As is well known, Miles & More switched to a dynamic pricing for award flights with Lufthansa, Swiss, and Austrian Airlines two weeks ago.

So, a good opportunity to see how this plays out in practice, as we, like many, of course, feared a massive price increase, especially in Business Class.

But even two weeks after the switch, the system barely works. Most flights have no availability, and when they do, all flights on a route have the same price – which doesn’t really correspond to dynamic pricing.

The few visible price examples, however, do not show a massive devaluation, quite the opposite. However, the surcharges have been further increased, so now, for example, even in Economy Class, you pay an extra 440 EUR for a roundtrip with Austrian from Vienna to Bangkok.
However, the system is so full of errors that you can currently find real bargains. A roundtrip from Frankfurt to Vienna in September for 870 miles in Economy Class? Planning a flight from Frankfurt to London for tomorrow? If you fly in Business Class, the flight will cost you only 6,984 miles, but 19,512 miles in Economy Class.

Have fun hunting for bargains! The only thing that can be said for sure is that this won’t last forever.

For years, Korean Air has been working on acquiring Asiana Airlines. One of the last elements to be resolved was the integration of the frequent flyer programs Skypass and Asiana Club.

For admittedly not entirely comprehensible reasons, Korean Air offered to convert Asiana miles at a ratio of only 0.7 Korean miles per Asiana mile.

This was promptly rejected by South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission. While Korean Air can improve the offer, this means at best that the full integration of the two companies will be delayed until October 2026 – several years behind the originally planned schedule. Since such a merger certainly doesn’t bode well for frequent flyers, members of both programs still have some time to redeem outstanding miles and make the most of it!

On August 21, United will make two changes to its MileagePlus program that don’t affect everyone – but will sting those they do affect.

On one hand, stopovers will no longer be possible on award flights, meaning the ability to combine two or more destinations on a single trip. On the other hand, elite customers booking a full fare in Economy Class will no longer receive immediate confirmation for upgrades, but only after the usual procedure before departure – with the corresponding uncertainty about which cabin they will ultimately be allowed to travel in.

From November 24, the program will also no longer publish any award tables for upgrades. It is enough to look at what happened to the prices for award flights after no more award charts were published to gauge what this will likely mean…

Etihad is currently introducing the Airbus 321XLR, which enables it to open new secondary routes such as to Krabi, Phnom Penh or Tunis. Together with the “normal” route openings like Prague, Atlanta or Taipei, this brings the total to 15 new destinations in 2025.

To celebrate this, it is now challenging its Etihad Guest members: The first member to fly to or from all these 15 destinations will receive 5 million miles.

The question that arises is how far one is willing to go (morally) for it: Among the new destinations is also Sochi in Russia. With every passenger flying to or from Russia, the state directly earns money.

Do 5 million miles justify supporting the Russian war machine and the killing in Ukraine? A question that everyone has to answer for him/herself.

For reservations still made by June 17 and rentals of at least two days until September 30, Sixt has a potentially interesting promotion in collaboration with Accor’s ALL program.

For expenses (rental costs and kilometres) of 50, 100, or 150 EUR respectively, you receive 400, 700 or 1,100 ALL points respectively. Considering that 2,000 ALL points have a reward value of 40 EUR when redeemed at Accor hotels, one can achieve savings of up to 16%.

Of course, this promotion becomes less interesting if you spend significantly more than 150 EUR, as the points credit remains at 1,100 points.