Via Milepoint (here and here, the Lufthansa Mastercard issued in the U.S. by Barclays is offering a 50,000-mile signup bonus: 20,000 miles after first purchase and 30,000 more miles after $2,500 in spend within the first 90 days of account opening.
(In case it’s useful, here’s a direct link to the card application, without specific mention of the bonus, per the Milepoint thread.)
So another co-branded airline card jumping into the megabonus game. This isn’t as big as Citibank offering 75,000 or 100,000 miles for its American Airlines cards, or Chase offering 100,000 for its British Airways card. But like recent offers for the United and Continental co-branded cards, 50,000 does seem to be the new entry-level in order to get attention or be taken seriously as a signup bonus.
I don’t really play with Miles & More, I’m not a huge fan of their award chart and in particular the pricing of premium cabin awards crossing multiple zones, but there are some advantages — in particular additional availability of Lufthansa and Swiss premium cabin award seats that aren’t offered to the rest of the Star Alliance. Certainly if you want advance confirmable Swiss first class award seats between the US and Zurich (or Geneva), then Miles & More is where you want to have some points. And of course you could add to the 50,000 from this card with trnasfers in from another program (such as Starwood).
The card comes with a $79 annual fee, which is certainly worthwhile for 50,000 miles, even if European programs like Miles & More hit you pretty hard on the taxes and fees when it comes time to redeem. And since it’s from Barclay’s bank, credit pull issues aside, it’s nice to have a lucrative bonus coming from someone other than Chase and Citibank, there are only so many cards that either of those issuers will give you at any one time..!
That’s a nice offer, the only problem is it is actually quite a gamble. If you are approved for Premier, you get your 50k bonus. If you are approved for Platinum are left with 5k (yes, you read it right!) bonus. And since we do not know how much miles you need for Premier, its basically a gamble where you have no idea whether your credit pull will be worth 50k or 5k. Here are the T&C:
Cardmembers approved for the Premier World MasterCard will receive 20,000 bonus miles and Cardmembers approved for the Platinum MasterCard will receive 5,000 bonus miles after the first use of the new account for a Purchase or Balance Transfer (that are not later returned or rescinded) and have paid the Annual Fee on the account (and such fee is not rescinded). Premier World MasterCard will receive an additional 30,000 bonus miles after at least $2,500 in Net Purchases (that are not later returned or rescinded) has been charged to the new account in the first 90 days of account opening.This benefit does not apply to Platinum MasterCard Cardmembers.
People who decide to apply, could you let us know what score you had and what’s the result (for example: 775 FICO Experian (Northern CA) Premium). a location would be helpful to know what agency they pull. And yes, I know you can do this comparisons at other sites, but this card is probably not going to be big enough to make it there (too few peope applying), and so discussing it at specialized forums like here and at FT would be more helpful, I think!
I got burned with the US Airways card. I dislike Barclay’s two tier bonuses–a much lower amount for Plat. Chase, Citi, etc doesn’t do that. I get the better cards with Chase & Citi, even better with credit unions.
NOT with Barclay’s. Their outsourced CS is the worst!! I do not like dealing with CS reps that read from “scripts”. 🙁
To Novice: Barclay’s pulled Transunion a month ago & I live in Southern Calif.
TYI, my FICO’s were close to 800 when I applied.
chemist661, thanks for sharing your experience and giving us some info points! Applying with FICO around 800 and not getting Premium means the two-tiered system is not a gample, but a major screw-up of customers. Now I understand why there’s so much noise about CO’s 50k promo, but nobody seems interested in LH miles, which are more valuable, on paper (since roundtrip Europe-NA is only 50k miles, unlike 55k for CO+MP). Anyone else had an experience with Barclays two-tiered cards?
Wow. Talk about Lufthansa and Barkley totally trashing their Brand with this bait and switch tactic. What an acrid aftertaste this shenanigan leaves in my mouth.
I’ve never missed a payment yet they assigned me the Platinum. I called them right away to cancel the card.
I read the fine print and didn’t become aware of this before — should have read this posting before.
So Lufthansa/Barkley’s doesn’t get my spend, I don’t get the card I want and I have a card pull on my credit score.
Lesson learned — Lufthansa Credit cards can’t be trusted.
Ficco 790 – i applied for the premier card and they gave the platinum which btw has 1 mile for 2 dollars – i had to cancel the platinum card – bait and switch
I echo what chemist661 said about their customer service. It is terrible. I have a different Barclays card and it is barely tolerable only because the rewards on this other card are so good.
I had a very credit score. I applied for this card and then to my disappointment I got a platinum card (it is named platinum but it is the lower card and fewer miles). My credit score was pulled and it is real cheating and play of words.
I aggree, what a scam. I applied for the premier and got the platinum, even with a top credit score. Unfortunately I didn’t realize it right away, so I spent a couple thousand $ to maximize my reward points, which didn’t show up on my account. All I can recommend is to read the small print and don’t trust those Barcley folks to give you what you applied for. It is not Lufthansa who is responsible for this scamming tactic, don’t mix this up ! I am out and continue my major shopping trips with my HILTON Honors AMEX card. At least they play a fair game and you get what you applied for.
oh, what a bad time dealing with this cs, truly
and i got 10k also for all that work
lesson here stay away from this outsourced POS
Any confirmation if this is still working?
I got that M+M Barcley’s card because of misrepresentations. They said I am getting Double Miles, but forgot to mention that I had to buy it directly from one of their airlines. They claimed to give me a companion ticket free, but forgot to mention that MY ticket had to be at least Y, and with 2/3 of the fare TAXES and FEES, I was much much better off buying from a travel agent. Paid the fee and cancelled the card. Will not have anything to do with that kind of crooks.
It is a scam.
I have a free companion ticket. When I tried to book it for Europe, it was $1800 for the ticket (regular price $1300) + $800 for taxes. Basically the same as just buying two regular tickets.
When I try to use my 150K miles to get free flights… they still charge a $570 tax per “free” ticket. On Continental the same would be $68 in taxes.