5 x usual HON miles for Lufthansa Private Jet
 

Lufthansa Private Jet is offering a five-week special, from May 1 to June 6, where each passenger will earn 50,000 miles (counts for status and HON Circle miles) per flight instead of the usual 10,000.

They are also offering a five percent discount on private jet flights booked from March 1 on routes beyond Germany’s borders.

So, 12 short hops by private jet would net 600,000 miles (and most importantly, HON Circle status). While that is obviously going to cost more than to earn 600,000 miles flying LH commercial, if it is indeed correct that each passenger earns miles then the cost could be shared between 4 passengers on the Cessna Citation CJ1+ (netting a total of 2.4 million miles and HON for 4).

It might be a world first - mileage running by private jet!

that's too good to be true. my guess is that you will get 10.000 status and award miles as usual per leg and 40.000 award miles on top as the anniversary bonus. moreover i guess there will be a limitation of legs for that promotion (probably max 4 or 6 legs)
LH/M&M won't make it possible to become HON that easy!

LH has a history of charging for each additional passenger on these retained private jets and of having ordinarily a maximum number of passengers on a given flight who can earn miles from the flight. Given the charges are based on distance, this could be a reasonably good deal for add-on passengers on some of the shorter distance charters within Europe.

So how much money would we be talking about?

can't be that much right. :p

can this be right?
 

looking at http://www.lufthansa-private-jet.com/main.html :
a return flight within 24 hrs between Germany and Switzerland in a small aircraft would cost 11'730€
A Cessna Citation CJ3 has 6 seats (not clear if one is blocked for the FA?)

6 return flights (DE-CH) - 70'830€
Assuming 6 pax per flight - 11'730€ per pax to achieve HONdom (<0.02€/mile)

questions are:
are the extra 40'000 miles really HON or pure award?
Is there a fuel surcharge on the base price on the website?
can 6 fly or crew needs one of the seats?
would all 6 pax earn the miles, or is there a max number that could?

looks interesting

GBM

The promotion is truly 50 000 bonus, status and HON circle miles. SEN will require a roundtrip, HON a few more trips.

Is anybody seriously considering chartering one of these jets? I might be short of 40k miles to reach SEN this year, so I have to say this is really tempting. If any of you had a spare seat I would be willing to contribute to the costs haha..

The friends over at VFT already have concrete plans and first estimates from LPJ:
http://www.vielfliegertreff.de/marke...n-hon-run.html

Not an option for me as I have requalified for SEN and HON is not worth that kind of money.

Sorry just realised the link I posted is for VFT members only. Here is the general discussion.

http://www.vielfliegertreff.de/miles...ivate-jet.html

If I´m not mistaken, each passenger gets 50k award/status/HON miles for EACH segment, right?

So why not do something like FRA-CGN-DUS-FMO-BRE-HAM-TXL-LEJ-DRS-NUE-MUC-STR-FRA (should be possible in one day)

Even if LH charged 15000€ for that roundtrip, that would be 2500€ for 600k miles = HON status.
If this is indeed possible, anyone interested? :cool:

Thanks a lot for the link. :) I registered on the site, and took part in the pretty long discussion. I'm amazed what people are willing to do to become HONs, but I find it very entertaining at the same time. I really hope it all works out.

Best from Warschau,

Bartek

Maybe not entirely a word first. AA used to give AAdvantage miles for purchases at the FBO's they ran. I made my first 2mm miles with them buying jet fuel for our fleet at their FBO's.

Delta Air Elite gives Medallion status with purchase of their charter cards. http://www.airelite.com/fleetmembershipbenefits.aspx

I imagine there are others also. Sounds like a good way to get miles and very convenient also, just must pay for the charter. Filling up a CJ1 can make it relatively affordable but not very comfortable.

My assistant was on the phone with them today as we have an event coming up in south of france and need to move many people from MUC there to a small airport. Wanted to get an offer and perhaps use them again, absolutly incentivised by the promotion
Their second question was whether this is a joyride for miles, which my assistant did not understand.
So I wonder whether they pull this promo or not.

Looks like a desperate attempt to me to resuscitate the Private Jets program at the cost of their loyalty program.

This is so stupid. They really don't know, what they are doing any more. But may upset many real and loyal HONs longterm due to the possible consequences... :td: :(

This reminds me of the UK status-matched SEN fiasco. It was before my time, I didn't have any status with any alliance at the time and wasn't targeted.

But as a UK-based SEN it makes me cringe every time someone mentions it in this forum. So I'm going to mention it before someone else does. ;)

yes.

Nope. Only cross-border segments will get 50k. Intra-German segments will only credit 10k.

Secondly, it is highly unlikely you would get that routing for 15k. It's more like 15k for every return journey per jet, of which you would have to take 6 to qualify. Oh and btw it's not like millions of new HONs will appear out of the blue. I doubt there are that many committed people to spend more than 10k Euro to achieve that status. In my case it's paying 1100 Euro to reach SEN, which is a bargain considering the 52.5k extra award miles, and two upgrade vouchers...

Thank´s for clarification.

That restriction surely limits the opportunities to find creative routings, nevertheless I guess it would be possible to double the amount of miles by flying AMS-FRA-ZRH-FRA-AMS (200k miles for <2500€, I would be surprised if AMS-ZRH was more than 15k €)

i doubt that there will be many HON runner, who in his right mind will spend 10k+ on a weekend to get HON?! and even if, its mostly people from FT and/or VFT, so we are talking about a very limited group of people. what does is matter if there is maybe 10 more HONs due to this?! :confused:

i still agree, its stupid if they don't limit it in any way but doubt it will have consequences for any current HON...

interesting and tempting - on the other hand it seems super crazy just for that black card.... I am wondering how long LH will leave that offer up though!

They just move the reconstruction to the next patient in this game: the HON Circle program as further down the road, LH management will 'detect' abuse of the program and will have to eliminate benefits because they were 'exploited' by customers.

While this sounds like cheap propaganda, it even works for a sizable portion of the frequent flyer community who blame the 'vultures' of lesser frequent flyers who cash in their not-so-hard-earned benefits.

HON and/or SEN runs ex Zurich
 

Hi guys

We are planning to do some SEN and HON runs ex ZURICH @:-)

The first two flights are likely to be on Sunday 09.05.2010.

If anyone wants to join, please send me a PM.

Regards,
Zurich Flyer

As has been discussed, at least at present the bonus miles really are HON miles.

These cannot be considered to be 'mileage running by private jet' - these are just other ways to earn miles while spending money on the ground. No flying needs to be involved. Though if someone has mileage ran (run?) on a private jet, I am sure they would be on this forum!An excellent point. More comfortable than 600k in LH Y though...

There is no FA on a CJ3!

Hmm, I'm afraid that a whole new generation of "Cessna HONs™" (true "HON lite") is about to be born, and we're not talking about a "very limited" group of people!

LH has deliberately taken into account this. Otherwise they wouldn't have included HON miles in this offer. Including HON miles means that they explicitly count on the appeal of the "HON factor" in their marketing campaign, and good professionals should definitely take into account extreme scenarios, like getting to have 500-800 extra "Cessna HONs" due to this campaign, and who knows how many others who were 100K short, and didn't find it worthwhile money- and time-wise.

Heck, people were doing this with the good ol'e "HON RUN" for several wasted weekends and 25K EUR less in their bank accounts. Why not doing this for 1/3 of that money and much less time?

Originally Posted by Jasper2009
If I´m not mistaken, each passenger gets 50k award/status/HON miles for EACH segment, right?

So why not do something like FRA-CGN-DUS-FMO-BRE-HAM-TXL-LEJ-DRS-NUE-MUC-STR-FRA (should be possible in one day)

Even if LH charged 15000€ for that roundtrip, that would be 2500€ for 600k miles = HON status.
If this is indeed possible, anyone interested? quote

Nope, you are exceeding the number of take-offs/ landings per crew and you are doing only internal GER flights, which gets you only 10 k.

Better FRA-SZG-ACH-LNZ-MUC-ZRH-STR-BRN-FRA

I tend to believe that you are absolutely right. It doesn't matter how many extra HONs may come out of this, but LH will use it as an excuse to "enhance" the HON program and remove benefits. :td: :mad:

I'm more sad to read (in VFT), that even existing HONs, some for a long period, totally lost their mind and jumped into this mileage generation BS.

Crazy stuff. I can understand it if someone would be within 100-200K of making HON in the 2 years period and wants an easy top up with a bit of a novelty factor. Apart from that it doesn't make much sense unless you really fly a lot on LH. SO being SIN based I'm in no danger of jumping on board ... plus I think hemore they call and ask about it LH will pull the plug or change the conditions of the offer

I am on for ZRH.

I think you are right. In the grand scheme of things this promo won't make that much difference to the overall number of HONs or how their privileges are enhanced. :rolleyes:

^^:D

For a joy ride (without miles!) I'd rather opt for this one. :)

Where did you find that promotion? I cannot find a link.

By the way, if this promotion is true, I am personally annoyed by LH watering down the HON status this way. I would expect hundreds of extra HONs from this, overcrowded lounges, and a further reduction of services.

CalFlyer, people becoming HONs this way are - on average - definitely not travelling the amount of legs, miles etc. of "regular" HONs. Therefore, the effect on lounge usage will be neglectable.

I really don't think you will find hundreds of extra HON customers this way- not that many people are going to take this many private jet flights just to get an airline card...

Well, even if this are hundreds of new HONS, they won't use their cards frequently for flying. Maybe use them more often at after-work-parties... :)

Hey welcome to FT LH-EcoSEN!!

I cannot imagine this (the after-work party part that is).

Anyway- one of the greatest things about FT is people's creativity- I am guessing LH is probably also interested to see if something like this get's pulled off- could be the ultimate "Mileage Running" article.

Personally I will stick to getting my miles the old fashioned way.

I politely disagree.

Case in point: Most of my European colleagues (who fly at least one European roundtrip per week, mostly two) used to book their flights in business class, and thus had made it to HON. For some time now, our new travel policy requires discounted economy for flights below 3h -- meaning they will all lose their HON status by the end of the year! I am sure many of them will do this HON run, and they will for sure crowd the lounges!

Many other companies have introduced similar economy class policies (especially consultants, bankers).

With the reduced mileage earnings for economy class travel, there are many high frequency "road warrior" travellers out there who will gratefully grab the opportunity to upgrade themselves. I am truly annoyed!

With due respect even if a number of ex-HONs-to-be decide to retain their status through this MR, they are not going to substantially increase the overall number of HONs who travel frequently and crowd the lounges. From the airline's point of view these "Cessna HONs™" will have the incentive to continue flying on LH rather than on LCCs albeit on deeply discounted fare.