In 2018 Lufthansa’s (and other airlines’) joint loyalty program Miles&More started offering an option that makes most frequent flyer programs more attractive: Opening a Mileage Pool. Up to two adults and five children could bundle their miles and book award flights, accessing available award miles from both parties. In February 2024, Lufthansa deactivated the option – the official reason being technical difficulties.
Said “difficulties” are seemingly fixed. Opening up a new Pool is possible once again. That by itself is good news – but: opening a new pool takes seven days to process before you can use it. That would mean the earliest possible date to use it is June 2nd. Exactly on that day, preparations for Miles&More’s major devaluation refurbishment begins – making it impossible to book award flights with the old pricing. What a striking coincidence.
Lufthansa’s website is currently experiencing some difficulties: If a new pool is opened, your current mileage account temporarily plummets to zero, making it impossible to book flights online. If you want to get rid of your miles before the incoming changes on June 2, we strongly recommend postponing opening a new pool until you have spent your miles.
How to Open A Mileage Pool
If you open the Mileage Pooling subsection on Miles&More’s website from most countries, you will be greeted by the following statement.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to install a new Mileage Pool until further notice. We ask for your understanding.
Mileage Pooling | Miles&More
However, this is not entirely accurate. Last weekend, Matteo from the Italian travel blog The Flight Club reported that opening up pools is possible again – if your country is set to Italy. In order to do that, you simply need to scroll to the very bottom of the site and switch the country setting.
This does not refer to your nationality or residency – it works independently of your registered address or physical location. Select Italy as your country on the next screen and refresh the Mileage Pool page.
The statement about technical difficulties will disappear. Instead, you will be able to open a new Mileage Poll under this link.
You can invite another person by entering their name and Miles&More service card number. The other person has to accept the invitation (which may require their country settings to be changed, too) – and you have to wait seven days until your miles are pooled.
As soon as the pool is activated, both adults can access the joint miles. The miles are kept on separate accounts, but can be spent by both parties. Miles that will expire the earliest will automatically be spent first.
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Bottom Line
Miles&More Mileage Pooling is back – that by itself is great news. Sadly, it is heavily dampened by the circumstances. It’s most likely not a coincidence that Lufthansa re-introduced the feature days before devaluing its award chart. And only making it possible by using a backdoor.
Thanks to our sources, TheFlightClub.it & Vielfliegertreff