Nominal

Hey everyone, I am missing 6000 miles to upgrade my flight.

I have to choose between booking Economy or Economy Premium (€300 diff).

If I cannot upgrade to Business, I'd book Premium Economy but if I do so, I cannot upgrade to Business anymore should I be able to gather 6k miles.

Until this flight, I will no longer be flying so I will need to collect my miles on the ground (hotels and car rentals are also excluded).

Does anyone have any suggestions? An M&M credit card is also not an option due to me being a student.

I can get a 1 month Frankfurter Algemeine subscription, giving me 2500 miles for €43, so I would need 3500 more which I cannot gather through similar Frankfurter offers

Thanks for the input

gum

I am really happy to give you some information about closing gap of 3,500 miles. It's true FT spirit to go for mileage hunting.

However one info at the beginning:
The availability of upgrades is not guaranteed and also not open for all booking classes. So the best way is to research availability beforehand.

1.) The first step would be to subscript the Süddeutsche Zeitung for a short-time. Don't forget to cancel!

https://service.sueddeutsche.de/lese...n.html?wt=INMM

It's delivering 2,000 miles for 37,90 Euro!

So the gap is narrowed to 1,500 miles.

2.) The epic mileage run by daily shopping in your preferred supermarket.

Buying the Miles at the Miles & More site has been discontinued. Therefore it's time to take corners.

Apply for the free Payback card (without payment function) and collect 0,5 Payback point per 1 Euro turnover at Rewe or similar partners. Or 1 Euro = 1 point at Kaufhof (disclaimer: heavily overpriced food department)

Don't buy anything not necessary.

After you have collected the 200 points then start the first (manual) transfer from Payback to Miles & More! You see the delivery/transfer times from account to account.
Search for "Umwandlung nach Bedarf" within the payback.de programme.

3,000 Euro supermarket turnover seems to be much until November. But sometimes there are 10 fold/20-fold multipliers on some products at Rewe.

https://www.rewe.de/payback/
This week is not great concerning mileage piling.

But sometimes they have "Barilla" noodles, washing agents, soft drinks or other nearly non-perishable goods for fair price including the multiplier.

So just do the first two steps, see how it works the next four weeks. @:-)

And then you may add another short-time subscription.


Hope these first steps help. It would be fine if you could keep the fellow FTers updated.

But don't be disappointed if something (e.g. availability) doesn't work. Miles are valid for 3 years and you could use it on other opportunities.

Undoubtedly these actions will give you a feeling how you can act as customer and play the "cards correctly".

Nominal

Hey Gum, thank you for your input and the recommendations. The payback card I indeed have already and might even use it while buying a new phone to rake up the missing miles. The next automatic transfer takes place mid September.

Based on the star alliance upgrade award chart, the booking class which I selected is eligible for upgrades. Do you know how I can find out whether there is availability as well, bearing in mind that it might take several weeks to gather the required miles?

oliver2002

You can also do an extra ordinary PB points transfer, takes 2-3 days to reach your account.

Upgrade availability can be checked using the M&M *A upgrade tool: https://www.miles-and-more.com/onlin...l=en&cid=18002

Nominal

Thanks Oliver, I didn't know this was possible.

Is there any way to check upgrade availability without having an existing booking? In case a regular economy upgrade wouldn't be possible, there isn't really a way for me to change to premium economy seeing as my ticket will be non-refundable or adjustable.

Thanks

fassy

Use the 24 hour free cancellation! Book, check upgrade option and if there are none, cancel for free.

Or check if a I class award seat (business class award booking class) is available on the flight you are looking for.

gum

It's a pleasure.

Sorry that I don't have or know an online tool for checking that. Some years ago it was very simple but that tool has gone. You could either uses the tool mentioned by the dedicated Oliver2002 or:

So you may phone the Miles & More Service Centre and specifically ask about the availability of the correpsonding booking class.

I will update this thread if I encounter a multiplier offer of Rewe. Looking there anyway every Monday.

@:-) Hope this helps.

tchron

Do you have any SPG points that you can transfer?

shady

Wirtschafts Woche has a promo 5000 miles for 38 Eur.
Link

Nominal

Thanks a lot, Shady! This really helps a great deal. If I order this one I will be able to accrue sufficient miles and can (hopefully) upgrade immediately!

Concerto

This is good! Should probably be posted over in the M&M Promotions thread as the miles ratio is rather good. Any way of knowing how long the promotion is running for? I presume that one cannot have had an Abo with WiWo for the last 6 months in order to profit from this one and I might just fall within those 6 months myself. That's why I was asking above how long the promotion runs for.

shady

I have seen this offer being active for at least two months. I don't know until when this offer is available.
It is a very unique offer, first time the ratio is <1 euro per mile.

Concerto

It did come up before. Last time I signed up for it was around this time last September or October. The last edition delivered to me was the 03/2016 one, which came out on 15th January. Therefore, I think I am just outside the 6 month period (usually you have to wait a clear 6 months with these things before taking out a new sub - the 6 months begins with the date of the final edition delivered).

raji

I need 3500 miles as soon as possible as need to book award ticket. Seat are availabe now. Please advise

Big_Foot

buy SPG points and transfer to M&M. Still not gonna be "asap", more like 5-6 days