Award Success: United Mileage Plus Award For Lufthansa Flight Barcelona Frankfurt

In our series Award Success, we once again managed to pick a redemption using United Airlines Mileage Plus for a short-haul flight from Barcelona, Spain, to Frankfurt, Germany, this time operated by Lufthansa.

Flights on this route are usually not very expensive, but the city pair Barcelona-Frankfurt is popular for weekend trips and especially now as the easter holidays come to a close can be high priced.

While United Mileage Plus has greatly devalued its own as well as many other partner awards over the last few years, short-haul awards are still very attractive options, especially in Economy Class.

Flights within Europe usually only make sense in Economy Class, especially if you have access to exit row seating, like in my case, while I’m still holding Miles&More Status and Lufthansa has the Lounge agreement with American Express.

I first searched for revenue fares, but the pricing was pretty high for a two-hour Economy Class flight:

Definitely unreasonable. In fact this is completely nuts for such a short flight and since I had baggage a fare that allows checked in bags was absolutely necessary.

I decided to have a look at United again:

I needed a flight in the morning as I was arriving by cruise ship and there is really nothing to do for me that day in Barcelona unless I get a hotel and stay an additional day which I didn’t want to do.

A direct flight was actually available for only 8,000 miles and $20.00 in tax, but at the wrong time (in the late evening), so I decided to book the connection via Munich instead.

Buying this ticket with Lufthansa Miles & More doesn’t make any sense whatsoever due to the high pricing (17,000 Miles) and taxes and fees of 58 Euro. The only advantage Miles&More would have offered is a flight on Austrian via Vienna, which, for whatever reason, is never available on United.

The ticket was issued immediately:

This was a very easy and straightforward redemption that saved me quite a bit of money. I really like these medium/short-haul redemptions on United Mileage Plus and have done several of them over the years and covered quite a few of them here for out readers to see.

I remember that among many others, I ticketed with UAMP:

• Tokyo-Seoul-Tokyo
• Osaka-Tokyo
• Palma de Mallorca-Frankfurt
• Frankfurt-Rome

All of these were in Economy Class and at very low rates.

As I’ve always said, I have no problem flying in Economy Class when status helps me to circumvent all the craziness that usually comes with it, such as regular lineups at check-in, security, and boarding. The status also helps with better seating and complimentary baggage.

In the case of Munich I was happy to also enjoy the American Express benefits I previously wrote about:

American Express Centurion Perk To Access Lufthansa First Class Lounges Discontinued?

Although the First Class Lounge at the G Gates is currently under renovation, it is only available at the Satellite terminal and a small First Class area at the adjacent Senator Lounge.

This was fine enough for a brief layover and a quick bite. After two weeks of cruising I wasn’t all that hungry anyway and should really go on an extended diet the new few weeks/months.

Conclusion

This was another decent redemption from my stack of United Mileage Plus miles, which are unfortunately dwindling quickly. I have redeemed quite a few miles over the last two years.

There are still a few sweet spots with that program, unfortunately, though long-haul premium class redemptions are no longer part of them (with very few exceptions).

Most programs, including United Mileage Plus, have changed to dynamic redemption pricing, which makes most awards unattractive. I’m still fine with UAMP as long as they keep these short-haul redemptions around of which I need quite a few each year.

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