I’ve had several readers reach out to me about the lack of Lufthansa first class award space using partner miles. For that matter, I was hoping to take advantage of this space myself for an upcoming trip, so I’ve taken a direct interest in this as well.
It seems that as of the beginning of the month (now almost four days), Lufthansa has just completely stopped releasing first class award space to partner programs, so let’s talk a bit about that, and what’s going on, not that I have a definitive answer, unfortunately.
The state of Lufthansa first class award availability
Over the years, it has become increasingly difficult to redeem partner airline miles for travel in Lufthansa first class. Admittedly this has been a slow and steady trend over the past 15+ years, going back to when Lufthansa had 16 first class seats on the upper deck of its Boeing 747-400s (time flies!).
Nonetheless, Lufthansa first class remains one of the best mileage values for those looking to travel in first class across the Atlantic, given the lack of options, in those situations where the airline releases availability.
While Lufthansa’s own Miles & More members can book first class awards as soon as the schedule opens (subject to capacity controls), Lufthansa has significant restrictions for those booking first class through partner frequent flyer programs.
When it comes to redeeming partner miles for Lufthansa first class, historically it has been possible to redeem miles for first class up to 15 days before departure. In early 2024, that window was shortened significantly, and ever since, Lufthansa seems to be opening first class awards to partner programs within three days of departure. As you can tell, that provides a limited period during which you can redeem for Lufthansa first class.
For what it’s worth, seats.aero is an awesome tool for searching award availability, and it has a Lufthansa first class award tracker. Tools like this are great, in terms of making it easy to find award space. At the same time, the ease with which space can be searched is probably also one of the reasons we’ve increasingly seen airlines add restrictions on many types of award tickets.
Anyway, this brings us to what’s going on at the moment — as of June 1, 2026, Lufthansa has just completely stopped releasing first class award space to partners programs. It doesn’t matter which route you’re flying, or if you’re terminating in Germany or connecting. It’s the same story across the board.
I’ve not been able to get an answer as to what’s going on. In fairness, we’ve seen some quirks with Lufthansa award availability in the past, so it’s possible that this is one of those. However, I find it interesting that this essentially coincided with the change in calendar months, which seems deliberate… or maybe it’s just coincidental.
What could explain this latest trend? As I see it, there are a few most likely explanations:
- Lufthansa has just changed its policy, and will no longer release first class award seats to partner program; this would of course be the most drastic change
- Lufthansa is temporarily restricting award availability; this could be because we’re entering the peak summer season, or it could be because Lufthansa is anticipating another employee strike soon, and doesn’t want to have even more premium passengers to rebook
- It could just be some sort of a glitch that will resolve itself very soon
I don’t know what the answer is, but I think it’s worth acknowledging the current reality, and if I get any answer as to what’s going on, I’ll report back. My general assumption would be that this isn’t a permanent change, at least not yet, since we’ve seen somewhat similar stuff happen in the past
What does the future hold for Lufthansa awards?
When it comes to redeeming miles for Lufthansa first class, I have to imagine that our best days are behind us:
The general industry trend we’ve seen is clear, as I wrote about some time back. We’re seeing airlines increasingly restrict award space to partner programs, to focus on monetizing their own programs.
So I’m not saying that Lufthansa will completely eliminate partner first class awards, but… I’m also not saying it won’t? I think the more likely direction this goes is that we increasingly see Miles & More added as a partner for international transferable points currencies, so that Lufthansa has more control over its award space.
Obviously this hobby is quite different than it used to be, but it’s not all bad news — there are also a lot of amazing opportunities that didn’t exist years ago.
Bottom line
While this is hopefully temporary, I’d like to acknowledge that since June 1, Lufthansa hasn’t made any first class award seats available to partner frequent flyer programs. There’s no denying that it has become much more difficult to redeem for Lufthansa first class over the years, but blocking space completely is obviously the most extreme measure.
It’s anyone’s guess what’s going on here. It could be a glitch, it could be temporary (due to summer demand or looming strikes), or it could be a permanent change. With Lufthansa increasingly moving toward its new Allegris first class, these opportunities are becoming more and more limited.
What do you make of this Lufthansa first class award availability situation?
