In the United States the Lufthansa Airlines credit card “Miles and More” is issued by Barclays and there are two different types available. Let’s review the pros and cons that come with them:

Rewards Program

• Miles and More World MasterCard: 1 mile per dollar spent
• Premier Miles and More World MasterCard: 1 mile per dollar spent on regular purchases and 2 miles per dollar on ticket purchases from Lufthansa and the following partners: LOT Polish Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Luxair, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Adria Airways, and AirDolomiti

As you can see the main difference between the two credit cards is that one gives 2x points with Lufthansa and partners, while the other doesn’t. The basic version has a $59 annual fee and the premier version is $79.

Benefits

The main drawback of the Lufthansa card in the USA is that you don’t get many extra benefits with it. However there is one good perk that stands out and that is the companion ticket feature, which is something that each cardholder is given once per year.

However there are a few drawbacks that come with this Lufthansa companion ticket offer. It’s not a totally free ticket since you will have to pay various fees, taxes, fuel surcharges, etc. on the second ticket (but that’s to be expected with companion airfare regardless of who’s offering it). The real drawback is that you can must book in H class in order to be able to use the companion ticket. I read this on FlyerTalk by someone griping about H class:

“The ticket has to be strictly in H class and cannot be upgraded. I was booking for a ticket in December and the pricing was over the top. I picked weekend days, weekdays, any days… all too expensive for economy cabin. We’re taking 3x as much as the regular price.”

So the H class requirement is definitely something to take into account when weighing the pros and cons of this benefit.

Mileage Expiration

If a purchase is made at least once per month with the Lufthansa credit card, the affiliated miles won’t expire.

Overall I would classify this as a good thing, but it’s a lot less than what many other airline credit cards here in the US, which is no expiration of miles as long as you’re a cardholder (regardless of how often you make purchases). In fact, that is how the German version of the Lufthansa card works. It’s too bad they don’t do it that way for the U.S. version, too.

A Better Alternative?

Despite the drawbacks, I wouldn’t necessarily say Lufthansa’s USA credit card is a bad deal. After all, the annual fee is quite reasonable. I just wish they offered more benefits because for many people, this would be not much more than your typical 1 mile per dollar travel card.

Another option I would recommend that you check out if you regularly fly Lufthansa is the American Express Starwood credit card. You’re probably saying “What?! Why would I want a hotel card?!” Well, let me explain…

Ironically, the Starwood card is perhaps the best on the market for airline miles. The reason why is because with it you have the ability to transfer your points to airline frequent flyer programs. Now some cards on the market do offer this for a few airlines but what makes this one different is that it allows you to do it with over 30 different airlines/hotel programs and the conversion is typically on a 1 for 1 scale.

Here are the StarAlliance participants and as you can see, it includes Lufthansa Airlines as well as their partners:

Your Starpoints can be transferred to your Lufthansa Miles and More account on a 1 for 1 basis. But with Starpoints you get icing on the cake, because for every 20,000 Starpoints you transfer, you get 5,000 bonus Starpoints (so essentially they’re worth 25% more than regular miles would be). You can do this with up to 79,999 per eligible transfer (so up to a max of 94,999 miles).

As you can see, that is quite a compelling argument to go with Starwood over the Barclays Lufthansa credit card. As a partner of AmEx, we also have some really good signup offers going on which you can check out in this review of the Starwood American Express card.

Written May 2011