Originally Posted by
Berlin_traveler
... Now, explaining to my German partner why I get better perks as an American than her as a German with a German company through a British bank is an entirely different thread.
Yea, I know. It's not just the sign-up bonus:
- US: No foreign transaction fees. Use the card anywhere in the world and get rates that are sometimes even better than what you get quoted at Oanda or XE.com
DE: 1.75% foreign transaction fee. Oh, as a Lufthansa customer, you travel a lot? Yea, be prepared to take a hit every time you pay abroad.
- US: 1 mile for every one dollar spent, 2 miles for every dollar spent on any M&M airline.
DE: 1 mile for every two euros spent. No bonus for euros spent on M&M airlines.
In many cases, the paltry 1/2 mile per euro you get on the German card for LH tickets will not even be enough to offset the credit card fee LH charges. Considering we're also talking USD vs EUR, the difference here is:
DE: 2 EUR spent = 1 mile;
US: 2 EUR spent = 2.24 USD (as of today) = 4.48 miles
- US: 35,000 miles sign-up bonus, sometimes more when they run a promotion.
DE: 500 miles sign-up bonus (4000 miles gold card). Right now, they run a "promotion" for 6x sign bonus for the blue card = 3000 miles ... LOL
- US: companion ticket per year
DE: [crickets chirping]
- US: two Lufthansa Business Lounge Vouchers per year
DE: [crickets stopped chirping in shame]
To be fair, the blue DE card costs 55 EUR per year vs. the US card at 89 USD = 79 EUR. So a bit cheaper? Not as long as you have enough miles. Then they "conveniently" deduct the credit card fee in miles instead - 16.500 miles. IOW, they force you to redeem 16,500 miles each year for 55 Euros. I don't know how you value your miles, but at 0.3 ct/mile I find that a rotten deal.