RIP Miles and More Credit card: now what?

Goodbye Miles and More credit card

Last week, yet another airline reward credit card crashed and burned. The Miles and More credit card closed its doors to existing clients on the 28th July. Existing cardholders will become holders of the Horizon MBNA credit card instead, which offers the following benefits:

• 0.5% cashback on all spend, although bizarrely this only applies to increments of £2. If you spend £9.99, you will therefore only earn 4p as the £1.99 above £8 will not qualify.
• No annual charge
• Free UK and overseas cash withdrawals
• No foreign exchange fees

But what about the Lufthansa Miles and More Miles?

Now as generous as those benefits may be, they are not much use if your primary objective is to collect as many Lufthansa Miles and More miles as possible. Especially if you also happen to be diligently stockpiling Lufthansa Miles and More points in the hope of booking business class flights.

Whilst the Miles and More credit card has always compared unfavourably to the British Airways Amex or Gold Amex, (use these links to take advantage of enhanced sign up bonuses of 26,000 and 22,000 respectively), it did offer UK residents the chance to earn Miles and More points without having to take constant flights.

Here is a reminder of the key benefits:

• A 1,500 bonus for signing up
• 1.5 Miles per £1 spent on the Amex.
• 1 mile per £1 spent on VISA.
• No annual fee
• Mile protection as cardholders’ miles never expired. It didn’t matter therefore that I was building a balance painfully slowly. Even if it took me ten years to earn enough miles to fly business, my balance remained intact.

But alas, those days are over thanks to changes in EU credit card legislation. Miles will expire three years after you earn them, meaning I need to get my skates on and somehow rack up my miles balance quickly if I am going to achieve my goal of flying business class with Lufthansa.

VISA airline credit card

Furthermore, as one of the few remaining credit cards in the UK which allowed you to collect airmiles on a non American Express card (remember, this card was an AMEX and Visa duo) what are your options if you want a back up card for your AMEX cards?

Alternatives to the Miles and More Credit card

Starwood Preferred Guest Credit card

The only other credit card which will allow you to earn Lufthansa Miles is Starwood Preferred Guest American Express credit card. For every £1 you spend, you earn 3 points which can be converted into Miles and More on a 1:1 basis ?..?Obviously not as attractive as the 1.5 Miles on the Miles and More AMEX but better than nothing perhaps.

Furthermore, if you convert 20,000 SPG points, you earn a 5,000 mile bonus, so that earnings rate increases to 1.25 Lufthansa miles per £1. Sadly the card also carries an annual fee of £75, whereas your Miles and More card was free.

However the sign up bonus is more attractive than the paltry 1,500 you earned on the Miles and More card. New applications earn a bonus of 30,000 SPG points but you can use this referral link http://amex.co.uk/refer/annesun5n?XLINK=MYCP to earn 33,000. These will then convert into x Miles.

This card is a pure AMEX card so will not be much use in establishments which do not accept AMEX and so you are likely to need another airline credit card as back up.

Virgin Atlantic Mastercards

For back up, you can apply for either of the two Virgin Atlantic Mastercards which I reviewed recently. These will not help you add to your Lufthansa balance and unless you spend a fortune on cards, it will take some time to build up sufficient points to fly business class.

Although the card does offer a companion voucher, you can read my disparaging review below.

Is The Virgin Atlantic Companion Ticket The Best In The UK?

The FREE card offers a lower earning rate than Miles and More, but the paid version is better, at 1.5 miles which would only be matched on the AMEX card of Miles and More.

Other ways to earn Lufthansa Miles

All is not lost however. Whilst options for earning Lufthansa miles on credit cards may be increasingly limited, there are other ways to earn Lufthansa Miles. The post below is a good starting point to check out your options.

Can You Really Earn More Miles with Lufthansa Miles And More?

Any other tips?

Maybe you savvy travellers know of other ways to earn Lufthansa Miles and More miles in which case please feel free to share them.