After the Miles&More Revolution: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Dynamic Pricing & Unbundled Fares

Three months ago, Lufthansa’s (and other airlines’) joint frequent flyer program, Miles&More, announced it would be overhauling its reward system in early June. As a consequence, most partner airlines’ rewards switched to a new award chart, while flights operated by Austrian, Lufthansa and Swiss are now sold under dynamic pricing. Since this led to widespread devaluation in other programs like United’s Mileage Plus or KLM’s and Air France FlyingBlue, we expected the worst. And while not everything is as bad as we feared, it still warrants a closer look.

What is Dynamic Pricing Anyway?

Most programs use a so-called award chart to determine prices for mileage exemptions (Miles&More still does for most of its partner airlines). When trying to redeem miles, you have a fixed price you have to pay for a certain route. Let’s say you want to fly from Berlin to Newark in business – in order to get these tickets, you have to pay 66,000 miles + taxes & surcharges. From that point on, there are just two options: Either there are award availabilities on these flights, and you can book them. Or there aren’t award availabilities and you can’t. This happens largely independently of the cash price the airline charges for the flight on the same day.

For flights marketed by Austrian, Lufthansa and Swiss, Miles&More switched to dynamic pricing. This more or less means that flights are now sold based on their actual market value, directly corresponding to the cash price. For example, the same flight from Berlin to New York in business can cost 30,000 miles on a low-demand Wednesday in November, but 80,000 miles right before Christmas, with prices spiking before the holidays, just like cash prices. In this case, award availability is just an additional hurdle on the way to redeeming miles, rather than the only one. Now, even available award seats can be ridiculously expensive.

What Else Has Changed?

Lufthansa hasn’t only introdruced dynamic pricing to a large number or award flights. The airline unbundled award fares, as well. This leads to big changes, especially for economy and premium economy awards.

Stricter Rebooking Rules

In addition to Austrian, Lufthansa and Swiss switching to dynamic pricing, there were more changes. The most significant concerns the flexibility of award tickets. Previously, cancelling an award ticket was possible for an (almost) full refund, minus a modest fee of €50 per person. The same fee applied to rebookings, with only the difference in taxes & surcharges as a potential additional cost.

Now, refundability and flexibility come at an extra price, as is the case with cash tickets. The cheapest Light and Basic fares are not refundable, at all – even when purchasing business or first class tickets. Even the Basic Plus fare comes with hefty fees of at least €200 when cancelling a ticket, while only the most expensive Flex fare grants a full refund. Rebooking is also quite expensive, costing at least €150 per person for every fare and travel class, except the Flex fare.

Fare Type	Light	Basic Eco/Peco/Biz/First	Basic Plus Eco/Peco/Biz/First	Flex
Rebooking (fees in EUR)	no	150/200/250/410 + fare difference	150/200/250/410 + fare difference	fare difference
Refundable (fees in EUR)	no	no	200/200/250/410	yes

As our examples show, at least the price difference between Basic and Flex fares isn’t too outrageous – when travelling in business or first.

No Free Seat Selection in Economy or Premium Economy

Another victim of the system change is the free seat selection for economy and premium economy awards. From now on, only HON Circle members and Senators can select a seat after booking tickets for that travel class without paying extra. The lone exception is the most expensive Flex fare.

Travel/Fare Class	Light	Basic	Basic Plus	Flex
Economy	no	no	no	yes
Premium Economy	X	no	no	yes
Business	X	yes	yes	yes
First	X	yes	yes	yes

Economy Light Tickets: The Worst Possible Redemption

In addition to eliminating refundability and seat selection for many tickets, Lufthansa has singled out the Economy Light fare as a test of how much customers are willing to endure. In this booking class, not even checked bags are included and have to be purchased separately. To make things worse, you’d also have to pay extra for seat selection or any flexibility.

While Lufthansa proudly announced that economy class redemptions would get much cheaper under the new system, the company failed to mention that those cheap redemptions would also get much worse. We even found instances in which the taxes & surcharges (€489) alone were more expensive than the cash ticket for the same flight (€411).

Pricing Changes (from Oslo)

The following paragraph compares mileage prices from June 3, 2025, – the first day of the new award chart – to those of the previous award chart. If you are looking for early sweet spots, you can find a few here:

Miles&More’s New Award Prices – Instant Reaction to Pleasant Surprises (e.g. Long Haul Business for 22,850 Miles + €328 o/w)

Since dynamic pricing causes sudden changes in award pricing, we have to stress that the displayed prices are merely anecdotal and picked on random dates. We will compare the following numbers:

• The old award chart price (which included bags, seat selection and flexibility)
• The cheapest new price (which may include none of the above)
• The new Flex price (which inclusions represent the old original fare the closest)

Our examples compare award prices from Oslo, because it’s the origin of many cheap Lufthansa premium tickets. All fares mentioned are roundtrips, w/o taxes & surcharges – as these were not affected by the change. For easier understanding, we’ve rounded mileage prices to the hundredth.

New York

To start things off, let’s take a look at Europe’s most frequently discounted transatlantic destination. Prices dropped in business and first, but increased notably at the end of the cabin.

Travel Class	Old Price	Lowest New Price	Flex Price	Change
Economy	60,000	8,600	75,000	+23%
Premium Economy	80,000	72,300	85,000	+6%
Business	112,000	55,500	74,000	-33%
First	180,000	134,000	152,000	-16%

San Francisco

Previously, San Francisco and New York were in the same region for redemptions. Now, we expected the West Coast destination to be a little more expensive than its East Coast counterpart. That is only the case in business class. The 1,400 miles in economy are almost certainly an error.

Travel Class	Old Price	Lowest New Price	Flex Price	Change
Economy	60,000	1,400	64,600	+7%
Premium Economy	80,000	56,300	69,000	-14%
Business	112,000	93,100	111,500	-0.1%
First	180,000	190,700	216,000	+18%

Johannesburg

While located on a different continent, South Africa was part of the same region in the old award chart. But just like fares to New York, prices have slightly decreased, even in economy class.

Travel Class	Old Price	Lowest New Price	Flex Price	Change
Economy	60,000	31,800	49,500	-18%
Premium Economy	80,000	70,500	80,000	0%
Business	112,000	76,600	95,500	-18%
First	180,000	170,700	183,500	+1%

Mexico City

Mexico City was part of Miles&More Central America region. The high award availability made it a popular destination for premium redemptions. Now, it is the only example that has gotten more expensive in every travel class. However, this may also be the case because of departing from Oslo – prices are notably better from other airports, like Budapest.

Travel Class	Old Price	Lowest New Price	Flex Price	Change
Economy	70,000	68,000	135,000	+91%
Premium Economy	95,000	120,000	147,500	+55%
Business	127,000	117,000	140,000	+10%
First	202,000	228,000	253,000	+25%

Singapore

Quite the opposite of Mexico City, redemptions to Singapore got more attractive, with prices dropping more than 10% in every travel class.

Travel Class	Old Price	Lowest New Price	Flex Price	Change
Economy	80,000	46,000	71,000	-10%
Premium Economy	110,000	54,000	96,000	-13%
Business	142,000	73,500	94,000	-23%
First	222,000	n/a	n/a	n/a

Buenos Aires

Both cash and award tickets to Argentina were notoriously expensive before the changes. Some things just don’t change.

Travel Class	Old Price	Lowest New Price	Flex Price	Change
Economy	80,000	50,500	86,300	+7.5%
Premium Economy	110,000	88,400	121,800	+29%
Business	142,000	118,600	141,000	-1%
First	222,000	230,700	258,500	+18%

Conclusions

Checking six destinations on four continents already took us a lot of time, but it is a rather small sample size given the enormous changes. Because of that, we will have to be very careful when drawing conclusions. Even more so when taking into consideration that the new system is still in its infancy and will most likely be adjusted a couple of times. That being said, here are some observations in no particular order:

• Premium economy is f*cked: As we’ve pointed out earlier, premium economy redemptions already lost some of their value, since you need to acquire a Flex ticket to select your seat in advance. Yet on some days, the Flex fare wasn’t even available for purchase. When it was, the price increase was considerable, especially on longer flights. This is made worse by the fact that…
• Premium eco and business class prices are out of proportion: There are so many instances in which business class awards are cheaper than premium economy. While we strongly expect business class prices to increase rather than premium economy to go down, the current state of it seems like Lufthansa would rather sell cash tickets for its premium economy cabin.
• Dynamic pricing screws Lufthansa’s core customer base: Our German site compared prices from Berlin in addition to those from Oslo. The trend that tickets from Germany are more expensive than from most other European countries now directly translates to award bookings. While the previous award chart guaranteed equal prices for all of Europe, Germans who want to fly Lufthansa out of Germany now pay more, no matter what. Businesswise, a smart decision – but still a giant middle finger to their core customers.
• Flex prices for premium fares are kinda reasonable: In contrast to economy and premium economy, where Flex fares cost roughly double than the Basic/Light fare, the price increase is somewhat reasonable in business and first. Part of that is that perks like seat selection are already included in the cheapest business and first fares anyway. Securing a little more flexibility for less than 10,000 miles per direction is not entirely unappealing – and saves you the previous fee of €50 per person.
• Cheap business class redemptions are broadly available, but… multiple factors may curb your enthusiasm. Firstly, the cheapest redemptions are no longer flexible, so you cannot change plans, destroying a major upside of award tickets. Then, the cheapest tickets are now available when cash tickets aren’t that expensive anyway, and mostly to low-demand destinations. And the selection of origins is also narrowed to places where Lufthansa tickets are typically cheap, anyway.
• Two oneways no longer equal one roundtrip: Under the old award chart, all you needed to do to get a roundtrip price was doubling the cost of a oneway. While this holds true in the majority of cases, it’s no longer a strict rule: During our research, we found multiple instances during which a oneway prices were increased. For example, a first class roundtrip from Oslo to New York is available for 134,000 – while a oneway starts at 93,700 miles. This makes sense, as restrictions like a minimum stay apply to cash prices, as well.

Bottom Line

Our first impression of Miles&More’s new dynamic left us astonished, amused and deeply disappointed. For routes that are already cheap when paying with cash, the opportunities to strike bargains with miles have notably increased. However, one of the main purposes of award bookings – saving money by spending miles – has been irreversibly damaged. The same goes for the flexibility aspect, which will now cost additional miles (and money), as well.

Overall, Lufthansa managed to create a flashy diversion with cheap redemption options to distract from the fact that Miles&More lost far more appeal than it gained. This is especially true for people in Germany, where Lufthansa is the largest carrier and now overcharges their fellow citizens in both award and cash pricing.

Cover Picture: © Lufthansa Group