Lufthansa Miles&More just sent out an email blast to their members announcing the discontinuation of their FlySmart award option effective June of this year and replace them with an Early Bird alternative.
The new Early Bird option will include worldwide flights in Economy Class however these tickets have to be booked more than 30 days in advance to get a reduction of up to 65% off the standard mileage amounts.
There is a big difference between FlySmart which was more last minute focused and this new system which requires the customer to make a decision at least one month in advance.
FlySmart was a quite popular redemption option with members who like to travel on a last minute basis, especially for intra-European travel.
This is the announcement as per the email:
… There must be places you’ve yet to see on your travel wish list. Thanks to our great award flight deals, we can take you to a multitude of destinations from as little as 17,000 miles.
Even though we’ll no longer be offering Fly Smart flight awards with Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa and SWISS after June 2020, we’ll happily carry on sending you off on your travels at short notice: you can now book Early Bird flight awards for destinations within Europe at least 30 days instead of 90 days before you travel.
And there’s more to discover with Early Bird on intercontinental flights too: with 16 additional services, such as from Munich to Miami and back for 40,000 award miles instead of 60,000 award miles, we are expanding our network to 122 routes. …
You can access details about the new Early Bird ticket option here.
These are the ticketing conditions:
- Four-day minimum stay or earliest possible return flight on the first Sunday after commencement of travel
- Only valid on non-stop flights with Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Luxair
- Outbound and return flights must be booked with the same airline
- Cannot be combined with other flight award products
- Rebookings and cancellations excluded
- Maximum stay of 3 months
- Book more than 30 days before departure.
- Fly from Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva or Luxembourg
- Fly non-stop in Economy Class within Europe for 17,000 miles on domestic flights and 20,000 miles on continental flights.
- Fly to numerous non-stop destinations worldwide for only 20,000, 30,000 or 40,000 miles [depending on the destination zone]
Is this going to be very useful?
In comparison to the FlySmart and even some low priced revenue rates out there I doubt that many customers will bite. The Business Class option for European flights will also fall away which was popular for the longer flights such as Portugal or Scandinavia.
The rather high surcharges for Miles&More awards pretty much kill all value of these Economy Class awards.
Mind you before there is any mixup: FlySmart is different from the popular Mileage Bargains available to worldwide destinations in Economy and Business Class – those will remain in the program!
Conclusion
Sadly another one bites the dust with Miles&More but at least the lucrative Mileage Bargains stick around for the time being as there are some pretty decent offers in Business Class on a frequent basis.
For those customers seeking to book flights in Economy Class I’d say that using miles, especially those of Miles&More is likely the worst option imaginable. First check the regular revenue rates before going anywhere near your mileage balance.
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