A reader asks:

I was wondering if you can help me find what would be the best credit card to earn miles on my Lufthansa account, can I use the United Visa for that it looks like that card has the highest sign up bonus, but I am not sure if I can transfer the miles to Lufthansa and how? Or would it be safer to just use the
Lufthansa Visa for that?

There’s no good way to transfer miles from the United Visa into Lufthansa.

You can, of course, use United miles to claim awards
on Lufthansa as they are both members of the Star
Alliance.

If you actually want Lufthansa miles, your only real
options are the Lufthansa Visa (you already have the
link) or the Starwood American Express (choosing to
convert your Starwood points into Lufthansa miles).
One advantage of the Starwood card is that you get
5000 bonus miles for transferring 20000 points, so
it’s like earning 1.25 miles per dollar instead of 1.
That’s a little better earning power than the
Lufthansa Visa. The card isn’t free though. Well,
actually it is for the first year. But the Starwood
Amex costs $30/yr after that.

Be sure that you really do want to earn Lufthansa
miles, though.

Lufthansa’s award chart generally requires more miles
to redeem an award than United’s award chart does. So
you’ll have to spend more money to earn the same
flight if you’re earning Lufthansa miles.

Now, it makes sense to earn Lufthansa miles with your
credit card if you’re already earning Lufthansa miles
through other sources or you already have alot of
them.

But if the goal is a flight on Lufthansa, be sure to
compare the different award charts. Using United
miles might be cheaper.

I actually like the Lufthansa program. It’s a great
one for people for fly paid business and paid first
class fares because the flight bonuses are
astronomical! But their award charts aren’t that
generous.

Best,
Gary