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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.

As originally announced after the takeover by Lufthansa, ITA officially left the SkyTeam alliance on April 30. Joining Star is scheduled for early 2026.

Somewhat surprisingly, the announcement just before the end of the month came that all partnerships with SkyTeam companies in the Volare program will be maintained for the time being – which, by the way, applies in both directions. Status customers will even continue to receive status benefits with some partners.

This naturally leaves interesting options open, such as collecting miles for flights with Air France KLM and the Lufthansa Group in one program. The “problem” with that is that points from the Volare program can still only be redeemed in a non-transparent manner for Cash & Miles tickets on ITA flights.

Of course, one can speculate that Volare will merge into Miles & More next year anyway – but with the upcoming change to a dynamic reward pricing system at Miles & More, one hardly gains any transparency in the process.

Apparently, Aegean Airlines has come to a partnership with Emirates as if by a stroke of luck.

In certain cases, this partnership can surely provide added value for Miles+Bonus members, but it was hardly planned in the long term.

On the Aegean website, where collecting miles on flights is explained, you can actuallu still find the following information:

Concrete examples are always a good idea to explain something – but they should be adjusted occasionally if necessary!

While Emirates has always been restrictive in providing award seats in First Class to members of partner programs, it has now also tightened the conditions for Skywards members.

From now on, you must be an elite member to be able to use these awards. Regular customers should not really be affected by this, as you need so many points for these awards that you are usually a status customer anyway.

However, this measure clearly targets customers, especially in the USA, who accumulate large amounts of points through credit card programs and then convert them into Skywards points to use such awards. Often, these customers have, however, no loyalty towards Emirates at all – but often took these coveted seats to the detriment of the truly loyal customers in the past!

Of course, nowadays you can’t publicly say anything against sustainability anymore. But if it harms one’s own business too much, one is at least allowed to respond at the level of the loyalty program.

Deutsche Bahn has certainly contributed significantly to the decline in domestic air traffic in Germany, thanks in part also to its improved BahnBonus program. The public perception of domestic flights has deteriorated significantly, too.

Eurowings is now trying to counteract this: For all domestic flights booked by June 30 for July and August – except for flights to Sylt – you will receive triple miles with Miles & More. Due to the low absolute mileage credits, this is more of a symbolic gesture – but this symbolism is definitely fully realised here!

Jetblue and United have confirmed their intention to work closely together. In an initial step, a partnership at the level of the Frequent Flyer programs TrueBlue and MileagePlus will certainly be seen.

In the medium term, the further development also depends on the authorities, but a complete takeover of Jetblue by United is currently not to be excluded and thus the complete disappearance of the brand is also possible.

While some would probably miss the Jetblue brand, its TrueBlue program has never really met expectations. And for those who get along well with the program, the consolation is that such a potential merger is not on the agenda for tomorrow.