ASMALLWORLD is supposed to be a networking organization for ‘the elite’ but I don’t know anyone that’s ever found it to be useful. They have a 75 euro membership, with free trial but their membership is also a way to buy a lot of frequent flyer miles and elite status thrown in at a higher price point.
Normally their 5200 euro membership comes with 250,000 Lufthansa Miles & More miles, but they’re currently offering 20% more, 300,000 miles. And that’s in addition to hotel and rental car elite status.
This is going to be interesting to a certain subset of readers. Consider that,
- Lufthansa offers more award space to members redeeming their own miles than to those using partner airline miles
- First class awards are released further in advance too
- It’s 56,000 miles each way for U.S. – Europe business class, 91,000 miles each way for first class, plus taxes and fuel surcharges.
Here are the additional benefits that this comes with.
- Six Rental Car Platinum status though they’ll status match anyone with a pulse generally even to Diamond, and I haven’t found them useful in the U.S. (they never seem to have the car I reserve in Miami and lines are long).
- Jumeirah One Gold Status if you stay at Jumeirah properties this can be helpful. They’re mostly in Dubai and the broader Mideast, with fewer than 10 hotels in the rest of Europe or Asia, and they no longer have representation in the U.S. (the Westin Essex House became a Jumeirah but Marriott guaranteed its ownership a ton of revenue to flag it a J.W. Marriott.)
- GHA Discovery Titanium Status The new GHA Discovery program is really nice and there’s around 900 hotels now with the addition of NH Hotels. Titanium is their top published level. normally requiring 30 nights, $15,000 spend, or stays with 3 brands (which could be done in just 3 nights in Bangkok). I love 11 a.m. early check-in, double upgrades, and benefits that vary by brand such as breakfast, airport transfer, or complimentary laundry.
However this isn’t going to be super useful in the U.S. now that Omni has left the program – there are just a handful of hotels. It’s much more useful in Europe and Asia with brands like Anantara, Kempinski, NH Hotels and Viceroy.
- DragonPass airport lounge access, similar to Priority Pass
I’m not dropping over five grand on miles, but those flying Lufthansa awards regularly may find the price under 1.8 cents per mile attractive (considering in part the currently very-favorable Dollar-Europe exchange rate).
(HT: Steve E.)
Interesting but challenging when you consider the hefty taxes/fees on M&M Awards (at least last I recall seeing)
Gary, it would be really helpful if you could give us an idea how much the taxes and fuel surcharges might be.
@Michael If you have to ask you can’t afford them. Let’s just say astronomical. Not worth it.
@Michael – it’s route-dependent. A couple of one-way examples:
JFK-SIN via FRA in J: $390 surcharges, taxes/surcharges $474.50
JFK-BUD via FRA in J: $800 surcharges, taxes/surcharges $884.50
I did this last year for the LH miles. I like the B747-8i First. And planning ahead 😉
I used 91,000 to fly home in May
And I’m thinking about reupping and using the new 75,000 Bonus miles Citi AA (approved today with no AF first year) spend requirement to pay for them. At some point this year I’ll close my current no fee AA mile up card, then switch the new card to Mike up when next year’s AF post.
OTOH, I’m way over this years travel budget due to changes needed for this month’s Birthday RTW trip (Rolled eye emoji)
the good thing is @Bill that you in no way humble bragged.
That said many happy wishes for your overspent RTW birthday trip.
I remember my 1st 6 or 7 of those when it was still exciting to do
I have some upcoming trips that could make this worthwhile. Is there a way to check awarded inventory? M&M seems to limit searches based on your balance and EF only shows partner avail for LH.
@Gary – Does this signal that the German government has determined that it is ok with transferring miles — and that LH might again be a partner with Amex and/or Chase — or do they consider this an entirely different category of transaction?
I for sure am considering this.
Surcharges are not cheap with MM, but I am paying my Business Class tickets regardless for my family trips, and 300k miles brings my whole family to the US and back at least once.
That costs me 697,75 EUR per person as tax and surcharge.
So all in all costs me 1997.75 EUR for a return flight in Business to US West Coast from Switzerland via Frankfurt.
Certainly not the best deal in town but also not the worst.