barbone with its 150 flights per year you travel a lot.

It is not so. There is a world of passengers who have been flying for decades, who have been through entire seasons of frequent flying, who have experienced loyalty programs when they were not yet governed by dashboards, algorithms, and points to chase. The testimony we publish today goes exactly in that direction: the account of a reader who spent half a century on an airplane, who was among Lufthansa's first HON Circle and who, after 21 consecutive years at the top, decided to quit.

Testifying that he is not a braggart are these three cards; it is not easy to have one, let alone these 3 at the same time.

"I was among the first HON Circle Members, today I decided to leave Lufthansa."

There is one passage that is most striking in this reader's account: not speaking as an outside observer, but as a customer who has given the Lufthansa Group almost unrepeatable loyalty.

His first intercontinental flight dates as far back as the 1975, on the route Milan-New York-Caracas. In the 1980s it was already Senator/Gold of Lufthansa, At a time when Miles & More did not yet exist. and the recognition of the best customers, he says, relied more on human evaluation than today's automatisms. Then came Swissair, Lufthansa, business travel, vacation travel, and finally entry into the program's elite: HON Circle, introduced by Miles & More in 2005.

Today, to obtain or renew this status you need 6,000 HON Circle Points in a calendar year, points that are credited only on flights in Business and First Of LH group companies.

For more than two decades this reader has been renewing the card without interruption. Twenty-one consecutive years by HON Circle, built with a logic that longtime frequent flyers know well: not always choosing the most convenient route, but the one most useful for maintaining status. A way of traveling that often means accepting layovers, lengthening times, and sacrificing convenience in the name of program loyalty.

The breaking point: from exclusive privilege to increasingly rigid mechanism

There is also a theme in his story that many Miles & More members are familiar with: the feeling that the program is no longer trying to retain its best customers, only to make them run faster.

Today HON Circle is no longer based on the old miles system, but on the points system. The official threshold is set at 6,000 HON Circle Points in one year, while the Lifetime status under the program covers only Frequent Traveller Lifetime e Senator Lifetime: Miles & More in fact provides for the achievement of Frequent Traveller for life with 30,000 Qualifying Points and senator for life with 40,000 Qualifying Points, but there is no equivalent "HON for life" publicly stated in the current rules.

And this is precisely where the rift narrated by the reader arises. Because those who fly a lot, a great deal, look not only at the black badge in the wallet or the physical card in the wallet. He looks at the meaning of the relationship with the company. And when that relationship stops looking mutual, the castle begins to creak.

"By flying elsewhere, I have found that you travel better, waste less time, and spend less, too."

Perhaps the most interesting part of the testimony is that is not a nostalgic outburst. It is a tale of liberation.

Although still HON until February 2027, the reader explains that he has already started flying with other companies, citing Royal Jordanian, Oman Air, Turkish Airlines and Uzbekistan Airways, and to have discovered something that for many business travelers is almost blasphemy to utter aloud: outside the Lufthansa ecosystem, in some cases, you travel better.

Better because you fly more often with real business products even on short and medium haul. Better because unnecessary connecting flights are avoided. Better because you cut travel time in half. Better because you reduce the risk of missing a connection. And better, he adds, also from an economic point of view.

It is a reflection that hurts Lufthansa most of all, because it comes from one of those customers that a company should hold on to. Not least because, on paper at least, the program continues to present HON Circle as the most exclusive level of the Miles & More universe, with benefits such as access to the First Class Lounge, chauffeur service and dedicated assistance.

The episode that left its mark: "After years at HON I was promised a lifetime membership ... but it was Senator."

Then there is the bitterest passage in the entire narrative. It is not about points, thresholds or routing. It is about recognition.

The reader recounts that, a few years ago, his wife, a longtime senator, received a communication in which Lufthansa offered her the senator for life once his status was finished. Shortly thereafter a similar letter arrived for him as well. After years as a HON, however, he was not granted a permanent form of HON, but only ever a senator for life.

From a formal point of view, this is consistent with the current structure of the program, which publicly provides only the Lifetime statuses of Frequent Traveller and Senator. But from an emotional standpoint, for those who have spent 21 consecutive years from HON Circle, the message is a different one: you've given everything, but you'll still eventually be brought back down to the bottom rung.

And this is where the issue stops being technical and becomes personal.

Morals? Maybe it's not always worth chasing a status

The closing of the testimony is probably the sentence that sums it all up: "it's not worth running after statuses.". Something we here at TFC repeat to the point of exhaustion.

Coming from someone who has figured it out after half a century of flying and after 21 years as a HON, it weighs more than a thousand tutorials on how to optimize points. Because it comes not from someone who has never had statuses, but from someone who has experienced them at the highest possible level.

And perhaps that is the point. Loyalty programs are needed when help you travel better. Instead, when they begin to affect the way you book, the time you lose, the routes you choose, and even the quality of the product you accept on board, then the risk is that the game stops being worth the candle.

The final paradox is all here: while many airlines try to win premium passengers, others seem to do everything to lose them.

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