frequent flyer miles-lufthansa - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

**juliagulia** · 07-09-2007, 11:43 AM

okay so i redeemed my miles for dulles to munich and munich to dulles, but i cant figure out how to redeem the miles for munich to athens and athens to munich (the operating carrier was Lufthansa, which is still star alliance, but it only gave me united airlines and some others as options...)

i really want to get these miles for my trip next year...

oh! another thing. i dont really understand the whole frequent flyer miles thing anyway. i thought it had something to do with credit cards and whatnot, and for some reason thought i wouldnt be able to sign up for it since im a minor but it worked out fine...

and can you only use miles for upgrades? or can you use them to buy the whole ticket? and if you use your miles to buy the ticket/upgrade, can you redeem the miles you traveled?

sorry so may questions...

**joe7f** · 07-09-2007, 12:32 PM

You can sign up for a credit card to give you miles. This was sort of an afterthought on the FFM programs. I have all my miles on Delta and Continental but if I sign up for one of their cards, it will be something like 75 bucks a year which accounts for about 3700 miles worth of purchases to make it work out. Just keep that in mind. Miles are often worth between 1 and 2 cents.

You can use your miles to upgrade or buy complete tickets. I don't think you can double dip on the miles (ie getting miles on a reward flight) on any airline, but it never hurts to check.

If you booked your trip as two seperate legs, that may have led to the confusion. If it was a simple stopover in Munich, you should be fine and the total trip mileage should have been awarded.

You can also purchase miles if you are close. For example, the award ticket is 60000 miles and you have 58000, you can buy 2000 miles for 50 bucks so you can use your miles.

You should have received about 11-12000 miles.

--Joey

**juliagulia** · 07-09-2007, 12:40 PM

Thanks! Yeah, I'm not a fan of credit cards. I wonder how long I can live with no credit...

On my account it says I have ~9000 miles, so I'm thinking the MUC-ATH etc bit didn't go in.

I'll search around the website, see if I can find a number for Lufthansa. I want my miles, damn it!

Haha, oh gosh...

**joe7f** · 07-09-2007, 01:10 PM

If this is all going in to your United account, you may want to call United. I am not sure how Star Alliance works, but on Skyteam your FFM code is accepted by all airlines so the fault may lie with United.

--Joey

**my retro career** · 07-09-2007, 02:09 PM

a few more additional info regarding mileage...

- some mileage aren't as stated, especially "mileage" with certain credit card companies. for instance, my credit card might say i have "5000 miles" but it doesn't mean i can fly for 5000 miles for free...it might mean that one mile equals .02 cents (as an example), so you have 100 free miles (5000 miles x .02 cents)

- not all miles are redeemable for all flights; some alliances/airlines block out heavy traffic seasons...grr

- not all miles are forever lasting...some do expire, like US Airways

in general, it's still always recommended that travellers sign up for all airlines that they fly on, because it's free. you/we can only benefit from it, although you're right in that they can be darn confusing...probably designed to be so..!

**joe7f** · 07-09-2007, 09:27 PM

^ You may not want to sign up with every airline you fly on, just one from each alliance. I am not sure if you can combine mileage across several airlines (ie, miles on Delta, Continental and Northwest combining to get you across the Atlantic)

Btw, the way I chose Continental was that their miles don't expire.

--Joey

**my retro career** · 07-10-2007, 09:12 AM

yes you're right about that

i signed up with USAir only because its the main airline serving philly, the airport closest to me..

**LiveFreeorDie** · 07-10-2007, 05:47 PM

The Star Alliance is a good one to be a part of. It includes USAir, United, Lufthansa, Thai Air, Singapore Air, Air Canada plus some others. My United miles do not expire as long as I have some activity on my frequent flyer account, either using or earning miles, including miles earned on my United Visa. I travel a lot for work and I put all my expenses on this Visa...I have earned a ton of miles. You can also use your miles to get a free ticket on multiple airlines within the alliance for a single itinerary. I flew to Thailand using United miles and flew Air Canada to Korea, Thai Air from Korea to Bangkok and then United back home to the states. Your luggage is transferred among the alliance carriers so it is quite seamless. You can use miles to upgrade, get a free ticket or buy stuff from the United catalog (which is a rip-off). Also, at least with United, you earn different kinds upgrades as well as miles when you travel certain distances. It is kind of confusing but it is all laid out on their website. One last benefit is that once you earn 25000 miles in a year, you earn elite status, this means you can check in using the Business class line, you can board the plane early...little perks like that. If you think you didn't get mileage credit, call them up and they wil ask for a copy of your boarding pass or itinerary. Good luck!

**joe7f** · 07-10-2007, 06:33 PM

The 25000 mile threshold is fairly low so United may be a good airline to have in your rotation.

Some airlines will also give you 125% miles once you attain elite status.

--Joey

**Diorama** · 07-10-2007, 07:19 PM

I finally signed up for aeroplan (air canadas mileage program). I have no idea why i never had a mileage program before. doh!! On my next trip I will be getting 30,000 miles. yaaaahhhhh So I cringe thinking about how many miles I have thrown away in the past five years...

**LiveFreeorDie** · 07-14-2007, 07:34 PM

One important thing is to NOT join too many mileage programs if the different airlines are in the same alliance. For example, if you flew both USAir and United over a period of time and used both of their frequent flyer programs, you might have 15,000 USAir miles and 10,000 United miles. However, you cannot combine them to get a free ticket in the Star Alliance. If you instead had used your United frequent flyer account on both your United and USAir flights (because they are in the same alliance you can do this) and received all 25,000 miles in your United account, then you would have a free ticket that could be used on different star alliance airlines. It takes some time to sort all the frequent flyer stuff out, but it is worth it.