When it comes to business class airline tickets, I have a few expectations. On the ground, I expect lounge access and while in the air, I expect to be fed, watered and to have the option to treat myself to something alcoholic.
Not unreasonably, I also expect to earn frequent flyer points on my ticket. After all, I have paid a price premium over economy class and therefore should also receive more benefits on my loyalty card.
The Pain Of Zero Miles
Recently I had to cheat on the oneworld alliance and purchase a ticket on an airline in a rival alliance. Let’s call this airline Lufthansa and for arguments sake, let’s say it’s based in Germany.
About three weeks in advance I purchased a ticket from Dublin to Toulouse via Frankfurt. Outbound I’m in economy class, and for the return I decided to fork out the extra €110 for business class, as €55 per flight is reasonable in my book.
-
- They make no bones about it in the pictogram. At least the knife, fork and spoon don’t have an x!
The fare classes are L on the outbound flights and P on the returns. Wanting to credit my miles somewhere, I looked into Star Alliance programmes. Perhaps Aegean’s Miles+Bonus scheme would be good? It is, however you earn zero miles on Lufthansa tickets in L and P class.
Friends have always said good things about Asiana Club, so I had a peek over there too. Once again, L class tickets in economy and P class tickets in business class earn no miles.
So What?
For some people, this is a whole bag of “Who cares?” with my name on it. The thing is, if I was thinking to switch all my flying to a new alliance, I am hardly going to be attracted when flights in business class earn zero miles.
I completely get it when the cheapest of cheap economy class fares earn no miles or earn at a vastly reduced rate. Discounted business class on the other hand is still a premium over an economy fare and earning miles and status should be an integral part of the deal.
Overall Thoughts
For the frequent flyer who likes to collect miles and points, rise the ranks in status and enjoy the perks, earning zero miles on a premium class ticket is a bit on the nose. In my case, I decided not to bother joining a Star Alliance programme at all. For once, I’ll just let the miles go.
I’m not entirely sure on the reasoning behind this, either. It’s not like I had an option to pay more in order to earn points. There was only one choice and that was the one I took.
What do you think about some tickets in business class earning no miles or status? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
To never miss a post, follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
All my flight and lounge reviews are indexed here so check them out!
Featured image via Star Alliance.
That Miles with a X is for upgrading with miles not earning and since there is no first class you can’t use your miles to upgrade. I agree it’s slightly confusing on the LH site but you would earn 750 for the P fare and 125 for the L class on M&M and similar full elsewhere
Ahh, thanks for that! Mystery solved. I was wondering about that. You can tell I’ve never flown Lufthansa before – I really don’t know the ins and outs of how everything works there. Thanks for the Miles & More earning on those fare classes. The Lufthansa site doesn’t let you see how many miles you might earn unless you have an account in the programme, which is a little bit weird. Appreciate you taking the time to point that out!
Agree its not clear enough to show if you will earn or not on a flight. but Star Alliance you have to check that fare class on the earning programs site anyway
Makes sense. I’ll know for next time!
“I really don’t know the ins and outs of how everything works there.”…..yet you wrote a whole article about it?
The main thrust of the article was to point out that some airlines don’t award miles for business class tickets, as per the title. That remains quite true, as there are a number of airlines where the P class ticket on Lufthansa earns zero miles. All the other bits and pieces that I have learned along the way specific to Lufthansa is a bonus. Thanks for the comment!
A quick look at wheretocredit.com shows you’d earn 100% on P with LH, SQ or UA, the top three programes in StarAlliance. There are always programs where you earn less or even nothing, in any of the alliances.
Such is the miles life, you just need to know where to look…
Thanks for the tip. Interesting that Manage My Booking on the LH web site shows no miles being earned on the ticket though, but perhaps that is down to no frequent flyer number being in the booking. I agree there are always programs when you earn less or nothing, however it’s much rarer on business class tickets, in my experience. I’ve never not received credit for a business class ticket flying on the various oneworld airlines.
wheretocredit.com is a very useful tool.
Agreed!
I got the same thing with a Swiss discounted Business fare. Realized it after flying even though my miles&more number was in there (booking was through an agency for work, but fare bucket same). Was a big disappointment, and it cemented my decision to stick with SkyTeam. Every J ticket should earn miles (obviously, less than full fare, but still).
To note, where miles are earned per price that should not be a problem. Only fare-bucket basis can lead to such an issue.
I agree with you on that. I don’t mind reduced earning for discounted tickets. Some oneworld airlines do that, where it’s 100% miles for discounted business, 125% miles for the next couple and 150% miles for full fare. Earning nothing for business class is a bit of a smack in the face in my eyes. Thanks for the comment!
That sucks and as Business Class passengers are paying bigger fares it iis clear the airline does not respect them and it’s just another new cost cutting strategy to bleed passengers! Hopefully it’s the fastest way for an airline to kill premium passenger business. Even company flyers will lose interest as employees love the points benefits. Let the airlines lose, they deserve it! Its cut, cut cut and increase fares. Excess profit over service. Why do budget carriers thrive? Because passengers are fed up with main carrier’s lack of respect for their passengers, who GOT THEM TO THEIR POSITIONS IN… Read more »
I really don’t think people are going to cope without an armrest to divide the space, though I suppose that wings around the head rest would keep people in their place. Even so, you need something to lean against from time to time, and I doubt the person next to you is going to enjoy that!! 🙂 Great that you voted with your money over what was important to you. Far too many people shout and scream about “never flying airline x again” and then go on flying with them. If it no longer works for you, you should switch… Read more »
You think thats bad? LX charge for reserving certain seats in the J cabin! The LH group (to pick a random name) are disorganised klutzes with inconsistent policies and widely differing product standards.
Well, BA do that as well, even in the J cabin. If you have status, it’s free, but if not, they tend to charge. I noticed LH don’t charge in J as I was able to select my seat free. I’ve not flown any LH group airline, so it’ll be interesting to compare.
Fully agree, I had the same with Ethiopian flight operated for Austrian and this was a long haul full price ticket. This is a joke that get star stamp otherwise carriers could not behave like that.
Yikes, not earning on a full price ticket would be adding insult to injury. Maybe things will change in the future and than again, maybe not. Cross fingers anyway!
Who is this mysterious German flag carrier? The suspense is killing me.
On a more serious note, the lack of earned miles illustrates how their policy is counterproductive. They should be enticing new customers, not driving them away, IMO.
Hahaha! 🙂 Yeah, I hear you on that. It definitely doesn’t work for me. Why make it difficult when potentially trying to attract new customers?