Some links to products and partners on this website will earn an affiliate commission.

Lufthansa recently announced that members of its Miles & More scheme would be able to pool their award miles, but were pretty light on the details of how that would actually work.

They have now provided an update and we finally know what mileage pooling will really look like:

• Up to 2 adults and 5 children will be able to pool their award miles. You need not be related and it seems that your accounts won’t need to be registered at the same address.
• You will not be able to transfer miles between accounts, but you will see the total number of miles pooled across the linked accounts. Every linked account will be able to redeem all the miles in the pool.
• If you choose to leave a mileage pool, you will need to wait 6 months before being allowed to link your account to another pool.
• Mileage pooling will launch in May.
• Initially, mileage pools can only be set up via the Miles & More app. To form a mileage pool, you will need to invite the other persons by entering their Miles & More membership number. They will need to accept your invitation.

Bottom line

Whilst it is disappointing that only two adults will be allowed to pool their miles, mileage pooling is a genuine enhancement to Miles & More.

Because this feature will allow many members to spend their miles more quickly on lucrative redemptions, mileage pooling may compensate somewhat for the scheme’s strict expiry rules (each mile expires exactly 36 months after it was earned, irrespective of account activity). With a bit of planning, orphan stashes of Miles & More miles in your partner’s/kid’s/friend’s account will no longer be wasted.