r/milesandmore

Is Deutsche Bank decent enough to deal with? Can I auto-pay my credit card and/or can I pay in advance? For example, my cards from outside Europe allow me to pay them off as soon as the charge is posted. Does DB allow the same?

Or should I avoid DB cos they are bad?

I know my question is dry and not really great but I don’t want to go through the hassle of cancelling my card. I would much rather gather as much info as I can beforehand. Thanks.

I tried retroactively requesting miles for my latest flights through a partner company (LATAM), which weren’t credited automatically.

Most of them were accepted, but in four cases the requests were denied with the justification that “passenger was not on board”. I checked and my Miles and More number is correct on the reservation. All flights went according to plan and I boarded all of them without exception. For clarification, 2 of them were domestic (within Brazil) and 2 international (Brazil to Chile). Flights within the same reservation were accepted.

I’ve tried submitting the flight data manually or by scanning the boarding pass, multiple times. Nothing seems to work.

How can I dispute this decision? With whom can I speak? Besides boarding passes, what else can I submit as proof? I was unable to find specific instructions on the Miles and More website. I really don’t wanna lose the miles, especifically for the international flights, which were a bit more expensive.

Hello everyone,

I’m looking for the best way to redeem my Miles & More miles before the deadline. I have 92k miles total, but 62k are set to expire on June 30th.

I want to avoid the Worldshop and use them for flight awards instead.

Details:

Departure Airports: Frankfurt (FRA), Hanover (HAJ), Hamburg (HAM), or Berlin (BER).

Mileage Budget: 62k to 92k miles.

Preference: Ideally Long-haul Business (Mileage Bargains / Meilenschnäppchen) or high-value European routes.

I am looking for recommendations on routes with reasonable surcharges or currently available Star Alliance sweet spots that depart from my local hubs.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Two years of loyalty, 80k CHF spent, and I can't book my family holiday on Swiss. Anyone else?

I need to get this off my chest because I am genuinely furious and I want to know if anyone else has been through this.

Two years ago I signed up to the iCorner Miles & More credit card. The pitch was simple: spend on the card, earn miles, redeem those miles on Swiss International Air Lines. I live in Switzerland. I fly Swiss. It made complete sense.

So for two years I made a deliberate choice. Every time I could have booked a cheaper low-cost flight, I didn't. I paid the premium. I flew Swiss. I stayed loyal to this programme specifically because I was told I could eventually use those miles to fly my family somewhere meaningful. I built up miles on roughly 80,000 CHF of card spend. That is not a small number. That is two years of deliberate, conscious loyalty.

Fast forward to last week. I try to book Geneva to Tokyo for Easter 2027. Two adults, two kids (they'll be 2 and 4 years old). The booking window literally just opened two weeks ago, so I'm early. I'm organised. I'm excited.

I open the Miles & More app.

No Swiss flights. Zero. The only options are Lufthansa via Frankfurt or Munich, including one on a Boeing 747 that is approximately 20 years old. I live in Switzerland. I do not want to travel to Germany to catch a connection on an ageing aircraft through a hub that has seen repeated strike action and cancellations in recent years. And more importantly, that is not what I signed up for.

Here is the part that made my blood boil. Swiss has flights available on swiss.com for cash on those exact dates. I can see them. I can buy them right now. But the Miles & More platform shows me nothing. It's as if Swiss flights simply do not exist in their system.

So I call customer service. 23 minutes on the phone. The agent tells me that all Swiss award seats are already taken. All of them. For a flight in March 2027 that only opened for booking two weeks ago. I pushed back. She then told me that her system did not show any flights from Zurich to Tokyo on those dates at all. Not Lufthansa, not Swiss, nothing. That is factually impossible. Swiss and Lufthansa fly this route daily. I was being told by a customer service representative that flights that exist do not exist.

We tried adjusting the dates. Same result. No Swiss, only Lufthansa. We tried changing the destination to Singapore, thinking maybe I book Geneva/Zurich to Singapore on Swiss and sort Tokyo myself. Same result. No Swiss flights. Only Lufthansa. Not on my dates, not on any variation she tried.

At no point in two years of marketing, sign-up materials or card communications was it made clear to me that "redeem on Swiss" effectively means "you get Lufthansa instead, on a routing you didn't ask for, through a country you don't live in." That is not what I agreed to.

I have since sent a formal complaint to Miles & More citing Swiss consumer protection law. I have also contacted the Managing Director of Miles & More directly, because his own LinkedIn profile describes him as a leader committed to "customer-centric ecosystems" and I felt he should be aware of what that ecosystem actually looks like from the inside.

But before I go further down the legal route I genuinely want to know: has anyone else experienced this? Is this a known issue with Miles & More? Is the Swiss award inventory just effectively nonexistent and we are all being sold a product that doesn't deliver? Is there a way to actually get Swiss-operated award flights out of this programme or is it structurally impossible?

And honestly, is this a scam? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like one. You get people like me to spend significant money on a co-branded card by promising access to an airline we actually want to fly, and then when we try to redeem, that airline's inventory is nowhere to be found. The cash seats are right there on swiss.com. The award seats are invisible.

I sacrificed cost for loyalty for two years. I want to know if anyone else has been through this and what, if anything, they did about it. So mad.

This is more of a rant.

I have been flying with Lufthansa Group almost exclusively for the last 12 years. I’ve been a Senator for a few years now and currently travel frequently for business across continents, usually in business class. I choose my flights carefully, and I choose Lufthansa because I value the status and the benefits that come with it.

That said, over the last 12 months, I’ve repeatedly tried to upgrade flights using my points, and I’ve failed miserably every single time.

1. Codeshare flights
I’ve booked through the wrong codeshare and ended up not being eligible for an upgrade. I find this absolutely ridiculous, and it can become incredibly cumbersome.

TL;DR: You have to be extremely careful how you book your flight. If you have a connecting flight, make sure the segment you want to upgrade is operated and booked through the same airline.

2. Waiting lists
I’ve been put on waiting lists for multiple flights, especially through partner airlines (stay away from Edelweiss!!!). On one occasion, I checked four days before departure and there were still more than 10 seats available in business class.

Then came the dreaded removal from the waiting list 72 hours before departure, without any prior notification or explanation.

3. Not upgraded even when seats were available
I booked an LH flight from Munich to Vancouver. I was traveling in business class and brought my partner along, booking their ticket in economy. I requested an upgrade for them and they were placed on the waiting list.

The upgrade never cleared.

Once onboard, I noticed there was an empty seat in business class, even though my partner had not been upgraded (so of course I ended up moving back to economy and let my partner in my business class seat). When I asked about it, the crew had no explanation.

The purser was amazing and ultimately allowed me to use the seat, but this only highlighted how broken the entire points/upgrade system is within the Miles & More ecosystem.

At this point, I’d honestly rather they scrap the points upgrade system entirely. It’s absolutely ridiculous and a complete waste of time to even try.

From what I’ve read on the forums, my advice to anyone looking to use their points is simple: just book award flights. Everything else is essentially useless.

I have an ECO Flight booked on LH with LH flight number. However operated by EN. I have ⭐️Alliance Gold Status with TK M&S. “QUESTION: Do I get LH Lounge Access in FRA?”

Ich muss mal Luft machen. Hab gestern beim Bundle&Go zugeschlagen. Da ich einen tollen Flug über Zürich in der neuen Edelweiss in C nach Costa Rica gefunden hatte.
Alles passte, 95 000 Meilen, full flex p.P. + 831 euro Zuzahlung, ok.
Mir fehlten noch 50k Meilen und bevor der Flug weg ist, dacht ich mir, kaufste dir im Mai Angebot einfach die 150k und hast nen Buffer.

Gesagt getan, 1700 Euro bezahlt, wissentlich "es sei nicht stornierbar" und will Flug buchen.
Tataaaa: 87k nur Hinflug. 87k zurück und nochmal 735 Euro Zuzahlung bitte, zahlen sie jetzt?!

Ja, Ich weiss, Umstellung auf dynamisch und so weiter, aber hier stand doch immer: Angezeigte Meilen und Zuzahlungen sind für den Hin und Rückflug. Dass sie das auch noch geändert haben, na danke.

Kann ich die gekauften nicht wieder zurückgeben? Fernabsatzgeschäfte 14 Tage?

I had a big chunk of my miles expire. Do you know if Miles and More would reinstate it? I called the helpline but they told me to fill the contact form online.

Schwarwissen gesucht: habe aktuell 120k Meilen zur Verfügung und möchte mit denen verreisen- wie bekomme ich diese möglichst effektiv in Flüge verwandeln?

Moin!

Anfang des Jahres habe ich einige Posts zum Status Run über Flüge via SWANA gesehen. Nun würde mich interessieren, was aus euren Flügen beziehungsweise dem Status geworden ist, da einige der Flüge vermutlich gar nicht stattgefunden haben.

Wie weit seid ihr mit eurem Status Run gekommen?

Was sind eure Alternativpläne?

Hallo zusammen,

Kann man FTL weiterhin durch Bezahlung erhalten? Früher war das mal mit circa 600 Euro möglich, ich finde jetzt jedoch keine Infos mehr.

Hallo zusammen,

Ich bin die Tage mit Freunden geflogen & wir hatten uns an Board ein paar Getränke geholt. Natürlich wollte ich dabei Meilen sammeln & nicht mit Meilen bezahlen.

Bei der Bestellung hab ich jeweils gesagt: einmal Meilen sammeln. Danach kam das EC Gerät, ich hab bezahlt & die Flugbegleiter haben dann meinen QR Code gescanned, für die Meilengutschrift.

Leider musste ich jetzt feststellen, dass bei 2/3 Einkäufe mit Meilen bezahlt wurde. Kann man sich dafür an die Hotline wenden oder ist es Lehrgeld (13k Meilen)?

Vielen Dank für jegliche Info/Hilfe!

Hallo zusammen,

ich habe letzten Monat über Fewo-direkt ein Ferienhaus für den Familienurlaub gebucht und mit meiner neuen M&M Kreditkarte von der Deutschen Bank bezahlt.

Da das Haus außerhalb Europas liegt, wurde der Betrag in USD abgebucht. Jetzt ist die Abrechnung da und ich sehe: ich habe keine Meilen für den vierstelligen Umsatz in USD bekommen 🤨

Finde dazu irgendwie nichts, dachte eigentlich, dass Fremdwährungsumsätze ganz normal zählen. Dass es für die Auslandseinsatzgebühr keine Meilen gibt, ist klar, aber der eigentliche Umsatz müsste doch zählen, oder? Bei der DKB war es früher zumindest so, dass auch USD-Umsätze Meilen gebracht haben.

Ist das ein Fehler oder hat die Deutsche Bank da was geändert? Hat jemand ähnliche Erfahrungen gemacht?

Danke euch!

Hey fellow travelers!

I’m currently working on my Master’s thesis in Economics and I’m researching transatlantic air travel (Europe ↔ North America).

If you’ve flown this route at least once (ideally twice or more), I’d really appreciate your input, it only takes 2–3 minutes to complete.

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/g7ZqPuTRtt

Your responses are completely anonymous and will only be used for academic research.

Thanks a lot for helping out, and I’m happy to share the results here once the study is finished! ✈️

Hi,

aktuell gesehen. Bei über Payback gibt es wieder zwei gute Deals für ein Abo von Bild der Wissenschaft oder dem Tennis Magazin.

Bei beiden wäre die Quote 1,065 cent pro Punkt. Und da ein Punkt eine Meile ist könnte man da günstig Meilen generieren (billigstes Kaufpaket von Meilen bei 1,17 cent pro Meile).

Haltet ihr auch immer nach solchen Deals Ausschau?

Oder wie versucht ihr möglichst günstig an Meilen zu kommen?

Hallo.
Durch FTL soll ich ja "mehr Freigepäck" auf Flügen der Lufthansa Gruppe erhalten. Ich habe morgen einen Austrian Flug (Eco light) ohne Aufgabegepäck. Kann ich mit FTL dennoch - kostenfrei - Aufgabegepäck einchecken?
Besten Dank!