Lufthansa Miles and More frequent flyer program -- not recommended

On Nov. 2, 2012 I redeemed 50,000 miles in my Lufthansa Miles and More awards program for a round-trip to Istanbul departing JFK March 31, 2013 and returning April 18, 2013 (the flights are on Swiss International Airlines with transfer in Zurich, which is the only airline choice I was offered by Lufthansa). Unfortunately Lufthansa Miles and More does not include taxes and fees as part of the deal, which I had to pay separately at the unexpectedly exorbitant cost of $436.04. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch! This is not the first time that has happened to me with a Lufthansa Miles and More award redemption, but it's darn well going to be my last because I have subsequently retired that account (although I still need to hold onto my Lufthansa Miles and More card as ID for getting a boarding pass for that flight in addition to my passport). I am a long time member of AAdvantage and Delta Skyteam, but was looking for a Star Alliance partner as an alternative and replacement for Lufthansa. Now that United took over Continental's OnePass Program earlier this year, I was automatically enrolled in United's Mileage Plus program under the same mileage account number and password that I had with OnePass. [Getting off on a tangent for a minute, unfortunately United, the most user-unfriendly of all US airlines, didn't automatically notify me about that -- I found it out only recently when I called United to inquire about switching to their MileagePlus program and was told that I'm already enrolled as a result of the airline merger. And then when I asked them to send me an official MileagePlus card, they said they no longer do that -- the most they allowed me was to print out a copy of it, which I did on thin letter-sized paper with my black-and-white printer and which is a stretch of the imagination to consider a card.] Last night, almost 6 weeks after I redeemed my Lufthansa mileage, it suddenly dawned on me to look at United's website just for the heck of it to see what kind of airfare and schedules they are offering to Istanbul for the same departure and return dates as mine. I see that they have a round trip from JFK to Istanbul by way of Frankfort or Munich with a United flight number (albeit operated by Lufthansa) that is $583.00 base fare and $141.50 in taxes and fees, for a total round trip fare of $724.50. That particular round-trip flight schedule was not offered me when I redeemed Lufthansa Miles and More for the flight award. In other words it cost me 50,000 Lufthansa miles plus $436.04 in taxes and fees to get a round-trip flight to Istanbul that I could have purchased for $724.50 including taxes and fees. I saved all of $288.46, which is totally out of proportion to the amount of mileage and taxes/fees expended on it. Lufthansa may refer to it as a flight “award”, but I deem it almost as a flight “punishment” for booking through Miles and More in the first place. I don't know -- many of you with whom I have corresponded privately seem to have better luck in the frequent flyer department and have never mentioned having to pay hundreds of dollars in taxes and fees. But the frequent flyer game doesn’t fly right with me. Lufthansa was once my favorite airline when I joined Miles and More, but at the end of the day its frequent flyer program turned out to be for the birds. Bye, bye Birdie. Auf Wiedersehen. What remains to be seen is whether United's MileagePlus program is any better. My new favorite airline is Star Alliance partner Turkish Airlines (which has better food than Lufthansa) and indeed I would have much preferred to join their Miles and Smiles program over United's MileagePlus. But alas, as a non-US carrier Turkish Airlines is as likely as Lufthansa to charge tax and fees on their frequent flyer award redemptions. According to the Boarding Pass column in the April 2012 issue of ITN Magazine, the only way of getting around the higher cost when booking a mileage-awards flight is to book a similar flight on a US carrier, which so far does not compute surcharges separately (hey, let’s not give them any ideas). However, all bets are off when one books an award flight on a US carrier that is operated by a foreign one. Consequently, even if I had enough mileage in United’s MileagePlus to book a mileage award ticket to Istanbul, all United flights from JFK to Istanbul are operated by either Lufthansa or Swiss International and thus I still would have been subject to the taxes and fees imposed by those airlines. The only way around that is to take three flights: from New York to Washington, DC on United Express (or some other United subsidiary); then from Washington to Frankfort or Munich on United; and from there to Istanbul on Lufthansa. United flights between Washington, DC and Germany are operated by United in its own right and not by a non-US carrier. But by taking 3 flights to get from New York to Istanbul (and then back again), one loses in time what one saves in money on taxes and fees. There’s really no way of winning the frequent flyer game because the airlines ensure to it that they have an inherent, built-in advantage that is stacked up against the consumer if not in one way, then in another. To the frequent flying public I view it as a losing proposition. Only just now do I realize that it is better suited towards upgrades rather than for “free” flights in themselves.