The new era of “basic” tickets and award tickets tied to revenue pricing make it essential to plan carefully when using your Miles & Mores points, lest you face a cancellation fee of up to €1,500 (i.e. forfeit your trip) or find your mileage ticket is simply nonrefundable.

Lufthansa Miles & More Adds Brutal Refund Restrictions To Award Tickets

Working closely with United Airlines, the Lufthansa Group has expanded its “basic” fares to premium economy and business class. These highly-restricted fares come with reduced benefits like no advance seat assignments and a more limited baggage allowance. It’s not that they are cheaper: they have simply replaced the previously cheapest business class fares.

Unlike United (yet), these fares have spread to Miles & More award tickets and then the ramifications are extremely concerning, with award tickets following the same harsh restrictions as revenue fares.

Take a look at Frankfurt (FRA) to Bangkok (BKK) for an example. Note that the so-called “flex” fares, which previously carried no change fee, now cost €1,000 to refund (the pricing varies by route and and seems to run from €5o0 to €1,500) while so-called “base” fees cost €1,500 to refund. Business Light and Business Saver tickets are no longer refundable in any circumstance (absent a flight cancellation).

At least for now, the old booking €50 change/cancel fee on partners carriers still applies, making such redemptions far more attractive.

The lack of flexibility is a huge blow to the value of miles and points…to the value of the loyalty itself. Plans do change and the harsh and disproportionate change fees (that do not even remotely reflect the cost to Miles & More) represent a change that strikes me as much more pernicious as award chart inflation.

Think about what this means in the example above. Say you book a “base” ticket to Bangkok and your plans change. Are you going to pay €1,500 or just forfiet the 78,214 miles and €500.99 in fees.

To be clear, this is not just for “anytime” space beyond the traditional limited inventory saver level. Instead, even old “saver” awards fall under these new restrictions.

It’s madness…and don’t be surprised if we see if coming to United Airlines sooner rather than later.

CONCLUSION

You must exercise extreme caution when using Miles & Mores miles to book flights on Austrian, Lufthansa, or SWISS, as the change and cancellation fees are extreme and in some cases not allowed. Far more than an inflation-driven increase in mileage pricing, these represents a horrific customer-unfriendly change that I hope will not be “contagious” to joint venture partners like Air Canada and United Airlines…

What do you make of these changes to flexibility on Miles & More award tickets?