RobertHanson

None of which has anything to do with my post, but thank you for sharing anyway.

muji

The 35k offer (with its $1k spend) is good for those who are not able to make the higher $5k spend.
One could get the offer once, and then a second time a year or so later,
to make 70,000 miles for just a total $2k spend.

RobertHanson

That makes sense. But then, of course, you have to pay 2 AFs. And in the long run you still have to spend $2K. The other question being if you value that extra 20K miles at $89 or more.

For those with MS capability it's cheaper to MS the $3K extra min spnd than to pay the $89 twice. Or get another card next year, pay 2 AFs, and get 100K miles.

But for those that can't/won't MS, that's the next best choice.

Rommie2k6

Are we supposed to get the Lufthansa business lounge voucher at signup or one year later after renewal? Been waiting for those... and nothing!

Finkface

I got mine on approval. They are electronic. Go to your Lufthansa M&M account (not your Barclay account) and look in your inbox (expand the menu under your name). There should be two separate messages with one lounge pass in each. They are valid for one year. Plus a 15% off hotel and car awards voucher. Mine appeared the day after I activated the card.

Rommie2k6

Thanks, found it.

Looks like the pass can only be used if you are flying Lufthansa on that day? Any work around on this?

IMH

They're delivered digitally, but the barcode on the voucher needs to be scanned in order fro lounge entry to be granted. That might be possible if the voucher is saved on a phone or tablet, but printing it out is probably safer.

Any LH group carrier will do.

No. The vouchers are not in fact of value to most people here. They only grant entry to Lufthansa's own "Business" lounges at 24 airports. Anyone travelling in a premium cabin or carrying a *A Gold card can do as well or better without a voucher.

gnomey

i applied for this offer "50K Lufthansa M&M miles for $5,000K min spend"

i have achieved my min spend, but so far, the 20K miles for first purchase didnt show up (presumably bc the annual fee hasnt posted to my account and thus i havent paid that yet), however, the 30K miles i got for achieving min spend has posted.

is this normal?

when will the annual fee be posted to my account? bc i am quite anxious to get the remaining 20K (which should have appeared first?!)

chongl

That happened to both me and the wife but the remaining miles posted at the close of our next statements.

gnomey

ok great. thank you. i will wait then

RobertHanson

AFAIK, there are no reports on this thread of anyone not getting their sign up bonus. So I wouldn't worry, it will post eventually.

gnomey

thanks.

can you churn this card on a every 6 months basis? i read through previous posts on this thread and it seems like there's no conclusion. there are some people who are cycling through the US-based and EU-based M&M cards. that can only work if you have a EU address

but for folks with only US address, how do you churn in such a way where your miles from the prior M&M card are not subject to definite expiration (bc of the fact that you need to put charges on the card at every billing statement and you transitioning to a new M&M card)? can something like the below work?

Early October - Apply for 1st M&M card
Mid March - Cancel 1st M&M card
Late March - Apply 2nd M&M card (within 2 weeks after canceling)
Early October - Cancel 2nd M&M card
Mid October - Apply 3rd M&M card (within 2 weeks after canceling)
...
...
Rinse and repeat

obviously i am asking this bc 50K miles is not sufficient to get the award ticket i want, so would like to pool miles from at least 2 different M&M cards (the more, the better) before redeeming.

RobertHanson

Has it been possible to churn this card in the past? Yes...

Can it be done as quickly and often as you suggest? IDK...

What we have done is get the card, with the 55K miles from sign up and min spnd, put around $5K spend on it, then add 20 K SPG points to get the 85K mile FC award ( it only takes 20K SPG to transfer to 25K LH). Cancel the card when the AF comes due, wait 6 months or so, then get the card again. We've only done this once (so two cards each, and two one way FC flights each, quite some time apart).

What I do know is that Barclays doesn't like to approve more than one card (of any type at all) per @ 6 months. And they are very unlikely to approve a new app for a type of card you still have open. Whether or not they will approve an app for a card you only had for 6 months, and just recently canceled is something I don't have any DPs on.

Especially if you have only the done min spnd on the previous card. I've always done monthly spend on every open Barclays card bc I want to be considered a 'good customer' when I apply again. Which used to be easy with the 'free MS' methods that no longer exist.

As for the expiration of the miles, they don't expire for 3 years. The way programs are devaluing, and as it gets harder and harder to even find available flights for awards, I wouldn't wait 3 years to use them. Especially since you can book an award almost a year in advance, so you really have almost 4 years to use the award.

We got our cards, and booked our one way FC flight when the points were less than a year old. We booked it nearly a year ahead, but the points don't 'age' once you book the flight with them. If you don't have SPG points to transfer, and so need to get two cards for one award, following the one year and 6 month schedule I wrote about above, you could still book your award when the points from the first card are less than 2 years old. It all depends on how patient you are I guess. We didn't mind waiting since we already had tons of points from AA, UA, SQ etc to use in the meantime.

gnomey

thanks - i agree with everything you said. not planning to hoard it or anything like that for extended period of time. next trip on LH or LX is still about 1.5-2 yrs out. but i m a planner so am already strategizing on my head i just wonder why some ppl can get approved for 2 barclay CCs at once - apparently there are some DP on that, but it's not auto-approval. but i agree that the safest route still is apply 1 card every 6 month. i was just hoping i could churn at a faster rate than one M&M card every 1.5 years, i.e., cancel the CC before 1 yr is up but maybe i should work on gaining the 'trust' of barclay first esp since this is my first card with them. perhaps next yr in march i can apply for the 50K arrival+ while still keeping my M&M card

RobertHanson

Just so we're clear, it wasn't my intention to tell you that you had to wait 18 months to apply for another card. I did think you were probably intending to push the apps too hard, too soon. But the part about 18 months is just what we did, and it worked. Maybe 12 would work, IDN. What I'm pretty confident about is that you should put regular, not necessarily massive, but regular spend on any Barclays cards you have open if you hope to get more cards from them. Good Luck, and update here whatever you do and how that works out.