I recently wrote a post asking whether you guys think I hype Lufthansa first class too much, given how much I love them. I’m doing my best to put down my pom poms and #TeamLufthansa shirt, but just had another spectacular flight in Lufthansa first class between Vancouver and Munich, a route they’ve been serving for less than a week.

The flight was operated by an A330-300 with the new first class cabin, similar to the one on the A380.

And the flight was more or less perfect. The cabin couldn’t be more elegant, and in my opinion is the most comfortable A330 first class cabin out there (yes, even nicer than Swiss, as I find their seats to not be the most comfortable for sitting).

The service, was, as usual, spectacular in a German way. The two flight attendants working first class provided just the right amount of attention and personalization. It’s that amazing balance between professionalism, privacy, and personalization that I find few airlines are able to achieve.

And the food was great too. Lufthansa has made some catering changes as of this month, so the first class meal presentation is a bit different than before.

Rather than having a three tiered appetizer display as before, all the appetizers are now displayed on a single level plate. I’d argue the new presentation is even nicer than before. They also added individual salt and pepper mills, though they came at the expense of the larger one used by the flight attendants.

Oh, and the dessert was even amazing. None of the $&^% Lufthansa usually serves like chili crusted chocolate or elderflower soup. Instead just good old bread pudding.

Other interesting notes? Even though the flight was equipped with the Flynet internet service, it wasn’t operational, as I find to be the case far too often. Not sure why it is, though sure is disappointing when you’re expecting it for a 10 hour flight. Most surprising to me was that it was light more or less the entire flight, despite being a 6:45PM departure and 2:00PM arrival. I think that’s my first overnight transatlantic flight where that happened. The joys of summertime, I guess. Lastly, can anyone explain who decides on Lufthansa’s IFE selection? It’s 2013 and I think IFE matters less and less as passengers can bring their own entertainment, but seriously Lufty, what are you guys thinking? If I’m ever interesting in seeing a documentary on a skateboarding dog or a single episode of a 17 year old sitcom, I’ll consult you guys.

Oh, and the best part of the whole experience? After landing I figured we were taxiing to the gate, but nope, we got a remote stand instead. Lufthansa is the only airline in the world that can make me do the happy dance over a remote stand.

From there it was a quick drive to security, where I was brought to the front of the line, and then the First Class Lounge. And in the lounge they have delicious pretzels and Fanta.

Lufthansa, you rock…

We’ve gotta give Barclays some props for what they’re doing in the US credit card market, as they’re slowly starting to give American Express and Chase a run for their money as far as their sign-up bonuses go. In this case they just increased the sign-up bonus on the Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard.

The official version of the increased sign-up offer is for 20,000 miles after the first purchase and an additional 30,000 miles after spending $5,000 on the card within 90 days.

However, there’s an unofficial sign-up offer which is also for 20,000 miles after the first purchase and an additional 30,000 miles after spending $2,500 on the card within 90 days. The catch is that if you’re not approved for the Premier card and are instead approved for the Platinum card (which sometimes happens with Barclays) you get only 5,000 miles, which isn’t the case with the official offer, which gives you the 50,000 miles for both offers. Furthermore, there’s no landing page to this offer, and in the past Barclays has sometimes auto-declined applications for unofficial links, so there is some risk with this offer.

Through both offers there’s an annual fee of $79, which isn’t waived for the first year. The card offers two miles per dollar spent on airline purchases and one mile per dollar spent on everything else, so really isn’t very attractive beyond the sign-up bonus. The card also comes with a companion certificate valid on coach fares, though unfortunately it’s only for higher fare tickets, so probably isn’t of much value to most of us.

In terms of redeeming Lufthansa miles, they have a zone based award chart, which can be found here. As you can see the redemption rates aren’t especially attractive. The other catch is that they impose fuel surcharges on award redemptions in most cases when the operating airline would as well. Miles & More miles are valid for 36 months from the date of issue.

Given that, there are only thress instances where Lufthansa miles are notably worthwhile:

For travel within the US

Lufthansa charges just 25,000 miles for a roundtrip domestic US coach award, or 35,000 miles for a roundtrip domestic US business class award. They even offer one-way awards at half the cost of a roundtrip.

While 25,000 miles is the standard roundtrip coach award cost, the 35,000 miles for a domestic business class award is pretty damn good. It’s worth noting that Lufthansa will charge the business class price for United domestic three cabin business class or United domestic two cabin first class, both of which book into the “I” (business class) award fare bucket. Unfortunately US Airways first class awards book into “O,” which is the first class award fare bucket and wouldn’t be eligible for those rates.

For travel in Lufthansa first class

Nowadays Lufthansa only releases first class award space to Star Alliance partners at most 15 days out. The only way to snag it before then is to redeem through Miles & More. A one-way first class ticket between the US and Europe costs 85,000 Miles & More miles, plus fuel surcharges.

This sign-up bonus gets you a good ways towards that, and given that you can transfer in points from Starwood it might not be too expensive to make up the difference.

For travel in Swiss first class

If you think Lufthansa is restrictive with releasing first class award space to Star Alliance partners, take a look at Swiss’ policy. They don’t release any first class award space to Star Alliance partners anymore. Not even a day before departure.

Despite that policy, they actually release a good amount of first class award space to Miles & More members, often a handful of seats per flight:

And Swiss does have one of the world’s best first class products, in my opinion, with amazing in-flight catering. So if you haven’t yet flown Swiss first class and want to use miles, Miles & More is your only option for doing so.

Is this a better deal than the Barclaycard Arrival?

The sign-up bonus was also recently increased on the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard which offers a 40,000 mile sign-up bonus, good for up to $440 towards the cost of travel. Earning the sign-up bonus on that card requires just $1,000 worth of spend within 90 days, and while there’s an $89 annual fee, it’s waived the first year.

So which should you sign up for — the Arrival card or the Lufthansa card? Well, you can actually get approved for more than one Barclay credit card at a time, so if you wanted to you could pick them both up at once. And since most people are limited in inquiries with American Express and Chase, both of these sign-up offers are valuable if for no other reason than that they’re not American Express or Chase cards.

But if you wanted to get just one, which is a better offer? To simplify the offers, as I see it, you can get two roundtrip domestic coach tickets or three one-way domestic United first class tickets with the Lufthansa sign-up offer, and it’ll cost you $79. The alternative is more or less $440 of travel cash without an annual fee the first year and with a lower spend requirement, with the Arrival sign-up offer. Assuming you’d have no problem redeeming for three domestic one-way first class tickets with United, I’d say the Lufthansa card is a better offer. That being said, if you don’t have a specific use in mind I’d probably go with the Arrival card given how much more flexible the miles are, the lack of an annual fee the first year, and the lower spend requirement.

(In the interest of full disclosure I earn a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through the official Lufthansa card link as well as the Arrival card link, though I don’t earn a bonus for anyone that’s approved through the unofficial Lufthansa link. Regardless of which links you use, thanks for reading!)

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Miles & More program, Lufthansa is offering a 20% bonus on award miles for the rest of the month to the first 20,000 members that register. If you successfully register you’re eligible to earn the 20% bonus miles for all Lufthansa flights between the time you register and March 31, 2013.

I asked you guys what you’d like to read about, so this post is in response to a question posted there. I’ll address as many of the questions as I can in the coming weeks. Feel free to keep adding to the list and I’ll use it as a basis for future posts.

Reader AJK requested the following:

Your breakdown and opinion of the top 5 *hard* products in F.

Ah, hard products, my favorite! Service and food can vary from flight to flight, while the “hard” product remains the same. I’ll define hard product a bit different than most for the purposes of this post. For me hard product includes the seat, entertainment, and aircraft amenities. Basically everything that’s constant from flight to flight. Service and food can vary, so that’s what I consider to be the “soft” aspect of the flight.

With that in mind, here are my five favorite first class hard products in order:

Singapore Suites Class

This is probably no surprise, but Singapore Suites is my favorite product in the world, which is only found on Singapore’s Airbus A380s. It’s located on the lower deck, making the cabin a bit more spacious than the airlines that put first class on the upper deck, as that cabin is narrower.

Not only is the cabin extremely spacious, but I find the colors and design to be elegant and soothing. Beyond that, the KrisWorld entertainment system offers one of the most extensive in-flight entertainment selections of any airline.

Ironically enough, given how over the top Singapore usually is, the plane lacks amenities other than the seats themselves. There are no onboard showers, bars, or massive lavatories, as some other airlines offer on their Airbus A380s. Then again, Singapore does have the only double bed in the sky, so that more than makes up for any deficiencies.

Etihad First Class

While I have somewhat mixed feelings about Etihad as a whole (their service is hit or miss and lounge isn’t that great), their first class seat is simply phenomenal. It’s a fully enclosed product and I find the design to be surprisingly soothing and low key for a Middle Eastern airline.

Their bedding and entertainment system are top notch as well, so it’s an all around great product.

Emirates First Class

On one hand I feel bad including Emirates on this list, since their product is so uncomfortably blingy that you can’t help but just not feel worthy… and feel like an Arabian Prince and Flavor Flav got together to design it.

Their Airbus A380 first class is on the upper deck, so the cabin isn’t quite as spacious as you’ll find on the airlines offering first class on the lower deck. The first class cabin is also quite large with 14 seats.

And while I don’t find the seat itself to be all that massive or spacious, everything around it sure is an experience, from the vanity mirror staring at you the whole flight, to the in-suite room service phone. Their ICE entertainment system also has one of the most extensive libraries of any airline.

Emirates also deserves some bonus points for their onboard shower and bar, both things that make them totally worthy, even if we aren’t.

Qantas First Class

Qantas has one of the most unique first class seat designs on their Airbus A380. Unlike every other airline they didn’t go for an enclosed suite or the typical forward facing seat design, but instead all their seats are angled towards the windows when in the flat position.

The cabin colors are pleasant, the entertainment system is quite good, and they hands down have the best bedding in the airline industry. It’s indescribably good.

Lufthansa 747-400 First Class

I can’t in good conscience leave out the only airline that has a dedicated seat and bed for first class passengers.

Lufthansa’s 747-400s feature eight first class seats on the upper deck, each of which consists of both a seat and bed right next to it. So not only is it awesome to have your own bed, but you really can’t beat an upper deck cabin with at most seven other passengers.

Now, at times I feel the execution of the product isn’t perfect. For example, the TV doesn’t swivel towards the bed, so it’s tough to watch TV from bed. Similarly I wish the seat reclined a bit more. But this is a revolutionary product and unbeatable for getting a good night of sleep.

What are your favorite first class products?

One of the nice benefits of United Global Premier Upgrades (GPUs) is that they can be redeemed on Lufthansa flights day of on a space available basis. They can be used to upgrade from coach to business if you book a minimum of a “V” fare, or to upgrade from business to first class if you book a “C” or “D” fare. The process for using these upgrades is slightly different than for travel on United, since paper upgrades have to be requested from United, mailed to you, and then presented at check-in. However, you could request these even without a specific flight in mind, and they were also transferable.

Well, starting March 1, 2013, they’ll be changing the process. When I first saw the headline I figured they had a way to make the process easier, like allowing one to request the upgrades online. Unfortunately the reality is quite the opposite. Per UA Insider, here’s the new policy:

Starting March 1, when you request a GPU certificate for use on Lufthansa, we’ll ask you to provide some additional information:

• First and last name of the traveler who will be presenting the certificate to Lufthansa
• Departure and arrival city/airport of the flight segment to be upgraded (reminder: GPUs are used on a per-segment basis on LH)
• Flight number and flight date
• Confirmation number of itinerary associated with segment to be upgraded (this can be the Lufthansa confirmation number or the confirmation number of another airline/travel agency you used to book your ticket)

This information, with the exception of flight date, will be printed on the certificate before it is mailed to you. After that, the redemption process with Lufthansa remains the same.

Lastly, we understand that travel plans can change, and so long as the name of the traveler and the flight segment remain the same, the certificates will be honored by Lufthansa (on a space-available basis). However, it will be at Lufthansa’s discretion to honor the upgrade should any other flight details change. Since this remains a per-segment upgrade product, we do recommend printing certificates specific to each LH segment you might which to upgrade on your full itinerary.

This change is quite customer unfriendly. I can understand they’d want to print the name of the traveler on the certificate (to avoid bartering or theft), but requesting the confirmation number, flight number, and date? That’s ridiculous. Lots of people only book tickets last minute, and it takes a few days for the upgrades to be mailed.

So if your plans change you can apply the upgrade for the same segment, though if you want to use it for a different segment it’s at Lufthansa’s discretion to honor it. Put another way, say you’re flying roundtrip between New York and Frankfurt and you have one systemwide upgrade left that you want for use on Lufthansa. If the outbound upgrade doesn’t clear it would be entirely at Lufthansa’s discretion to decide whether or not they want to let you apply it on the return.

So while I can see the logic in wanting to have the name of the traveler printed on the certificate, the rest of the changes are mindless and a huge devaluation to these certificates, in my opinion.