Miles & More (Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, and other partners) - Fare price vs. milage accrual => Something is not right....

I need to go from DUS to VIE and back on the same day and looked up fares on LH.com for that. Price € 280 + TSC (well, that is quite a lot but not outrageous).

When I checked the booking class, it is L, meaning I collect NO miles in United Airlines Mileage Plus (where I am silver member) or 250 in M&M (where I am blue).....

I thought those are supposed to be the HEAVY DISCOUNTED booking classes, but that short hop for that money...... Something is not right anymore (or I am too old to understand)

Guess I will be flying AirBerlin instead for less and start collecting miles with them.....

Well, L is the highest of the heavy discounted classes and it earns 125 miles in M&M.

Flying AB is certainly a good choice.

However, if you want to do it for the miles, you might wish to check a flight via FRA or MUC where you might find W or U availabilty for the same price and more miles (750 per leg in M&M), however, for a same day return this will not work.

You further might wish to check whether an OS codeshare a availability in cheaper fare buckets. Checking on Expedia is always a good start. However, I have some doubts that the ultra cheap returns are available for same day travel on the VIE route. With a night in VIE your fare could be as low as Euro 89,46 all in (to be booked on Expedia).

if you chose K class you should be alright. the fare differential is 40€.
alternatively see if you can fly LX. their K Class also gives full mileage and sits at 189 (via ZRH of course). throw in the Swiss C Class upgrade at 100€ per way and the world becomes a much better place....:D.

else, of course, AB is always an option. or try ltur.com for LH Last Minute (W Class,if memory serves me right) outbound, and a cheapo AB oneway back.

DUS-VIE also always drives me nuts ... no more real competition now.

Yesterday I booked a BHX/MUC/VIE/DUS/BHX routing on LH. It cost GBP 125 all in and was in U giving me 3,748 miles. It was an Economy Saver fare. If I chose the same flights as an Economy Basic fare it cost GBP 389 and booked into L, T and E giving a total of 624 miles. So, being able to change your flights for EUR 25 (but not get a refund) costs 3 times as much and you only get one sixth of the miles.

Yesterday I booked a BHX/MUC/VIE/DUS/BHX routing on LH. It cost GBP 125 all in and was in U giving me 3,748 miles. It was an Economy Saver fare. If I chose the same flights as an Economy Basic fare it cost GBP 389 and booked into L, T and E giving a total of 624 miles. So, being able to change your flights for EUR 25 (but not get a refund) costs 3 times as much and you only get one sixth of the miles.

Excellent work! ^

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.126 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/114)

Yesterday I booked a BHX/MUC/VIE/DUS/BHX routing on LH. It cost GBP 125 all in and was in U giving me 3,748 miles. It was an Economy Saver fare. If I chose the same flights as an Economy Basic fare it cost GBP 389 and booked into L, T and E giving a total of 624 miles. So, being able to change your flights for EUR 25 (but not get a refund) costs 3 times as much and you only get one sixth of the miles.

This is exactly my mantra: Flexibility costs money. Furthermore I assume that your U-class fare involves a weekend?