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British Airways Silver and Gold members can get a rare Lufthansa status match

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If you are an elite member of British Airways Executive Club, I hope you’re feeling the love.

Not from BA, of course, but from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club (see here), Flying Blue (see here), easyJet Plus (see here) and now Lufthansa’s Miles & More programme, all of whom want you and your business.

Miles & More has launched a status match for Silver and Gold members of British Airways Executive Club. Elite members of Iberia Plus can also participate.

A €99 administration fee is payable.

Lufthansa Miles & More offering British Airways status match

British Airways Executive Club Silver members will get Frequent Traveller status in Miles & More. This only offers lounge access with Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian and only in directly run lounges. This includes the newly refurbished lounge in Heathrow Terminal 2 which we covered here. The full list of Frequent Traveller benefits is here.

British Airways Executive Club Gold members and above will be offered Senator status. This gets you Star Alliance-wide lounge access. The full list of Senator benefits is here.

Whichever level of Miles & More status you get, it will stop your existing Miles & More mileage balance from expiring as the three year ‘use them or lose them’ rule is suspended.

How long will your status last?

You will receive status until 28th February 2026.

To requalify you will need to meet the standard qualification requirements by the end of 2025.

Lufthansa uses a system similar to the existing British Airways one. The only criteria are whether your flight is short haul or long haul, and what travel class you are in. It’s simple.

50% of the points needed for qualification must be earned on Miles & More airlines. You cannot earn or renew status purely by flying on other Star Alliance carriers.

I won’t go into requalification in detail because each person will have a different mix of travel – short haul vs long haul, economy vs business and Lufthansa Group vs other Star Alliance carriers. If you qualify for status under the current British Airways system you should be OK under the current Lufthansa system.

Note that Lufthansa only adopted its current status model this year so major revenue-based changes are unlikely in the medium term.

Lufthansa Miles & More offering British Airways status match

Is it worth it?

This page of the Miles & More website compares the benefits of Senator and Frequent Traveller status. You should study it before applying for a match.

Senator (from BA Gold) – definitely worth it

If you have British Airways Gold status or higher, this is an excellent opportunity to get top tier status, including lounge access, across all of Star Alliance.

You will also get fast track security and priority boarding across all Star Alliance carriers.

Frequent Traveller (from BA Silver) – maybe, maybe not

Silver status has fewer benefits – fewer than you get with your British Airways Silver status.

You only get access to lounges operated by Lufthansa Group airlines and NOT the broader Star Alliance. If your Star Alliance travel only takes you around Europe on Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian then you’ll be fine. On other carriers, less so.

You can access Business Class check-in desks irrespective of which Star Alliance airline you fly, but that is about it in terms of benefits with TAP, United, Singapore Airlines etc.

You do not get fast track security or priority boarding with anyone, whether you are flying Lufthansa Group carriers or not.

How to apply

The website you need is here. Remember that there is a €99 fee. As per the comments below, do not send a photograph of your BA membership card as it will be rejected. It must be be a screenshot from the BA app.

PS. You may want to think about timing. My best guess is that Lufthansa will repeat this offer next year as people face up to losing their Executive Club status on 30th April 2026.

If you match now, you won’t be able to match again next year. Do you want to leave BA now or wait another 12 months to maximise your existing Silver and Gold benefits?

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Category

British Airways and Avios, Iberia and Club Iberia Plus, Lufthansa and Miles & More

Comments (76)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • John says:
    28 Feb28 February 08:01

    Just remember, whilst you keep flagging off ba, vorgin had a huge devaluation in its points not long ago now very rare to get a business class return for less then 500000 points you don’t seem to go on about that stand back and wait for a rude answer from the owner.

  • Richie says:
    28 Feb28 February 08:10

    Something from Aegean would be interesting.

    • Michael Jennings says:
      28 Feb28 February 09:06

      The regular Aegean rules are generous enough. I have Aegean/Star Gold, and I will see how much I use Star airlines once I lose my BA Silver.

      (Yes, to get the four sectors on Aegean metal to keep Gold, I have to make a trip to the Greek islands once a year. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it).

      • John says:
        28 Feb28 February 09:12

        Technically you don’t have to go to Greece, but it now requires a ridiculous number of miles to requalify if you don’t. Plus as mentioned elsewhere many cheaper fare buckets of other airlines including in business class earn nothing or very little

        • Michael Jennings says:
          28 Feb28 February 10:56

          That’s all true, but it has worked for me so far. Although I chose Santorini two weeks ago as my four sector status run this year. I debated whether to go or not, but thought “what the heck?” in the end and just went. The earthquakes had pretty much stopped by the time I got there, but it was a bit weird. I can now utter the sentence “I heard Santorini is supposed to be crowded, but that was not my experience at all. It was completely deserted”.

      • Dubious says:
        28 Feb28 February 16:19

        It’s a bit of a slog to get Gold from zero. Renewal is more manageable though.

  • tomtom135 says:
    28 Feb28 February 08:22

    So a complete waste of time if you’re BA silver and hold a Platinum card (which gets you lounge access with Lufthansa anyway).

    How mid-tier status doesn’t include priority boarding is beyond me. I’d say that’s one of the main concerns for people doing business flights in economy.

  • Thomas says:
    28 Feb28 February 08:22

    It would make sense to apply as a BA silver if your home hub has a LH lounge. You diversify your ability to choose who to fly with, same perks you value on both, for 99 euro? Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

    • Throwawayname says:
      28 Feb28 February 12:28

      I suppose it makes sense for those based near LHR. However, no other UK airport has a lounge operated by LH, or indeed any *A airline, and FTLs don’t get access to contract lounges when flying LH Group airlines.

      • Thomas says:
        28 Feb28 February 14:13

        Indeed. Hence the comment. I got FTL through LH J travel, yet can’t use the perks in NCL, EDI. Only when travelling via MUC or FRA on Y tickets would it be of any use. As I fly J when travelling anyway it is and remains a shiny card in my wallet that I never have use for.

  • Tom says:
    28 Feb28 February 08:36

    Is there an end date to this offer?

  • PB2 says:
    28 Feb28 February 08:49

    Star Alliance are a bit rubbish on seat selection too. I did the TAP status match a few years ago and still had to pay for seat selection flying all LH group airlines I think. Maybe seat choice is free within the LH group if your Star Gold is with one of them? Ps. I did the free BA to SAS to LH Gold match last year, which could exclude me from this, which I fair enough. I still think OW with their F lounges for Emerald members in any cabin offer some exceptional opportunities, which other alliances simply don’t do, but obviously of little use since they moved the goalposts.

    • John says:
      28 Feb28 February 09:17

      That’s because Star only has two alliance-wide statuses, *silver is like OWR.

      The published benefits of *gold are more like OWE but the way you are treated is more like OWS.

      Seat selection isn’t a benefit of *G.

      LH group airlines don’t have individual statuses, it’s all part of M&M

  • Matt says:
    28 Feb28 February 08:57

    Any idea how long this promotion will run in the short term? As in is it likely to still be around in September ish? If not, happy to pay for 6 months’ access to the Senator Cafe at MUC: worth it for that alone.

  • Emad says:
    28 Feb28 February 10:19

    Someone please correct me if I am wrong,. At Senator level can one access First/Business Class Lounges even if travelling on an Non-Star Alliance Airlines such as BA/Qatar?

    • LittleNick says:
      28 Feb28 February 10:24

      Only if you have a business/first ticket with said airline or have oneworld status. Lufthansa status won’t get you anything on BA/QR as they’re not in the same alliance

    • John says:
      28 Feb28 February 20:35

      You can access First lounges operated by Lufty and any Star Alliance lounges marked as Gold lounges when travelling on Star Alliance airlines.

      If there is no Star Alliance lounge at the airport your lounge access is determined by the airline you are flying and not all Star airlines will give access to the same lounges.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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