The Lufthansa Innovation Hub frequently experiments with new ideas for frequent and occasional flyers. These are typically available for a few months to years before being discontinued.
One longer-lasting project is the Uptrip app. Since last year, it has allowed users to collect digital trading cards for all Lufthansa Group flights. You can gather these cards and, for each completed collection, receive bonuses like status points, lounge vouchers, or even frequent flyer status.
Example Rewards
Before selecting a card when scanning your ticket, check which rewards are available and which ones you want to aim for. Here are some examples from July 2024:
- 500 award miles (Everyone On Board):
- Welcome + member cards (given as a registration gift)
- 1,000 award miles (Departure):
- 1 city + 1 aircraft card (both given after the first flight)
- 20 Points + 20 Qualifying Points (Yes to Europe):
- 8 city cards total (1 each from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Greece, Poland, France)
- 20 Points + 20 Qualifying Points (Eurowings Collector):
- 1 Eurowings airline card
- + 3 different aircraft cards from an EW flight
- + City cards for Valencia & Dubai
- 40 Points + 40 Qualifying Points (Eurowings Booster):
- 2 Eurowings airline cards
- + City cards for Hamburg, Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne
- + 2 different aircraft cards from an EW flight
- 1 Year Frequent Traveller Status:
- Any 50 cards (you get 2 per flight)
- WiFi Voucher (within Europe):
- Any 6 cards
- Voucher for the Lufthansa Business Lounge (Lounge Explorer):
- 5 different aircraft cards
- Carry-on Trolley (Carry-on Comfort):
- 1 city card each for Berlin, Amsterdam, Prague, Copenhagen, Dublin, Rome, Edinburgh, Nice, Paris, Dubrovnik, Brussels, Madrid, Lisbon, Budapest
- + any 6 aircraft cards
The most valuable benefits typically require more effort. However, the additional status points can be an interesting option for frequent flyers.
How It Works
First, download the Uptrip app for iOS or Android. Everything else is done through the app. Register with your personal details and input your Miles&More frequent flyer number. While it’s possible to use the app without a Miles&More number, the rewards make little sense without it.
For signing up, you receive two cards (Member and Welcome) as a gift. You can redeem these for an initial collection (the term for sets of cards) and receive 500 miles.
Scan Boarding Pass
To proceed, scan a boarding pass. All boarding passes from Lufthansa Group airlines are supported:
- Air Dolomiti
- Austrian
- Brussels Airlines
- Edelweiss Air
- Eurowings
- Discover Airlines
- Lufthansa
- Swiss
You can scan either printed boarding passes or screenshots of mobile boarding passes. For each scanned boarding pass, you can choose which 2 of 4 possible cards you want. These usually include the departure airport, destination, aircraft, and airline.
After signing up, you can scan up to two boarding passes from the last 6 months. Additional cards are available only for flights after registration.
Complete and Redeem Collections
In the Collections tab, you can see all the sets you can collect and their respective rewards. Click on a set to see which cards you need, e.g. 8 airline cards might get you an eVoucher.
Once you have enough cards, assign them from your account to the collection. The cards are then consumed, and you receive the promised reward.
It may take a few days to weeks for miles and other benefits to be credited. Each collection can only be completed once. After completing a few collections, it may become increasingly difficult to gather more miles or other benefits. However, the app encourages, e.g. flying with Austrian instead of Lufthansa sometimes.
Marketplace: Trade Cards
The app now includes a marketplace where you can trade cards with other users. A trading fee of €0.99 applies, payable directly in the app.
If you’re missing specific cards for a collection, this can be worthwhile. However, note that each collection requires a certain number of original cards; traded cards do not count towards this. Alternatively, Uptrip cards can be traded or sold via a crypto wallet.
Conclusion
Although Uptrip is not as attractive as it was initially, it can still be worthwhile, especially for frequent flyers. It takes several flights to earn status points or even Frequent Traveller status. For some time, a Senator status has been promised under the soon available section, but it is still pending.
The future remains to be seen. The Lufthansa Innovation Hub had a similar app called Rydes, which initially offered very appealing rewards but became less attractive over time. Eventually, all collected points became worthless overnight. Hopefully, Uptrip won’t follow the same path.
Translated by Ditmar
Cover Picture: © Deutsche Lufthansa AG