Beginning Jan. 1, 2021, Lufthansa will begin determining loyalty program status on a new points-based structure rather than mileage flown.
Lufthansa will give a flat number of points per flight based on the class flown and whether the flight was intercontinental or intracontinental. A flight within Europe, for example, will earn five points for an Economy Class traveler or 10 points for a Business or First Class traveler. Intercontinental flights are valued at 15 points for Economy Class, 20 points for Premium Economy, 50 points for Business Class and 70 points for First Class.
Travelers will need to earn 160 points within a calendar year to reach Frequent Traveler status, 480 points to reach Senator status and 1,500 points to reach HON Circle Member status. Currently, the requirements for those levels are 35,000 miles, 100,000 miles and 600,000 miles, respectively.
In addition, the new system differentiates points earned on Lufthansa Group carriers as well as co-issuing partners in its Miles & More partners—LOT Polish Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Adria Airways, Luxair and Air Dolomiti—as "qualifying points." Points on other Star Alliance carriers count toward status but are not qualifying points. To earn status, at least half of a traveler's points must be qualifying points to reach Frequent Traveler or Senator status, and all 1,500 points must be qualifying points to reach HON Circle Member status.
Lufthansa's Miles & More program and its allocation of miles will not change, according to the carrier.
United Airlines earlier this year announced it was moving away from a mileage-based program for status as well. Its new program will be based on a combination of the number of flights flown and the amount of money spent.
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Nov. 14, 2019 Correction: A previous version of this article stated Lufthansa's loyalty status calculations would change as of Jan. 1, 2020. BTN regrets the error.