Today we have a Reader Comment concerning the expiration of Lufthansa Miles & More miles, which can catch members by surprise depending on how they plan on redeeming them, especially with changes involved.
Readers are encouraged to send us questions, comments, or opinions by email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll try to cover them here several times a week.
Lufthansa Miles & More is one of the programs that still has a natural expiration policy for miles collected. These miles will be valid for 36 months, after which they will expire by the end of the current quarter.
Some exceptions will preserve your Miles & More miles, such as holding M&M status (FTL/SEN/HON) or carrying a M&M co-branded credit card where the non-expiry of miles is a product feature.
Maria from Finland had the following problem with Lufthansa Miles&More that went beyond simple expiry but also involved a cancellation of an existing award:
On 23/6/24 we booked a normal 60 000 points flight award ticket (for travel end of April 2025). When the current M&M Miles Bargains were published 1 April, we found an interesting destination and decided we wanted to cancel the normal award flight in order to make a new booking for a Miles barging promo (for travel later in summer).
On 3 April 2025 we called the M&M team to arrange for the cancellation and return of the 60 000 miles to the M&M account, for a fee of 50 EUR. On my specific question, we were told that 57100 out of the 60000 would expire on 30 April 2025 (so plenty of time to use the miles before expiry).
The miles were indeed refunded immediately to the M&M account. The taxes a few days later.
However, after checking possibilities a few times over the following days, on day 7 after our cancellation, a new entry deducting 57100 miles had been introduced with a date 1 April 2025 and the points were gone! The transaction is entered BEFORE we made the cancellation……?!
After numerous phone calls with the M&M team, all they could suggest was that to file a claim with M&M. I have, 3 different times, but no news yet and the points have not been returned.
During the last conversation with the M&M team, we were told that the 57100 miles had expiry date 31 March NOT 30 April (as we were told), so BEFORE our cancellation. That would mean the miles would be lost immediately upon cancelling the award ticket. It goes without saying that we would NEVER have cancelled and PAID for said cancellation had we been given correct info by M&M.
We have asked for nothing more than to have the 57100 miles returned to the account immediately so we can proceed to use them ASAP.
I fear we will be ignored and I wonder if there anything you can do to help us to recover the miles?
Many thanks!
This all sounded rather strange to me because April 30th is an unusual date for miles to expire, considering Lufthansa Miles&More works with quarters, not full, single months.
The reader included a screenshot:
The account entries look correct to me and correspond with M&M policy regarding the expiration of miles, on the first day after the respective quarter ends.
What appears to have happened here is that the agent gave the customer totally incorrect information. Now trying to get Miles&More fess up to their mistake is going to be a challenge unless the call was recorded.
After we got Maria’s email, I responded with a few explanations about M&M’s policies and carefully signaled that lowering expectations for the outcome of this case is probably the best:
… Miles&More’s expiration policy is very strict. If you cancel an award then miles subject to previous expiration will indeed only be “alive” for a very short moment before being expired.
The expiration date of miles should be visible in the account statement unless the miles are protected by either status or by holding a credit card in markets where available.
It’s clear that in your case, you were told that the miles would expire. It will be tough to prove this and even if, it won’t change the fact that the miles indeed expired earlier (in Q1).
Miles&More is not an ideal program for travelers who can’t amass a lot of miles in this relatively short 3-year period, let alone redeem them within the same time frame.
I would be highly surprised if Lufthansa would reinstate these miles based on the fact that they had naturally expired, no matter what that agent said. Unfortunately, the attempt to cancel and rebook under the mileage bargain scheme (which was discontinued after the system revamp) backfired here.
I’m sorry I can’t give you any better news about this, but I’d suggest looking for a different frequent flyer program that suits your needs for future use. …
One option if Lufthansa isn’t forthcoming in this matter would be to open a mediation case with the SOP Ombudsman and claim it’s related to the initial ticket cancellation as they won’t deal with matters solely related to miles that aren’t attached to actual flights/bookings.
However, today I received good news from our reader as Lufthansa Miles&More was apparently able to reconcile her case with caller records and they agreed to re-activate her miles:
Hi again Sebastian,
I have to admit I am very surprised (!!!) but I just now had very happy news from M&M.
“After looking into your loyalty, as an exception, the 57100 miles have been re-credited to your account with a new expiry date of 30 June 2025”.
Amazing!
Best regards,
Maria
I’m not sure what made them decide this case favorably, but I’m sure they found out that the agent did, in fact, supply wrong information to the customer, which led to this situation.
In any case, I commend Miles & More for doing the right thing in this case and make sure the customer will have another chance to use the miles properly.
Also, remember the Mileage Bargains will soon be discontinued, so this is really the last shot!
Conclusion
Our reader had a problem with Lufthansa Miles & More as they cancelled a flight and then tried to book a better deal using the mileage bargains. The issue: Those miles used for the initial flight would have expired in the previous quarter, and while there is a short overlap period, one has to be really fast to book it.
Unfortunately, an M&M agent gave the customer incorrect information about the expiry, which resulted in the miles expiring and being removed from the account.
After reporting the issue and escalating the matter, LH ultimately decided in the customers favor giving them another three months lifetime to use up the miles before they really go away for good (unless they get a credit card of M&M status until then).
I don’t like this expiration policy in times where many programs have done away with it. Not that LH Miles & More is alone here, but this is really a nuisance. I can see where these companies are coming from, dormant miles are heavy on the balance sheets and they don’t want millions of dead accounts with hundreds of millions of miles lingering. Still, there should be a better way!
