Lifelong statuses in Miles and More programme

Miles and More loyalty programme, whose partners include, among others, LOT, Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and a number of other airlines, introduced in January 2024 a solution marketed as “The New Status Programme” under the Discover brand.

Communication addressed to the members presented the following changes:

• Miles are now points
• Transparent qualifying statuses
• Additional benefits
• Lifelong status

A nicely designed website contains the following statements (apart from the marketing jargon):

1/ Qualification for the “Frequent Flyer” status is simple and transparent (although the very next sentence makes it clear that the way the miles (called “points” just a while ago) are collected remains unchanged).

2/ The points replace HON Circle mile and status miles, and consequently the Programme will simultaneously contain the terms “points”, “qualifying points” and “HON Circle points” that may be earned for flights.

3/ Point values earned for a flight depend solely on two parameters: flight class (Economy, Premium Economy, Business and First Class) and on whether the flight is “Continental” or “Intercontinental”.

4/ All Programme members will earn the same values of three types of points, which means that the Executive Bonus will no longer be available under the new rules.

5/ The programme offers the following statuses:

• “Frequent Traveller” – upon reaching 650 points and 326 qualifying points
• “Senator” – upon reaching 2,000 points and 1,000 qualifying points
• “HON Circle Member” – upon earning 6,000 HON Circle points (granted for Business and First Class flights)

Points are collected in annual cycles. Statuses are valid for at least 12 consecutive months, with the proviso that they expire in February following the year when the 12 month status validity expires.

Points are granted as follows:

Source: Miles and More website.

6/ Simultaneously, an announcement was made of the award of lifetime statuses called “Frequent Traveller Lifetime” and “Senator Lifetime” upon receiving 30,000 and 40,000 qualifying points, respectively, within the whole membership period.

That would seem straightforward if it wasn’t for the fact that after logging into the point-collecting account we can see that both miles and Executive Bonus are still granted, simultaneously with the newly introduced points, qualifying points and HON Circle points. See the screenshots below from one of flights made in January 2024, i.e. after the new Miles and More rules were introduced.

Source: Screenshot from one of the transactions in Miles and More programme made with the point account of the author of this article.

I wanted to see whether the change in Miles and More rules gave the programme managers the opportunity to inflate the value of the points and consequently reduce the incentivization. The abovementioned circumstances, however, make a reliable assessment impossible. Perhaps that was the point 😉

 

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