All Hotel Point Transfers to Lufthansa Suspended With No Notice

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Lufthansa's Miles & More program has just become even less accessible to US-based award travelers. Not being a part a partner of any of the major transferable credit card points programs, the only way to transfer points into Miles & More has been through hotels. However, that's not possible anymore.

As first reported by a user on FlyerTalk, Marriott Bonvoy points are no longer transferring to Lufthansa, despite it still showing as an option on Marriott's website. A Marriott spokesperson confirmed this in an email to TPG:

"We have had to suspend Lufthansa Miles & More as a Marriott Bonvoy points to miles transfer partner at the request of Lufthansa Miles & More in connection with German regulations. This suspension is not specific to the Marriott Bonvoy program and other Lufthansa Miles & More hotel partners have taken the same action. Points to miles transfers from member accounts were made through May 20, 2019 and any transfers occurring after that date will be returned to the member's account. We will share a timeline soon for when we expect the points to be returned. We are working to ensure all pages on our digital and mobile sites reflect this change in the status of Lufthansa Miles & More. We apologize for the inconvenience to members and look forward to providing updates about Lufthansa Miles & More once we have them."

As mentioned by the spokesperson, other hotel partners have cut Lufthansa Miles & More as a transfer partner as well, though a Radisson spokesperson suggested to TPG that the drop is only temporary:

"As of May 24, Miles & More (Lufthansa) mileage redemption has been temporarily suspended as part of the Radisson Rewards redemption program."

This loss came with no prior notice for members. Based on the statement from Marriott, it is likely that this has to do with an ongoing lawsuit against Miles & More. Düsseldorf news site Handelsblatt reports that a member of the program is trying to cash out miles, claiming that miles are e-cash. This traveler is seeking more than €21,000 for 715,000 miles, which would value them at over 3.3 cents apiece — well above TPG's most recent valuations, which pegged Miles & More miles at just 1.4 cents.

We have reached out to Lufthansa Miles & More for more information on this matter as well as the other major hotel rewards programs, but have not heard back at the time of publication.