It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? And to put the icing on top – we’re talking about the very best first class experiences. Lufthansa offers one of the best flying experiences in the sky, with a first class experience that’ll make your head spin. Using a clever points sell game, you can experience a whole lot of luxury – for just a few points. Here’s how to spend 24+ hours luxuriating in the sky, for just 100,000 points.
Shell Game
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points are a travelers best friend. And for people who love a lot of flying luxury for not a lot of points, so is the Asiana Mileage Club. Todays magic is about taking Asiana points, which you can instantly create from Starwood Preferred Guest points and using them on Asiana’s airline partner: Lufthansa. It may sound complicated, but we promise it’s not.
Creating The Points
You need a total of 100,000 Asiana Mileage Club Points to make this possible. Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points converted to Marriott Rewards earlier this year, so 80,000 SPG Points became 240,000 Marriott points. 240,000 Marriott Points will get you the 100,000 Asiana Points you need when you convert them from Marriott to Asiana. If you only need a one way flight, it’s exactly half the points. You can earn Asiana Club points by creating a free Asiana account online and using your Asiana Club number for any flights on Star Alliance Airlines or Etihad. In addition, Marriott and Asiana have a credit card offering bonus points – if you want to earn the points without flying anywhere! And if you have a business, you can double up points by getting their business cards too.
Where
Fly round trip First Class between the US & Europe or Europe and Mexico or Central America – in either direction. That’s incredible. Flights between Europe and Mexico can easily push 12 hours, giving you more than enough time to enjoy the incredible service, $150+ a bottle champagne and other first class delights.
Incredible Value
Many airline miles programs charge over 100,000 points for a one way ticket between any of these destinations. Asiana Mileage Club offers by far the very best value you’ll find. With all great values in points, there’s no guarantee how long they will last – so be sure to take advantage of this sooner than later – if it’s something you’d love to do.
Booking
Booking is fairly straightforward – if you follow these instructions. First: the best availability is only available within a month of departure. You may get lucky planning way-way ahead, but the more flexible the easier this will be to book. Second: it takes up to 10 days to transfer points from SPG to Asiana. Plan for that. Once the 100,000 points are in place, search on United.com to find availability at the “Saver” level for Lufthansa First Class. Ignore the prices in points on the United site. If it’s available at “Saver” you can book it for 50,000 each way. Call Asiana to book it.
Are you going to fly Lufthansa first class using this trick?
Great tip. Any idea the fuel surcharges/taxes on the US to Europe route? Those added fees can be a huge-turn off.
Gilbert- Any chance of the ability to transfer SPG to JAL & Asiana going POOF soon because of the Chase merger? I have heard that April 16th is the cut off date for transfers.
Thx!
Great advice. I would list another benefit of Asiana program: it offers Family Mileage Plan for up to 8 family members including spouse, children, parents, paternal/maternal grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, son in law, daughter in law, and parents of spouse.”
If some members of your family/household travel only occasionally and would never collect enough miles for an award flight, it would make sense to sign up for a family/household account to pool miles together.
Source: https://www.flystein.com/biggest-mistake-frequent-flyers-make/