If You’ve Got At Least 10,000 SPG Points, You Can Fly Lufthansa First Class For About $750…

Though it can be quite practical, spending tons of Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points on a hotel just doesn’t always feel that exciting. It’s a lot of points for one night. Spending SPG points on a Porsche ride, a free rubber duck, a first class flight-complete with caviar and unlimited $120 a bottle champagne all in one though- that has quite a bit of allure. There’s a fantastic limited time opportunity to help you spend your SPG points, so we’ll lay it out there…

For 40,000 SPG Points You Can Fly First Class Between The US And Europe In Either Direction. If You Have 10,000 SPG Points, Buying The Remaining Points NEEDED Is Only $682.

That’s right. You can do this for free if you have 40,000 SPG points, but even if you’ve only got 10,000 SPG points, you can fly one way in First Class on Lufthansa for just $682 from many US cities to many European destinations, or vice versa. That’s an extreme bargain when you factor in just how wowing their experience is. Sadly, if you have less than 10,000 you can’t play, SPG points purchases are limited to just 30,000 per year. This is a seriously indulgent experience with plush, fully flat beds, fine dining and so much more, like a private terminal in Frankfurt solely for First Class passengers, complete with Porsche rides to the plane, naturally.. The reason for this brilliant opportunity? SPG is having a limited time sale on their points, which you can buy here.

SO If I Don’t Already Have Them, I Buy The Points Needed To Get 40,000 SPG Points, Then What?

There are a few steps here, so get your notepad ready. Though it may seem unrelated at first, before you buy the SPG points you should create a free Asiana Air Club account. It’s a free frequent flyer program. We’ll explain. Asiana is an airline to whom you can transfer your SPG points at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 you transfer you’ll get 5,000 bonus points. Therefore: 40,000 SPG = 50,000 Asiana miles. You only need 50,000 Asiana miles to book one way in First Class between the US and Europe (and vice versa) on their lovely Star Alliance partner Lufthansa. That’s less than half what other airlines charge in miles.

It Takes Up To 10 Days To Transfer Your Points From SPG To Asiana, And Most Availability Only Is Released Within Two Weeks Of Travel…

Consider this your fair warning. This is not something that’s going to help you book travel for mid 2018 right this week, but if you ever have any semi last minute needs to travel between the US and Europe, this is a GOLDMINE. Lufthansa, with great predictability releases a plethora of first class seats in the two weeks before a flight. It’s quite easy to find availability to use your Asiana miles within that time frame. To make this all work, you should buy SPG points ASAP, transfer them to Asiana (if you know this is what you want to do with your points) and have them ready and waiting in the Asiana program. You can jump on any seats Lufthansa releases in First class, with as little as three days (72 hours) notice before travel (but not shorter).

Since seats even in economy can fetch well over $1000 one way for short notice transatlantic travel, this trick is a brilliant hedge for a frequent traveler trying to add some fun and save some cash…

And This Is How You Find Seats And Book…

The easiest way to find seats- by far- is to use United.com, United Airlines website, which displays availability on Lufthansa. Using United’s miles you’d need a whopping 110,000 one way, so ignore that, but if you find any seats on flights operated by Lufthansa between the US and Europe at the “First Saver” 110,000 mile level, you can book them for your 50,000 Asiana points. Once you’ve found those saver 110,000 mile first class options on the United site, you simply call up Asiana at 800-227-4262, noting the dates, flight numbers and your first class seats.  They’ll process your ticket (as long as it’s more than 72 hours in advance of the flight) and you’ll be flying First! Depending on where you’re going in Europe, or starting in Europe, fuel surcharges will run between $180 and $400, making this roughly a $1000 one way ticket if you need to purchase 30,000 miles, which is still a ridiculous bargain.