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If in the same message, somebody states “exciting changes” and “look forward to”, then you should already be careful. And if that somebody is Miles & More, which is not really known for a customer-focused program, all alarm whistles should go off.

As of June 03, the program will change the pricing of award flights on Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian flights to a fully dynamic pricing. As no further details are provided, it is clear that this will result in a massive increase of award prices for most flights, deteriorating as such the little remaining value of the program.

One small rescue remains though for those requiring some predictability of their loyalty program: Pricing for partner airlines will remain based on a published award table. Prices in that table will also change – notably increase in Business and First Class -, but mostly at moderated levels, unless for Business Class flights between Europe and Southeast Asia, which will increase from 142,000 to 200,000 miles.

The interesting point is though that not all members of the Lufthansa Group will apply that dynamic pricing: Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Discover and ITA will remain at a fixed pricing – as the other airlines outside of the Lufthansa Group using the Miles & More program as their own program, such as LOT or Luxair.

Dynamic reward pricing hardly has any friends among frequent flyers. Of course, this way one has access to more reward seats, but only at prices that are not attractive.

Until now, this could be circumvented by using rewards with partner airlines/programs in such programs (or for such airlines), to which a fixed pricing still applies – provided one finds such seats.

For frustrated Lufthansa customers, however, we no longer recommend Air Canada’s Aeroplan program in this regard: That is because as of March 25, it will start applying the dynamic pricing model not anymore to Air Canada flights only, but also to some first airline partners. Although Lufthansa is not yet among them (but “only” United, Emirates/FlyDubai, Etihad and a few smaller Canadian airlines), the trend is certainly not going in the right direction for savvy frequent flyers, whose primary goal is to maximize the value per redeemed mile.

The recent program changes in Emirates’ Skywards program can certainly be interpreted as the airline wanting more members to use their points in Economy Class rather than in higher cabins.

This is also emphasized by a current promotion: For bookings made by March 31 and departures until January 06, 2026, a 25% reduction in the mileage price is applied to all Economy Class award flights with partner airlines.

The offer is valid on all partner airlines, except for FlyDubai and easyJet – leaving 16 airlines from Air Mauritius to United Airlines.

The days when Southwest Airlines was the rebel of the US aviation industry are probably over for good. Thus, Southwest also does not resist the general trend in the USA of devaluing frequent flyer programs.

Without any advance notice, the earning rates for non-refundable fares, which most customers use, were drastically reduced in its Rapid Rewards program, from 8 to 6 points for Wanna Get Away Plus fares and from 6 to 2 points for Wanna Get Away fares.

This way, Southwest will at least save enough money in the short term to hire a marketing agency that can come up with a new name for the program. Because the Rewards are certainly no longer “Rapid” like that…

Although Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program has become the negative example in Europe in recent years regarding price transparency – a title that will probably be taken from them by Lufthansa in a few months (see above) – the miles still have some value.

So, a current promotion with Hertz is indeed of some interest. For bookings until April 02 (and rentals until June 21), you will receive 2,000 bonus miles for rentals of at least three days (and up to 5,000 miles for longer rentals). Together with the generous regular credits of 6 miles per EUR for base members, this results in a total of 3,800 miles for a 3-day rental at 100 EUR per day.

If you choose an electric car, you even double the base credit and end up with 5,600 miles which, despite the Flying Blue devaluations, look better than the standard credit of 500 miles  you would receive with most other programs.

Étant donné le propriétaire commun IAG, il n’est guère surprenant qu’Iberia imite British Airways et renomme son programme en Club Iberia Plus à partir du 1^er avril, tout en basant également la qualification de statut sur le chiffre d’affaires.

La surprise est cependant qu’Iberia rend beaucoup plus facile d’atteindre le statut – même pour les passagers de British Airways. Non seulement les valeurs de chiffre d’affaires nécessaires sont inférieures à celles du British Airways Club, mais on peut également accumuler jusqu’à 30% des points de statut avec des partenaires non-aériens. Et les vols avec les partenaires oneworld sont également beaucoup plus valorisés.

Ainsi, on peut obtenir le statut Gold avec seulement deux aller-retours avec Qatar Airways en classe affaires de l’Europe Occidentale vers l’Extrême-Orient.

Cependant, la comparaison pour les vols avec British Airways est encore plus drastique: Si l’on prend un vol aller-retour en classe économique flexible pour 400 EUR (avant taxes et frais) à l’intérieur de l’Europe, on aura besoin de 23 vols aller-retour par an dans le programme de British Airways à partir du 1^er avril pour atteindre le niveau Argent. Pour obtenir le niveau Gold équivalent dans le programme révisé d’Iberia, il ne faudra que 14 vols.

Combien de temps cela peut-il bien durer?

After a long back and forth, Lufthansa and the Italian government have agreed on an acquisition of ITA. And under Lufthansa’s leadership, things are now accelerating rapidly.

As such, ITA already left SkyTeam two weeks later, with the separation taking place gradually until April 30. However, joining the Star Alliance will be delayed until early 2026.

A frequent flyer partnership for Volare and Miles & More members with the other partner is also already in effect. At the moment, miles can already be collected and redeemed; initial elite benefits (such as lounge access) are expected to be added by the end of March.

According to Lufthansa’s strategy of taking full control over its partners, it seems unlikely that Volare will have a future as an independent program in the medium term, but will probably be integrated into Miles & More. In fact, Volare has already communicated that the continuation of the program is secured until December 31, 2025, but remains silent about the plans thereafter. The real value of an airline like ITA lies, in fact, in its customer base, which can only be accessed through full program integration.

And Lufthansa knows this all too well and has even managed the masterstroke of maintaining this access through the Miles & More program to the customers of companies like LOT or Luxair, which have meanwhile developed into clear competitors of Lufthansa…

Last month, there were initially rumors that United was interested in acquiring the somewhat troubled JetBlue, then Lufthansa. Between 2007 and 2015, Lufthansa already held a stake of up to 18% in the company.

If ever something concrete develops in this direction, JetBlue is likely to become a candidate for the Star Alliance.

While these are currently just rumors, there are also facts: JetBlue has launched a reciprocal Frequent Flyer partnership with another Star partner, TAP Air Portugal. TrueBlue members can thus already earn points on three Star partners, in addition to TAP with Singapore Airlines and South African. Other relevant airline partners in the program include notably Qatar Airways, Etihad, Icelandair and Hawaiian Airlines.

Unlike with Star and oneworld, SkyTeam elite customers have not had access to lounges on domestic flights so far when flying with partner airlines.

This will largely change on April 01, as the main lounges will then also open to partner members.

Two important exceptions remain, however.

The first concerns airport lounges that are not operated by the airlines themselves. Here, it will more or less remain a matter of luck whether one will be let in or not – which will mainly depend on the knowledge of the people at the reception.

Not surprisingly, the second exception, the Delta Lounges, also remains. Here, you will still only be admitted if you have an international connecting flight with a SkyTeam airline, before or after the relevant domestic flight.

Qantas will increase the award levels in its Frequent Flyer program by around 10-20%, both on its own flights and with all partners. This marks the first increase in rewards since 2019, but it still hurts when it happens all at once.

The changes will only come into effect on August 05, giving you time to use rewards at the old prices. And it might even make sense to convert points from Accor’s ALL program to reach your desired award, as the exchange rate between the programs has improved from 2,000 ALL points to 2,000 Qantas points to 2,000-to-2,500. This thus represents the best exchange rate with all of Accor’s partners.