Lufthansa's Miles & More program simplification is now expected to go live in early 2024. Speaking at the Altitude 22 industry conference hosted by Amadeus in Dubai, Gerald Schloegl, VP of Digital Channel Solutions & Commerce at the Lufthansa Group, revealed the timeline, adding that full details of the upcoming changes would likely be announced in December.
The idea of simplifying the Miles & More program is nothing new to the Lufthansa Group. According to One Mile At A Time, the airline group was already talking about making such changes in November 2019, with the launch postponed from 2021 to 2022, and then indefinitely. Now it seems like a firm completion date has again been placed on the project.
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Now expected in early 2024
Speaking at Altitude 22, an industry conference held by airline IT provider Amadeus, Gerald Schloegl provided an update on the timeline for expected changes to Miles & More.
During the Future of digital and loyalty: turning experiences into relationships keynote, Schloegl remarked,
"We are working on a radical simplification of the [Miles & More] program. This will be launched at the begining of 2024. We will issue communication this December, so I cannot share any more details unfortunately. But, we will radically simply the status program."
Adding a sustainability aspect?
As the aviation industry moves past the COVID-19 pandemic, sustainability is once again becoming the number one word, and we've seen this reflected through airline actions and announcements. Late last year, Qantas revealed that it was adding a "Green" membership tier to its frequent flyer program, rewarding passengers for making sustainable choices.
It seems as though this could also be on the cards for Miles & More.
Adding to his comments, Schloegl additionally remarked,
"Last but not least, sustainability. This will become an additional pillar from the program... The idea is that we would like to reward sustainable behavior. We have different things here in place. As you maybe also have seen, we have launched a green fare in the Scandinavian market, and we have also implemented a CO2 compensation possibility, including the SAF option during our booking process. We would like to reward those behaviors even more."
A long time coming...
The Miles & More program updates have been a long time coming. Lufthansa first revealed that changes were in the pipeline in late 2019. aeroTELEGRAPH reports that at the time of the initial announcement, these changes were due to go live in 2021.
The update to the program was due to simplify the earning of status miles for all members. Instead of earning miles based on the fare booked, passengers would earn a flat rate depending on the travel class and the flight length. One Mile At A Time reports that the launch date was delayed until 2022 in May 2020 before being postponed indefinitely in December of that year.
A message on the Miles & More website regarding the changes simply reads,
The new frequent flyer programme will not be starting in 2022. The current terms and conditions of the programme will remain valid.
Do you think we will see the simplified Miles & More program launched in early 2024? What do you expect Lufthansa to announce in December? Let us know what you think and why in the comments below!