How I Booked a Lufthansa First-Class Ticket With Credit Card Points

26.10.2023 - 22:17 / cntraveler.com

It’s not everyday that you face a travel crisis like a canceled flight and, as a solution, book a Lufthansa first-class ticket across the Atlantic. Even less likely, to then get it for less than $90 in cash. But that’s exactly what happened to me this winter on my way home to the United States from Greece. It turns out that points and miles don't just help you meet aspirational travel goals, they can also save the day during an emergency—and get you on that dream flight at the same time.

I scored a last-minute first-class award on Lufthansa from Athens to New York via Munich for just 100,000 credit card points and $88 in taxes and fees. Here’s how I made it happen.

Ever the boy scout, I always keep a stash of credit card points on reserve in case of travel emergencies. Fortunately, I had a total of about 100,000 points available to use across two of my credit cards: my CapitalOne Venture X and my American Express Gold Card.

The CapitalOne Venture X card, when it first came out in late 2021, had a sign-up bonus worth 100,000 points that I was able to score. (Nowadays, the sign-up bonus is 75,000 points, earned by spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months.) I had used part of that sum for another trip, but I still had points leftover waiting to be used in times like this.

The Amex Gold, on the other hand, I’ve had for a while. It earns multiple points per dollar spent in a variety of spending categories, but I benefit the most when I use it at restaurants and grocery stores, where I earn four points per dollar spent. As someone who loves to try different restaurants and cook at home, this card has been invaluable in helping me reach my travel goals just through everyday spending.

So I had the points, but they were spread across different cards. The next question was: How do I pool them all together?

Sure, you can treat your credit card points like cash and redeem them with the card issuers (more power to my bestie who used her Chase points to buy a new laptop). But more often than not, you get more bang for your buck when you transfer points to a frequent flier program and redeem them for award tickets at a fraction of the cash price. This method is also the best way to pool together points currencies from different cards into one place.

I looked at the lists of airlines that partnered with both American Express and CapitalOne, and I saw that they had quite a few partners in common. Since I needed to get from Europe to North America, four options immediately stood out to me: Air Canada, Air France-KLM, British Airways, and Emirates.

From there, I reviewed my options through each airline’s website. Flying in Emirates first class on their direct flight between Athens and New York would