How would you like to spend $2,000 on a business class fare and use your preferred frequent flyer account to earn a boatload of miles from that trip – and then find out after the trip is concluded that you didn’t earn any miles at all??!
This Lufthansa Business Class Fare Doesn’t Earn Any Miles in Many Programs!
Which Lufthansa Fare Class Earns No Miles in Other Programs
This is the case with a particular Lufthansa business class fare. The fare class (how airlines categorize various types of ticket for fare rules and ticket costs) is “P” and is referred to as a “deep discount business” class ticket.
This is a $2,700 business class ticket – and it doesn’t earn any miles in 9 programs!
While Lufthansa will give you 100% of the miles flown as credit for this business class ticket, 9 other Star Alliance programs will not credit you with any miles at all! Yes, a ticket that may cost close to $3,000 for a roundtrip ticket may not let you earn any miles at all!
This is the Turkish Airline page – it shows that “P” fare class, for discounted business class, earns no miles!
I found this out (and after looking around, found it has been a problem with many others for at least a couple of years) when looking for some cheap business class tickets for a flight later this year. Thanks to using too many miles this year and flying with non-Star Alliance carriers, I am in a position where I need to make sure I knock out the rest of my qualifying miles for Aegean Gold in this one trip.
I never purchase Lufthansa business class tickets, mostly because they cost too much, but saw a more reasonable fare on a search and that is what got me looking. After I found out that it would earn nothing for me in my Aegean account, I quickly went away from it! 🙂
Where Should You Credit Such a Ticket To?
This is why the website WheretoCredit can be so handy. It will tell you where you should credit certain fare classes on which airline so you know where you will get the best return on your miles flown. For me, though, I only try to earn Star Alliance miles in my Aegean account so this website, in this instance, is more to show me which fare classes not to fly!
Where to Find the Fare Class Before You Buy Your Ticket
This is what you can see when you search for a flight on Expedia – Kayak won’t show this
Unfortunately, when you are searching for a flight on Google Flights or something like Kayak, you won’t see the fare class. You need to search the airline website directly or search on an online travel agency site like Expedia to find the fare class before you book.
When you get to the checkout page, you can click on Details and then look for the Fare Class to identify the letter it is. Take that and the airline name over to the WheretoCredit website to see where you should credit the miles from your flight.
Summary
While I understand that this is the case with many deeply discounted economy tickets, it is a shame to find it on a “deep discount” business class ticket (that still can cost over $3,000!). If it was considered a regular business class ticket, it would earn a minimum of 100% of the miles in many of the programs that currently give it 0 miles. Make sure you check before you book such a ticket with Lufthansa if you are trying to earn miles!
That’s why it’s always best to credit your flight to the airline who’s actually flying the route. You take your chances otherwise
That is great for someone that flies the same airline all the time. But, if you fly multiple airlines within an alliance, you could be leaving easy status and miles on the table. It is much better to find a program that works with your elite needs and credit to it whenever the fares line up with the miles earned
Up until last year, the LH “P” fare would credit 1,5 miles to MileagePlus. This year they changed to 1 mile.
Same with AF/KLM O fare, zero credit on Delta SkyMiles
I didn’t get any miles on my AA account flying Finnair from Madrid to Helsinki business class. Regardless of discounts/full price, some flight numbers are not eligible for credits on any OneWorld airline, exept Finnair. The worst part is, there is no way to know in advance, I learned it after the flight. My discussions with AA and Finnair resulted in nothing. It was in 2015.