59. Miles Ahead: Strategies for Smart Mileage Purchases

Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher-than-average expenses to travel the world. I'm your host, Devon Gimbel, and I believe that your expenses are your greatest untapped asset if you know how to leverage them. Ready to dive into the world of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often? Let's get started.

Hello everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Point Me to First Class. I have to be honest with you today. I'm having a little bit of an internal crisis about today's topic. I will tell you why. One of the core values of this podcast and my entire business in general really is to make travel more accessible to more people by breaking down how to earn and use points in a way that makes it easy for you all to get tremendous value from your points and open up opportunities to travel in ways you otherwise wouldn't be able to. 

But something that most of you probably don't know about me on a personal level, unless you're my husband and you've been victimized by this tendency repeatedly over the last 20 years, is that I don't like to share. I especially hate to share food, coffee, tasty snacks, which as you might imagine has made parenting particularly challenging for me because nothing is apparently more appealing to your child than the food that you're about to put in your own mouth. 

But this is legitimately a source of conflict for me today. Because sometimes there is a points deal or a less well known award travel opportunity that I personally get so much value from that on the one hand, I genuinely do want to share and teach you all about so that you can benefit from it too. But on the other hand, I'm a little bit of a points deal hoarder. I'm not going to lie. There are some secrets that I am really, really tempted to keep all to myself so that I don't have to share them. 

So that is the quandary that I find myself in today. Because right now there's a unique points opportunity that I've taken advantage of at least once a year for the past few years that no one else really talks about but that can be a great opportunity for award travel under the right circumstances. 

Despite my strong, strong inclination to keep this all to myself, I'm not going to do that. Because the truth is not everybody is going to want to jump on this opportunity. But for those who it makes sense for, it can open up some truly fantastic award options. I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't make sure to make you all aware of it as well. 

So without further ado, let's dive into today's topic. That is analyzing a current promotion to purchase miles for a specific frequent flyer program, the Lufthansa Miles & More program. Yes, we are talking about buying airline miles. Today, I am going to cover what this deal is, why it can make sense to buy miles or points outright, who it can be a great for versus who's better passing this up, and give you a few ideas for how you can maximize this opportunity for some pretty great award travel. 

So whether or not you want to jump on this current promotion, I want you to walk away today feeling confident that you know how to evaluate when purchasing airline miles outright can be a deal for you and how purchasing miles or points can strategically be incorporated into your award travel plans. 

My hope is that you're going to be able to take what you learn on today's episode and apply it to any airline or hotel points purchasing opportunity that arises. So that even if you don't jump on this particular promotion, you can still get a ton of value out of what you learned today. 

But before we do that, let me give you a little bit of context about the Lufthansa Miles & More program because it's likely that most of you listening are not very familiar with it, especially compared to some other airline loyalty programs. Lufthansa Miles & More is the frequent flyer program not only of Lufthansa airlines, unsurprisingly, but also a group of member airlines, including Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Swiss. 

Now, what that means is that all of these airlines use the Miles & More program as their primary frequent flyer award program. I'm going to get to why this is a really important detail a little bit later in the episode. But for now, just know that Miles & More is like an umbrella frequent flyer program that includes Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels, and Austrian Airlines as major European carriers as well as some other smaller airlines. 

But Lufthansa Airlines is also part of the larger Star Alliance partnership of airlines. So you can also use miles within the Miles & More program to book award flights not only on the primary airlines in the group, but also on over 26 other Star Alliance carriers like Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Thai Airways, Asiana, and even a few non Star Alliance airlines like Cathay Pacific and Condor. 

What this means is that when you have miles in the Miles & More program, there are lots and lots of airlines that you have access to booking award flights on. In addition, Lufthansa and its partner airlines serve an extensive route network not only between the US and Europe, but from their hubs in Europe beyond to India, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Asia. So you can use Miles & More miles to get you to a lot of different places.

But one thing that is particularly relevant to know about the Miles & More program, especially for folks who enjoy using points for travel which is most likely everybody listening to this podcast, is that Lufthansa is not a transfer partner of any of the transferable points currencies. Neither are the other primary members of the Miles & More program like Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, or Swiss. 

What that means is that it doesn't matter if you have Amex points or Chase points or Citi or Capital One or built points. You could have millions of these points, but you can't transfer any of them to Lufthansa airlines or to the other primary airlines in the Miles & More frequent flyer program. 

So unlike the group of airlines that share Avios as their points currency where you can say transfer a bunch of Chase points to British Airways and then scoot those Avios over to your Qatar frequent flyer account, you can't do that with Lufthansa or the other airlines in the Miles & More program. None of them are direct transfer partners of any of the transferable points currencies. 

So for the most part, if you've wanted to accrue miles in the Miles & More program, you had to do it the old fashioned way by actually flying on paid flights and crediting those miles to the Miles & More program, or by earning miles slowly but surely through affiliated shopping, hotel, or car rental booking portals. But the vast majority of us are not taking enough paid flights on Lufthansa partners or renting enough cars to accrue any significant amount of miles in these ways. 

Miles & More also offers a co-branded miles earning credit card through Barclays Bank. But like most airlines specific cards, it has a pretty dismal earning rate of just one mile earned per dollar spent on all expenses other than flights booked directly through a Miles & More airline. Even then, you're only earning two miles per dollar spent. 

The point of all of this being that you probably have not accidentally earned hundreds of thousands of Miles & More miles. Without being able to transfer points from any of the major transferable points earning credit cards, for most people the Lufthansa Miles & More program is like a beautiful diamond necklace locked securely behind an impenetrable barrier. You can see it but you can't touch it. This is really a shame because there are some unique aspects of the Miles & More program that make their miles not only very usable, but also very valuable. 

Now I'm going to highlight a little bit later in this episode some specific uses of Miles & More miles. But first, I wanted to cover three features of the Miles & More program that I really love. Number one, using miles in the Miles & More program is the single best way to book first class flights on Lufthansa airlines. 

Remember that some international carriers have multiple premium cabins on some of their aircraft, meaning that not only do they have a business class, usually with lie flat seats and amenities like improved catering compared to economy or premium economy. But some airlines like Lufthansa also offer first class, which is a tier above business class. First class is where you're going to find the smallest cabin, usually anywhere from four to eight or so seats in total, and the highest level of service including catering and potentially ground services. 

When it comes to first class, Lufthansa does not offer the most updated or fancy cabin, especially compared to newer products like the Emirates Game Changer suite, ANAs first class suite, or Singapore Airline’s new First Class suite. But Lufthansa first class should not be ignored or overlooked. It consistently offers fantastic service and one of the most comfortable long haul flights between Europe and the States. 

Another really unique feature of flying Lufthansa first class is that if you transit through Frankfurt or start your first class flight there, there is an entire separate terminal at Frankfurt Airport dedicated solely for use by Lufthansa first class passengers. Yes, you use an entirely different building than everybody else. 

This terminal provides exceptional service and amenities including private passport control and security screening, a full service sit down restaurant, shower and bathing facilities where you can walk away with one of their iconic rubber duckies. When it's time for you to board your flight, you are driven from the First Class Terminal in a private vehicle to your airplane. 

Lufthansa first class awards have long been in a darling of the points in miles community, but usually you could only book those close in. Meaning that Lufthansa would only release these award tickets to be booked through a partner airline program like United or Avianca just 15 days in advance of the actual flight. 

More recently, partner award space has become even more restricted with Lufthansa now releasing first class award space to partners on average only three days in advance. Now, that's all well and good if you have the type of travel schedule where you can change your plans three days before your flight or wait until the last minute to secure an award flight. But for the vast majority of us, that's not going to work. 

But if you have Lufthansa Miles & More miles, you have a significant advantage over everyone else. Because Lufthansa makes first class award availability open to its own program members far more in advance than the three days all of its partners are limited to. That means that if you have Miles & More miles and flying Lufthansa first class is on your travel wish list, it's actually fairly easy to find and book one of these flights. 

Just for fun. I checked first class award availability on Lufthansa right before I started recording this podcast. There are first class seats that you can book using miles directly through the Miles & More program for eight out of the next 10 months, including many dates where you can outright book as many as four first class seats using points on the same flight. 

I cannot think of a single other award program where you have such amazing availability to book first class award tickets, especially for multiple people. Most of us lose our minds when ANA releases a single first class award ticket on one of their aircraft featuring the new first class suite. It's actually unfathomable to me what it would look like if they consistently had first class award availability throughout the year or reliably released multiple first class award tickets. 

Now, I know that flying first class might not be all that appealing to you, you can certainly live a wonderful and completely fulfilling travel life without ever stepping foot in a first class airplane cabin. So this aspect of the Miles & More program might not be all that compelling for you. 

But the second aspect of the Miles & More program that I really like is that it offers discounted award pricing for kids aged two to 11 years old. When you book an award ticket for a child, you'll pay just 75% the amount of miles that an award ticket costs. As anybody who's ever booked multiple cash or award tickets for a family knows, that cost adds up. There are not that many frequent flyer programs that offer discounted award tickets for kids, but Miles & More does, and it can save you a bundle. 

The third thing that I love about the Miles & More program is the one that I think is probably the most important and relevant for everyone listening to this podcast. That is that Lufthansa and the other airlines in the Miles & More group, including Swiss and Austrian Airlines, release significantly more award availability to Miles & More members than they release to partner airlines. 

This is a subject that I don't think gets talked about as much as it deserves. Because it's one thing for a potential award flight to theoretically exist and another thing entirely for it to actually be possible to book easily enough for it to be a legitimate option for you. Theoretically, you can book economy or business class award tickets on Lufthansa, Swiss, or Austrian Airlines through a partner program like Air Canada Aeroplan. But in reality, I almost never find those award tickets available. Certainly not frequently for multiple business class award tickets. 

This trend seems to be getting worse over time. I remember years ago pretty easily being able to find and book award flights on Swiss and Lufthansa through United's frequent flyer program when it was still a good deal to do that. But increasingly, it seems rarer and rarer to actually have access to award flights on these airlines through partners like United, Aeroplan, or Avianca. I see time and time again that one of the biggest obstacles that people face using their points and miles for flights is not being able to find flights to book. More and more that happens because airlines are just not releasing award space to their partners, or they're not releasing very much award space. 

What this means is that unless you have access to an airline's own frequent flyer program, you might not be able to book award flights with them very easily. This is where Miles & More has become one of my secret weapons for award flights, especially to Europe. Time and time again, I have found multiple economy, premium economy, and business class award tickets on airlines in the Miles & More group that never show up as bookable through their partner airlines. 

In fact, Miles & More was my go to program to book my family of four business class flights to Rome this summer when other airlines either had no business class availability or were charging ridiculously high amounts points for business class award tickets. I talked more about booking those flights on episode number 19, tips for reward travel to Europe in summer 2024 if you want to go back and check it out.

When it comes to different areas of award travel and the various points, currencies and frequent flyer programs, I think every single aspect has downsides and upsides. The single biggest downside of the Lufthansa Miles & More program is that it's not a transfer partner of the transferable points currencies, making it inaccessible to the vast majority of folks who earn points. But that downside is also its biggest upside. Because think of all the millions and millions of people who have points and at least one of the transferable points currencies. None of them can transfer their points to Lufthansa. 

Let's contrast that with my other favorite loyalty program for securing business class award flights to Europe, which is Air France Flying Blue. One of the best aspects of the Flying Blue program is that it is a transfer partner of four of the five major transferable points currencies, Amex, Chase, Capital One, and Bilt. Now that is an incredible advantage because you can have one or more of any of those points currencies and be able to book award flights through Flying Blue. Now the disadvantage is that so can the millions of other folks who also have one or more of those transferable points currencies. 

The fact that you cannot transfer any transferable points to the Miles & More program creates an enormous opportunity for the few folks who do have miles in the program because they have relatively little competition for the award flights that are only available to members of the Miles & More program to book. 

So now that you understand why it can be great to have miles in the Miles & More program, let's talk about how you can acquire enough miles to take advantage of some of its unique opportunities. Assuming that you're not earning a ton of miles by taking paid flights on Lufthansa or partner airlines or earning very many miles from their co-branded credit card.

Enter the bundle and go mileage sale. Now, up until about two years ago in 2022, there was actually no way to outright buy miles in the Miles & More program. Now interestingly, Germany, where Lufthansa and the Miles & More program are based, has very strict consumer protection laws. One of the consequences of those laws was that Lufthansa doesn't sell miles directly to consumers the way that we see other sell so miles like United, Aeroplan, or Air France. Technically, Lufthansa still doesn't sell miles directly. 

Instead, this platform called bundle and go, and I'll link up the website for what that is in the show notes and the show episodes description so it's easy for you it'll find. Bundle and go offers bundles for purchase that include Miles & More miles among other things like bonus miles with Avis rental cars and discounts on priority pass memberships. 

Now, you cannot pick and choose what you want to buy within a bundle. You either buy one bundle with everything included or you buy nothing. Now this allows Lufthansa to avoid directly assigning value to sold miles. But for all intents and purposes, most people who buy these bundles are doing so almost entirely to get the Miles & More miles. 

Now these bundles can be purchased through a platform, like I said, called bundle and go online. They come in three options: small, medium, and large. Each type of bundle comes with a set number of Miles & More miles as well as discounts or bonus miles in additional programs that you probably don't care about at all. 

Purchasing the small bundle ordinarily gives you 10,000 Miles & More miles for a purchase price of 280 U.S. dollars. Purchasing the medium bundle ordinarily gives you 50,000 Miles & More miles for a purchase price of $1,120. Purchasing a large bundle ordinarily gives you 100,000 Miles & More miles for a purchase price of $1,960. While you are limited to picking one of those specific bundles to purchase, you are allowed to purchase multiple bundles. Miles & More allows you to buy up to 250,000 miles in one calendar year. 

So at this point, some of you are already probably wondering does it actually make sense to buy miles in one of these bundles? Now you know that here at Point Me To First Class, we are all about maximizing value both in terms of the number of points that you earn as well as what you get for those points when you use them. 

When it comes to potentially purchasing Miles & More miles, you can do better than buying one of these bundles at its regular or standard price. That's because periodically bundle and go offers bundle bonuses were for the regular price of each bundle, you can get even more miles. Right now, for example, bundle and go is offering a 40% bonus on these bundles when you purchase them by April 30 of this year, so that's 2024. 

That means that for the small bundle price of $280, you will end up with 14,000 miles instead of the usual 10,000 miles. For the medium bundle price of $1,120, you'll end up with 70,000 miles instead of the usual 50,000 miles. For the large bundle price of $1,960, you'll end up with 140,000 miles instead of the usual 100,000 miles. 

Just because this specific bonus period is ending soon on April 30, I don't want you to rush out and buy a bunch of miles. I also don't want anyone who ends up listening to this episode weeks or months from now to get too upset that you missed out on this specific bundle promotion. That's because bundle and go usually offers bundle bonuses a few times a year, and we've seen them go even higher than the current 40% bonus rate. 

Last year bundles were offered with 50% and even 60% bonus miles. So don't worry. You're under no pressure to purchase a miles bundle immediately if at ever. What I do want to do is walk you through how to know whether purchasing a bundle could be right for you. Then you can decide if you want to take advantage of the current 40% bonus offer or wait for a potentially even higher bonus offer later on. 

Very simply, I think it's worth outright purchasing miles if you are confident that you're going to get significantly more value from the miles you buy than the cost you pay to buy them. Let's take the current bonus promotion and show how this might work. 

Remember what I said before that Miles & More allows you to purchase up to 250,000 miles in one calendar year, but that does not include bonus miles. So let's pretend that you're an overachiever and want to maximize the miles that you can buy in this current promotion. In order to purchase 250,000 miles, not including the bonus miles, you could buy one medium bundle with 50,000 miles and two large bundles each with 100,000 miles. Purchasing those three bundles would cost you a total of $5,040 US dollars. With the 40% bonus miles you earn under the current promotion, you would walk away with 350,000 total Miles & More miles. 

Doing this, of course, would only make sense under two conditions. Number one, you have $5,040 to spend as part of your overall travel budget. Number two, you stand to get significantly more value from those 350,000 miles than the $5,040 it cost you to purchase them. Let's talk about a few ways that you could do that given some of the unique opportunities the Miles & More program affords. 

Now I'm going to give you four different ideas for how you can turn those 350,000 miles into much more than $5,000 worth in travel. But this is really just scratching the surface of potential uses of Miles & More miles. So let's look at potential use number one. Let's talk about those aspirational Lufthansa first class flights. 

Lufthansa operates aircraft with their first class cabin out of a number of U.S. airports, including Seattle, San Francisco, LAX, Houston, Chicago, Miami, Washington, D.C., New York, and Boston. These flights routinely cost about $15,000 one way, or 18 to $20,000 round trip. But instead of paying that out of pocket, which frankly I think many of us would never consider, you can use miles instead. You can book a one way first class flight on Lufthansa for 115,000 miles and about $30 in taxes and fees. 

So if you maxed out this current bundle and go promotion, you would walk away with 350,000 Miles & More miles, enough for three one way first class Lufthansa flights that would otherwise price out at about $15,000 each. 

Now I know that you might not have flown Lufthansa first class before. But trust me when I say that getting three one way Lufthansa first class flights for an out of pocket cost of $5,000 total is an absolute steal. Especially when you consider that you can actually find these flights to book. Lufthansa is not just releasing one or two of these awards on one route once a year. They are pretty easily findable and bookable. 

But let's say that first class isn't your thing because you're more practical. That's cool. The second example of what you could do with miles purchased from this promotion is one that I think will be widely applicable to this audience. I know that so many of you are looking for ways to travel long haul International a little more comfortably than economy or premium economy can afford. I've talked to a lot of you inside my Points Made Easy course and my Facebook group who have traveled dreams of taking your families to Europe or beyond or flying your parents in business class so they'll be comfortable and well taken care of when they travel. 

This is an absolute sweet spot of the Miles & More program because you can fly one way business class to Europe on Miles & More partners for 78,000 points or miles and about $50 in taxes and fees. This includes flights on Swiss business class, Austrian Airlines business class, Lufthansa business class, and LOT Polish business class. If you max out the bundle and go promotion and buy 350,000 miles for a little over $5,000, that's enough points for four one way or two round trip business class flights to Europe. 

Have you tried booking a round trip business class flight to Europe lately? Those servers are pricing out at seven or $8,000 on the same exact airlines that you can book award tickets on through Miles & More. Astute listeners will probably be thinking that 78,000 miles for a one way business class ticket sounds solid but not amazing. I would agree with you. 

One of my favorite programs for using points to fly to Europe is Air France Flying Blue because you can often find one way business class award flights for 50 or 55,000 miles, which I consider a great deal. So compared to that, 78,000 miles for a one way business class flight doesn't sound like the best bargain, and it's not. 

What makes this a sweet spot is not the actual price of the award flight, which again, I think is solid. I will come back to Miles & More time and time again, even at that award price, because they have so much premium cabin award availability on desirable itineraries you actually want to fly. 

If you're trying to score multiple business class tickets all together on the same flight, I am going to argue that the Miles & More program is one of the very best ways to do that. Particularly if you are someone who is based on the west coast where there are just not as many award options to Europe as there are if you're starting from the Midwest or the East Coast, and those flights are long. Having a program you can reliably book award tickets on is worth the increased points price of these flights compared to the absolute bargain awards. 

Also, remember that Miles & More offers discounted award tickets for kids aged two to 11. This is how I booked one way business class tickets for my family of four from Chicago to Rome for a total of 274,000 Miles & More miles. You can bet those tickets would have cost significantly more than $5,000 total for four people if I had tried to book them using cash. 

Now, I know I talk a lot about business and first class travel for international flights on this podcast. That is my personal bias, and I readily admit it. But Miles & More miles can be used to book economy and premium economy award flights as well, again, with amazing availability.

Okay, let's move on to the third example of how you can get outsized value from purchasing miles under this promotion going the opposite direction to Asia. Because Miles & More gives you access to booking award flights on Star Alliance carriers, that means that you can use your miles to book flights on airlines like EVA, Asiana, ANA, and Thai Airways. Have you tried booking award flights on Thai Airways or Asiana recently through other Star Alliance partners like United or Air Canada? It is not easy to find availability, but you can through Miles & More. 

One way business class flights on EVA airlines to Taiwan or Asiana Airlines to Seoul, South Korea runs 71,000 points one way in business class and about 40,000 points or miles one way in economy. You can use these airlines to connect further beyond their hub airports to visit Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, or Indonesia as well. 

The final example of how you can use miles purchased under this promotion to get outsized value for award travel is flying to Africa. Whether you're going to visit family, explore a natural or manmade wonder the world like Victoria Falls or the Great Pyramids in Egypt, want to explore the souks of Marrakech or go on safari, there are countless incredible travel opportunities all over north, south, east, and west Africa. 

But getting there and getting there in a lie flat seat if that's your preference is not cheap. But using miles in the Miles & More program can make it significantly cheaper than booking flights directly with cash. Say you want to fly LAX to Cairo in business class. You can do that with just 97,000 miles for a one way award ticket flying on Star Alliance partners Turkish Airlines or Egypt Air. 

I work with a private client who lives in D.C. and regularly flies to Ghana to visit family. We routinely book her business class award flights to Accra through Miles & More for just 97,000 miles one way. That's an itinerary that can take about 17 hours of flying time and otherwise cost, again, $4,000 to $7,000 for a single one way flight. Or you could purchase enough miles to book that flight three times for $5,000 through this promotion. 

That safari that I know so many of you have on your travel wish list, you can get there comfortably in business class flying to Johannesburg from the States for just, you guessed it, 97,000 miles one way in business class, or 50,000 miles one way in economy. Maxing out the current bundle and go promotion for a little over $5,000 will get you enough miles for three one way business class flights to Africa with miles left over. 

Like I said, these examples just scratched the surface of what you can do with Miles & More miles. But I hope they have shown you just how much you can leverage purchasing miles to get outsized value. What I want you to take away from these examples is that you can easily turn an investment of $5,000 in purchasing miles into 15,000, 20,000, or more of travel booked. Remember that all of these examples assume that you buy the maximum number of miles, which of course you don't have to do. If all you want is a single medium bundle with 70,000 miles, you can absolutely get just that. 

For those of you who are intrigued by the possibility of purchasing miles through this promotion, there are a few very important aspects of this specific promotion and the Miles & More program that you need to be aware of and take into account before you can make an informed decision around buying miles. First, miles within the Miles & More program expire 36 months after the date they are credited to your account.

Unless you have status within the Miles & More program, which you likely don't, or hold the Miles & More credit card, those miles will die after 36 months. You cannot extend their life by buying more miles or shopping through an online shopping portal like you can with some other frequent flyer programs. So purchasing miles for the Miles & More programs should be done very deliberately and intentionally with a plan to use them within three years. If you don't use them, you lose them. 

Second, even though the current bonus is offering 40% extra miles on each bundle, we have seen higher bonuses offered of 50 and even 60%. If you do not have an immediate use for Miles & More miles but do want to take advantage of purchasing them at some point for travel, you might want to hold off on the current promotion and wait to see if a better one comes along. 

Remember that you can purchase up to 250,000 miles in a calendar year, not counting bonus miles earned. You can purchase miles in multiple transactions. So if you need a few miles now, you could buy one bundle and then wait to buy other bundles if and when better promotions are offered. 

Third, the Miles & More program is a little quirky in that you cannot search for award flights on their website if you don't actually have miles in your account at the time of searching. Now, I have a decent amount of miles in my Miles & More accounts. So I could not personally test the minimum number of miles needed in order to be able to run award searches. But digging around online, I've seen reports that you need at least 7,000 miles in your Miles & More account to be able to run award searches. 

That's a little bit of a weird number. But for those of you who are very interested in potentially buying significant amounts of Miles & More miles down the road but want to run some practice searches first to get familiar with what types of award flights are available, consider purchasing one of the small bundle and go bundles now. For $280, you'll get 14,000 Miles deposited in your Miles & More account, which would be more than enough to start running some practice award searches. 

The final thing that you need to be aware of when booking award flights through the Miles & More program is that some award tickets carry airline surcharges in addition to the standard taxes and fees that can run a hundred or several hundred dollars depending on the specific airline operating the flight and the class of award ticket your booking. You will be able to clearly see the out of pocket cash cost for all taxes, fees, and airline surcharges for specific award tickets when you run award searches on the Miles & More website. 

Now, for those of you who do the math and decide the purchasing points makes sense for you, my last piece of advice is to make sure that you use the best points earning credit card to make your purchase. Miles purchased through the bundles in the bundle and go promotion get processed by points.com, which means that they do not code as travel. 

Ordinarily, I would recommend that you use a card that offers bonus points for non-category spend to make this purchase, a card like the Chase Freedom Unlimited card, the Amex Blue Business plus card, or the Capital One Venture Card. But I have found that when I've purchased my bundles in the past with my Chase Ink Business Preferred card, they've coded as office slash shipping and earned three times points since that is a bonus category on that specific card. 

Now merchant categories can always change, of course, but if you do have a Chase Ink Business Preferred card, it could be worthwhile using that to make your bundle purchase so that you can use this points purchasing opportunity as a point earning opportunity as well. 

So there you have it everybody. You now know one of my favorite ways to get a lot of miles in an airline A program that otherwise is largely inaccessible to most people. Buying miles will not make sense for everyone. But I do think it's worth considering as one points earning method to add to your travel gameplan under these three circumstances.

Number one, you already have a certain amount of cash designated for travel that you are happy to spend, and you want to expand the value of what that amount can buy you. If you've already allocated $5,000 for flights for your travel for this year, and you're going to spend that anyway, then purchasing miles gives you the opportunity to turn that $5,000 into much, much more by leveraging some of the unique opportunities within the Miles & More program. 

Number two, you have a high level of certainty that you're going to use the miles purchased within the next three years for this specific program because Miles & More miles expire 36 months after being credited to your account. Number three, you have confidence that you're going to use the miles you purchase to book travel with significantly more value than the price you paid to buy the miles. 

I don't expect you to automatically know how to use Miles & More miles. So I've tried to give you some broad examples of several different ways that you can turn miles purchased into much higher value travel. But I also recommend that you do your due diligence before investing a significant amount of money into purchasing miles. Start slow by buying the smallest package possible and running different practice award searches on the Miles & More website to get an idea of how you would benefit from these miles before you decide to invest more significantly. 

Finally, remember that bundle and go periodically offers even higher bonuses on purchasing miles than the current 40% promotion that's available. So keep your eye out for future promotions. I hope that today's episode has opened your eyes to a frequent flyer program that you might not have been familiar with before and how you can leverage miles to book some incredible award flights through Miles & More despite the fact that you can't transfer any of your flexible points directly to the program. 

If you liked today's episode or have questions about how to leverage this mileage sale promotion for yourself, be sure to message me over on Instagram. You can find me at pointmeto_firstclass. Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Point Me to First Class podcast, and I will see you all again next week. 

Thank you for joining me for this week's episode of Point Me to First Class. If you want more tips on turning your expenses into travel, visit pointmetofirstclass.com to learn more. See you next week.