As of June 1, 2026, Lufthansa completely stopped releasing first class award space to partner frequent flyer programs. This wasn’t the first time that had happened on a temporary basis, but as I noted, this time around definitely felt different. This “outage” has also lasted longer than we’ve ever seen before. Now that this has consistently been the case for over a month, I’d like to take an updated look at this situation.
Lufthansa first class awards have been blocked for weeks
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, until recently, Lufthansa first class remained 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 released 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 long had 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 in the time since, Lufthansa seemed to open first class awards to partner programs within three days of departure, at most. 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 — since 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.
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, this has lasted longer than any other outage, and I find it interesting that this essentially coincided with the change in calendar months, which strikes me as being deliberate.
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 programs; this would of course be the most drastic change
- Lufthansa is temporarily restricting award availability; this could be because we’re in 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’ve reached out to contacts to get a statement on this, but they’ve had nothing to share. So while I still can’t say with certainty that this is a permanent change, it seems highly likely to me that it is.
What does the future hold for Lufthansa first class awards?
When it comes to redeeming miles for Lufthansa first class, I have to imagine that our best days are behind us:
- Lufthansa is increasingly rolling out its new Allegris cabins, including the new first class, which has only three(ish) seats, and partner first class awards are completely blocked on those flights; for that matter, the airline also recently rolled out its new first class soft product, so one wonders if this might be part of a bigger “reset” in first class
- Lufthansa Miles & More has moved to dynamic award pricing, and over time, I suspect the premium cabin pricing will become more aggressive
The fact that the new soft product was rolled out across the fleet in May, and then the change was implemented as of June, sure makes this all feel quite deliberate.
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 wouldn’t be surprised if we permanently see Lufthansa completely eliminate partner first class awards. 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
Since June 1, 2026, 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.
While we’ve seen some temporary blocks in the past, we’ve never seen them last this long. On top of that, the timing here feels quite deliberate, between the most widespread rollout of the new Allegris first class product, plus the new soft product now being offered across the fleet.
What do you make of this Lufthansa first class award availability situation?