Uptrip & Loyalty

The first Uptrip collections for January 2026 are here. Anyone who kept an eye on the app and followed our blog could already find out early which cards would be required for redemption.

Uptrip puts Discover Airlines in the spotlight

The year starts with three new collections focused on Discover Airlines. These include travel kits, a sweepstake, and a WiFi voucher.

1. Holiday Essentials

Uptrip is releasing a Discover Airlines travel kit limited to 25 units. It includes sandals, note the sizes M 38–41 or L 42–44, sunglasses, a bath duck, a luggage strap, and a microfiber towel. The collection requires a fair 9 cards, including 5 originals.

2. Discover Departure Dreams

Uptrip is launching a flight raffle. Five round trips for two people each with Discover Airlines will be awarded as prizes:

• 2× continental flights Business Class
• 1× intercontinental flight Business Class
• 2× intercontinental flights Economy Class

Based on the initial faulty description, we originally assumed the destination would be Cape Town. In fact, the destination appears to be freely selectable within the Discover Airlines route network. According to the description, the ticket also seems to be issued in a booking class that is generally eligible for upgrades.

Only 3 cards are required to participate, which keeps the barrier relatively low. Of course, the actual chance of winning is limited. Still, we consider this a good offer.

3. Cloud Connect

The third and final collection is once again an Uptrip classic. A WiFi voucher. This time for an intercontinental flight with Discover Airlines, Lufthansa, or Austrian Airlines. You need 4 originals out of a total of 6 cards to take part.

Conclusion – Uptrip collections in January 2026

Uptrip starts the new year with technical difficulties. Now that the new collections are successfully online, we draw a positive conclusion. We especially like the fact that Discover Airlines, alongside other airlines, is moving more into focus than before.

An overview of all active and past Uptrip collections.

Original post (September 23rd 2025): For many months, the integration between Lufthansa and ITA Airways has been progressing. This is also evident with Miles & More: Frequent flyers have long been able to earn points and qualifying points for their status on ITA flights.

One area, however, remains pending: the Uptrip app. Users have been waiting for months for the integration. It is known that Uptrip is working on it. In an interview in May 2025, Uptrip explained that the delay is mainly due to the low priority of this feature compared to the general integration of ITA into Lufthansa’s system landscape. Since then, things have gone quiet.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean much. True to Miles & More style, smaller updates are rarely announced far in advance or discussed with the community. That’s why it’s worth taking a look at which new Uptrip cards we might expect with ITA Airways.

ITA Airways Route Network

The ITA Airways route network gives clues about which new cards are likely. The overlap with existing Uptrip destinations is significant – especially on long-haul routes: Currently, there isn’t a single destination on long-haul routes that isn’t already represented on Uptrip.

The shorter distances are a bit more interesting:

• Medium-haul: One new destination – Tripoli (Libya)
• Short-haul: Four new destinations – Alghero, Reggio Calabria, Pantelleria, Lampedusa

Pantelleria is only served seasonally between July 5 and October 11, which will likely place it among the rare Uptrip cards.

Ita Airways – Flight Destinations

Hint: We already added these expected destinations to our Uptrip Card Collection Tool.

Uptrip Cards Featuring ITA Airways Aircraft

In addition to the destinations, the ITA Airways fleet will of course also be featured as a card set on Uptrip, along with the ITA Airways airline card.

✈ Aircraft marked in red are expected to remain in service with ITA Airways only until the end of 2025. Depending on when ITA Airways is added to Uptrip, the card could become a true rarity or possibly may not exist at all.

Will ITA Airways Flights Be Accepted Retroactively?

Very likely, yes. So far, Uptrip allows flights from the last six months to be scanned retroactively. There’s little reason to think this practice won’t continue with ITA.

However, one shouldn’t expect Miles & More or Uptrip to honor older ITA flights beyond six months as a courtesy.

Conclusion on ITA Airways on Uptrip

An official release date is still missing, but the direction is clear: ITA Airways will become part of Uptrip. The new destinations and aircraft cards will expand the portfolio for collectors. Of course, we also expect new collections aimed at attracting the new Italian audience.

Until then, keep your eyes open. Uptrip often announces news on Instagram or in the app store version notes.

Uptrip, the digital collectible card platform by Miles & More, is growing fast. In an exclusive interview, the team shares current user numbers, insights into planned activities for 2026, and much more.

The interview took place as an iterative written exchange. The original quotes were provided in German and thus are translated below.

Uptrip Shares User Numbers

Uptrip already reported strong growth last year. The team is also very satisfied with developments in 2025.

„Within this year alone, the number of users has nearly tripled. Almost 300,000 users are currently active on Uptrip.“.

With around 300,000 active users, Uptrip is still small compared to the more than 36 million Miles & More members. The growth rate is impressive though. This is especially true among younger users. Miles & More sees the closer linkage between both products as a

„continuous process that we will develop further step by step.“

Uptrip Outlook 2026: Growth and More Variety

Uptrip has ambitious plans for 2026 and made several promising announcements. The platform is set to grow further. At the same time, user interaction and satisfaction should remain high.

The Marketplace Will Be Redesigned

Uptrip also hinted at concrete changes of user experience and features in 2026. The most exciting news for users is likely this statement:

„A completely new marketplace design is planned for the end of Q2 2026. It aims to further improve card discoverability.“

The marketplace was already updated regularly last year. Despite these updates, trading does not always work smoothly. Display glitches can occur. Performance can be limited. Some special cards are currently not tradable at all. The new design aims to address these issues. This Uptrip outlook 2026 should significantly improve clarity and card discoverability.

Focus on Card Collectors

Not too suprising, another insight from the interview: Many Uptrip users are primarily collectors and not just reward hunters.

„These insights naturally flow into our product development. Collectors have been one of Uptrip’s core target groups from the very beginning.“

The recently released card mixer is one result of this collector focused approach. Campaigns like the release of rare cards at Christmas also follow this strategy. Further innovations are expected.

Uptrip also addressed criticism regarding the recent inflationary release of supposedly rare cards:

„In the future, there will continue to be special cards and limited collections requiring rare cards. These will remove cards from circulation again.“

From a collector perspective, we are not yet convinced that collections meant to remove rare cards will achieve the desired effect fully. The flood of formerly rare city cards remains hard to control. This is also due to the mixer, which can still create them without limits. More predictability would be desirable to avoid future disappointment.

Truly rare cards remain primarily special cards that are issued very rarely or not at all anymore. A second edition could bring fresh momentum here.

Uptrip “Card Edition 2” Announced

Anyone who takes a closer look at Uptrip cards will notice that almost all existing cards are marked with “1st Edition” in the lower right corner.

The community has repeatedly asked if and when a second edition will be released. We passed on the question and received new information. Internal concepts for such an edition already exist at Uptrip.

„We aim for very high standards for a possible Edition 2. It should be much more than a simple design update.“

This sounds promising. The team also made it clear that the new edition will still take some time.

In regards to design changes that have already been implemented, such as Brussels Airlines aircraft cards, one question remains open. How can these variants be collected in a targeted way. On the marketplace, the design type cannot be selected specifically. This might be adressed with the future marketplace update.

Conclusion – Uptrip Outlook 2026

First of all, we would like to sincerely thank the Uptrip team and Miles and More for the opportunity for this exclusive exchange. Even though some announcements (understandably) remained vague, we gained exciting insights into what awaits us in 2026.

If all announcements are delivered, it will be a varied year for the community. We are looking forward to it and will continue to follow developments with a critical eye. Beyond the topics above, we also discussed other relevant issues in the interview. These included the timeline for the ITA Airways integration and the positioning of the Web3 integration. More on this very soon.

A new project has emerged from within the Uptrip community: the Uptrip NFT Card Market. It is a platform designed to help users acquire missing cards for their Uptrip collections directly via the NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Overview and Structure of the Uptrip Card Market

On the marketplace homepage, users are presented with a clear and intuitive menu. It allows to select either a collection or a specific card type (airline, special card, aircraft, city).

If you choose “Collections,” for example, you will see an overview of all currently active collections. After selecting a specific collection, the tool lists all Uptrip cards required to complete it.

This view also shows which of these cards are currently available on OpenSea and at what price. With another click, users are taken directly to the detailed view and purchase page of the respective NFT card on OpenSea. Anyone who already has an account there can purchase the card immediately and add it to their own collection.

The search works in a similar way via the other card categories, for users who do not want to go through the collection view. This allows card collectors, for example, to get a targeted overview of available cards that are still missing from their collections.

Tool Impressions and Feedback from the Developer

The developer emphasizes that the Uptrip NFT Card Market is still in beta and was only launched recently. In his view, how well the tool will establish itself depends primarily on:

• the attractiveness of future Uptrip offers
• users’ openness toward NFTs
• the further expansion of NFT features by Miles & More

A direct link to the Uptrip Card Market can be found here.

The website is nicely structured and focused on its core functions. However, there are a few areas where we could imagine further improvements in the future:

• Some card names, especially Special Cards, are not displayed correctly (likely due to inconsistent OpenSea metadata).
• Prices are shown only in cryptocurrencies; a direct euro comparison is missing.
• For users without prior NFT experience, additional explanations or help pages would be useful.

Conclusion on the Uptrip NFT Card Market

As someone who is regularly active on OpenSea myself, I welcome this new project and will continue to keep an eye on it. Trading volume for Uptrip NFTs is still relatively limited, and our analysis from last year is likely still largely valid. This is true even though the recent holiday promotion has made some unusual cards comparatively affordable.

For collectors looking to complete their collections in a targeted way, the Uptrip NFT Card Market is a good place to start. It simplifies the search process. At the same time reduces the risk of accidentally ending up with a fake Uptrip collection.

There are many guides outlining strategies for reaching Lufthansa Frequent Traveller (FTL) status. Unfortunately, I have repeatedly come across websites that recommend approaches which are barely feasible in practice. For example, who realistically flies 33 segments back and forth within Poland on LOT?

Since a lot has also changed recently within Miles & More regarding Points for Frequent Traveller (or Miles & More Silver) status, I would like to summarize the new options.

In this article, I deliberately focus on practical and realistic ways to reaching FTL status as efficiently as possible. The emphasis is not on theoretical edge cases, but on strategies that can be integrated into everyday life and, ideally, combined with one another.

Naturally, many of the approaches in this article also apply to Senator status. A separate article on this topic will follow in the future.

1. How Can You Reach Lufthansa Frequent Traveller Status?

The Frequent Traveller status is the entry level into the Miles & More status world. Currently, the following requirements apply:

• 650 Status Points
• 325 Qualifying Points
• within a qualification period of one calendar year

Status Points are generally earned through flights with airlines of the Lufthansa Group as well as selected Star Alliance partner airlines. Qualifying Points, however, are only awarded for flights with Lufthansa Group airlines and fully integrated Miles & More partners (such as LOT Polish Airlines).

The classic way to achieve Lufthansa Frequent Traveller status is therefore through a sufficient number of (paid) flights. The following applies:

2. Creating an Annual Plan for Flights and Points

Anyone aiming for FTL status and already realizing that it might be tight should start with a realistic annual plan. This helps clarify early on whether achieving the status this year is feasible and how much may still be missing.

You should ask yourself the following questions:

• Which flights are already planned anyway? (business or private)
• In which class will these flights be booked?
• When will these flights take place?
• Will these flights occur before or after the desired time of achieving status?

Especially with planned vacation trips or regular business travel, small optimizations can often be made that add up to a significant effect overall. Without planning any additional trips.

3. Earning Points & Qualifying Points Without Additional Flights

Before planning extra flights, it is worth taking a look at ways to reduce the required number of points in advance:

Possibly, you can directly combine a Marriott stay (including more affordable Bonvoy brands such as Moxy) with already planned trip.

4. Correctly Calculating the FTL Status Gap

A common mistake is to only look at the status gap at the end of the year. It makes much more sense to calculate early in order to remain flexible throughout the year:

• ✓
  Aktueller Stand: Status- und Qualifying Points prüfen
• ✓
  Geplante Flüge: Alle Flüge bis zum gewünschten Statuserhalt berücksichtigen
• ✓
  Factor in promotions: Points from promotions, hotel programs, or Uptrip

Especially if the status is needed before major vacation trips (e.g. for lounge access or extra baggage allowance), this advance planning is worthwhile. I personally use a small Excel spreadsheet, but even a rough mental calculation is often sufficient.

Reaching Lufthansa Frequent Traveller Status – Practical Options

Depending on the remaining gap, different strategies may be suitable forreaching Lufthansa Frequent Traveller status:

5a) Optimizing Existing Flights

Planned flights can often be optimized without much additional effort:

• Connections with a stopover instead of a direct flight (e.g. via Frankfurt or Munich). Sometimes this even results in more convenient flight times or lower fares.
• Checking rail feeder connections (Lufthansa Express Rail), which count toward status up to a certain limit (maximum 160 QPs).

Sometimes, connections departing from Cologne or Düsseldorf with a rail feeder to Frankfurt are cheaper (or at least not more expensive) than departing directly from Frankfurt. This can be worthwhile even if you still fly directly from Frankfurt. In practice, there is currently no systematic check as to whether the booked train was actually used.

5b) Getting More Points from Existing Flights

If only a few points are missing, upgrades can help. A distinction must be made between upgrades purchased at a fixed price and bid-based upgrades.

On long-haul flights, an upgrade can provide a noticeable boost in Points. However, cheap upgrades at the gate or onboard do not earn points. Nor do upgrades via miles or upgrade vouchers.

5c) Compensating Flights and Receiving Extra Points

Miles & More has recently started awarding QPs for CO₂ compensation of flights (link directly to the offer). Depending on the package booked, up to 80%(!) extra points are possible. However, the Euro-to-Points ratio should be carefully considered. Compensation can be worthwhile especially for short economy flights, whereas compensating long-haul business class flights is often expensive.

Tip: According to Miles & More, Award Flights can also be compensated.

5d) Cheap Weekend Trips and Blind Booking Offers

There are regularly attractive offers for:

• ✈️
  Blind booking flights: via Eurowings, Austrian, or the Lufthansa website.
• 🛒
  ALDI Reisen (Travels): Eurowings blind booking flights, e.g. €80 round trip.
• 🌍
  Regional airports: Poland or Italy are often interesting. Deal portals such as Travel-Dealz.de are worth checking.

These trips can often be added spontaneously.

5e) Shifting Departures Abroad

Unfortunately, Lufthansa Group flights are often cheaper when the journey starts in another European country. In particular, it is frequently worth checking the following cities using flight search engines:

While the additional flight to the starting point may negate the price advantage, it also provides extra Points and an additional travel experience.

5f) The Fast but Expensive Route: Business & First Class

• Business Class long-haul: A quick way to earn many Points. Consider Star Alliance partners if only Points are missing.
• First Class: More of an experience, less price-efficient for status purposes. Details on long-haul Business and First Class will follow in the Senator article.

A comparatively short route with a high Qualifying Points yield is Beirut (200 QPs per segment). This is a destination I personally fly to often and which is served by several Lufthansa Group airlines (e.g. from Düsseldorf, Berlin, Frankfurt, and Zurich). However, caution is advised: Anyone looking for the comfort experience of a true Business Class seat should choose a different destination. Beirut is served by the A320 fleet, thus standard short-haul seating.

5g) Last Resort at Year-End: Converting Miles into Points

If only a few Qualifying Points are missing at the end of the qualification period, miles can be converted into Status Points via the Lufthansa credit card. A maximum of 100 Points and QPs can be obtained for 25,000 miles. The exchange rate is painful, but it can help secure an otherwise lost status.

Alternative: FTL Status Completely Without Points via Uptrip

In addition to all these strategies, there is a completely different way to achieve Frequent Traveller status. Without any Status Points or Qualifying Points.

Through the Miles & More Uptrip app, FTL status can currently be unlocked via a special collection. Instead of points, collected cards from flown segments and promotions count. The flights also do not need to have been completed within a single year.

This approach is particularly interesting for:

• Frequent flyer beginners without an existing status
• Travelers who cannot meet the status point requirements
• Travelers with limited flight frequency or mainly short-haul flights

👉 Here you can find the detailed step-by-step guide to FTL status with Uptrip, including calculation examples, pitfalls, and current updates.

Conclusion: Reaching Frequent Traveller Status

There is no single perfect path to Lufthansa Frequent Traveller status. The most efficient approach strongly depends on:

• which flights are already planned anyway
• how flexible you are in terms of time and geography
• and when the status is actually needed

Those who plan in a structured way and combine different approaches can significantly reduce both the required effort and costs. For beginners without any status, the Uptrip approach in particular currently represents an exceptionally simple alternative.

With a slight holiday delay, I want to share the last Uptrip news of 2025: new collections and free Uptrip cards for Christmas.

Free Uptrip Cards for Christmas

As last year, Uptrip is giving out free cards for Christmas. Randomly, two city cards, one airplane card, and one airline card are generated. Users can choose a total of two cards. These cards are created as original cards.

In addition, the Uptrip Christmas giveaway should not be overlooked. On top of the cards, participants can win €500 and 5×€100 Lufthansa travel vouchers.

For achieving the Frequent Traveler status (FTL) with Lufthansa (Miles & More Silver), this Christmas promotion is a great opportunity. It currently saves one flight. However, you need to hurry. The offer ends on December 28, 2025.

1. Miles Shopper

With the “Miles Shopper” collection, Uptrip offers up to 20% mileage discount at the Lufthansa Worldshop. The discount applies to a wide range of products on worldshop.eu and in selected Worldshop stores in Germany and Austria.

The Worldshop is known for pricing at the higher end. Therefore, even a 20% mileage discount does not automatically mean a bargain. There are also frequent promotions and discounts directly from the Worldshop. Therefore, this Uptrip promotion seems not to be a very attractive deal.

Only 2 cards are needed for this collection.

2. Travel in Style

This collection targets travelers looking for a new suitcase. Uptrip offers 15% off luggage at the Worldshop, online and in stores in Germany and Austria.

Again, the products are high quality but usually priced above similar alternatives in the open market. The discount makes the purchase a bit sweeter but does not replace a comprehensive price comparison.

A total of 3 cards are required for this collection.

3. Swiss Lightness

The “Swiss Lightness” Uptrip offer again features Airportr. Upon completion, users receive a 50 CHF voucher for the luggage pick-up and check-in service from Airportr for SWISS flights to or from Switzerland.

The service is convenient and especially attractive for travelers with heavy luggage or early flights. However, the target group is limited due to the restriction to SWISS flights and the geographical connection to Switzerland. For these users, the voucher is genuinely valuable.

A total of 8 cards are needed, of which only 3 must be original. 75 redemptions are possible.

4. Finest Spirits

The new collections conclude with a premium gin tasting event on February 26 at Frankfurt Airport. Participants gain exclusive behind-the-scenes insights into airline catering, followed by a guided tasting of selected spirits.

Unfortunately, the number of participants was very limited, and the collection was immediately sold out. This also demonstrates the high interest of Uptrip users in exclusive events and offers. Dear Uptrip team: please provide more of these!

Uptrip Christmas Promotion – Conclusion

As hoped in the previous article, Uptrip launched something new at the end of the year. In my mind, the Christmas promotion with free original cards is clearly the highlight for collectors and status hunters.

The new collections are partly convincing. The exclusive event stands out most clearly. Hopefully, next year Uptrip can again create special offers for the community alongside the medium-level partner deals and the always welcome miles and points.

The Uptrip December 2025 collections: this time, the offers are released unusually early in the month. As usual, we classify the offers in the Miles & More app.

Four Uptrip December 2025 Collections

Uptrip is focusing the four offers on partners. Back in August, we looked at potential improvements to the app and pointed out the small partner network. Therefore, we are pleased to see that something is happening here.

1. Shuttle to the Gate

With Flibco, Uptrip has found a partner that offers airport transfers. For the current collection, you receive a 10% voucher. This is not applicable for transfers to London airports. To redeem it, you only need any card — it doesn’t even have to be an original card.

After a brief check, it becomes clear that Flibco frequently distributes 10% vouchers and sometimes even higher ones. In this respect, the offer appears rather unattractive. It might even be paid advertising by Flibco.

2. World of Attractions

It’s similar with this new Uptrip December 2025 collection. With “World of Attractions,” you receive a 12% promo code for the booking platform for museums and attractions called “Tiqets.” Again, only a non-original card is required. The voucher is not valid for all offers on the website.

As with the “Shuttle to the Gate” collection, this may be a promotional partnership. Tiqets regularly offers discount codes online independently of Uptrip, and the 12% offered here is among the better deals — at least as far as we can judge from a quick check.

3. Effortless Travel

With Airportr Germany, Uptrip has secured the third partner for the new collections. By redeeming this reward, you receive a voucher for collecting your checked baggage for Lufthansa or Discover Airlines flights departing from Frankfurt. Pickup must also take place within Frankfurt (possibly including adjacent regions). There are a total of 200 vouchers. Each person can receive only one. Out of 8 cards required, 4 must be original cards.

The offer may indeed be interesting for travelers with a lot of luggage in and around Frankfurt. Overall, however, the target group seems rather narrowly defined due to the restrictions.

4. Always Online

The Uptrip December 2025 collections are rounded off with a Wi-Fi voucher for continental flights. It is redeemable on flights operated by Lufthansa (+ City Airlines) as well as Austrian Airlines.

The Wi-Fi voucher has become something of a classic in Uptrip. This time, however, it seems more like a filler, added because there was no other exciting reward available for December.

The Uptrip December 2025 Collections Disappoint

Towards the end of the year, Miles & More seems to be running out of steam – or at least ideas – for Uptrip. The new offers sound partly like promotional deals with partners from which Uptrip might even profit. From the users’ perspective, that would be fine if the offers were at least attractive. We can only hope that the December collections were released too early because Uptrip is saving something for the big finale at the end of the year.

With that, we wish you a wonderful pre-Christmas season and look forward to a fresh start in the coming year.

The Uptrip November collections have arrived. This time, they come with minor adjustments to the marketplace as well as new special cards for the Swiss A350 in the “Wanderlust” livery. As always, we explain and evaluate the new awards and features.

Three Uptrip Collections in November

This time, Miles & More’s Uptrip focuses on the introduction of the A350 at Swiss and on the airline Eurowings.

1. Swiss Wanderlust

The Swiss Wanderlust collection is a raffle. Anyone who participates before 31 January 2026 has the chance to win one of nine Swiss A350-900 models on a 1:200 scale or, as the grand prize, a model on a 1:100 scale.

To redeem, you need five of the newly introduced Swiss Wanderlust cards (category “Special”), two of which must be originals. A total of nine different card designs have been introduced.

Since Swiss only recently launched A350 flights, it may take some time until a significant number of users are able to participate in the raffle. It’s unfortunate that those who have already flown on the A350 have not received these cards retroactively. We contacted Uptrip and requested a retroactive credit. Should they show goodwill here, we will update you.

Addendum: We have been informed that the special card is only available on long-haul flights operated by the Swiss A350. Unfortunately, those who already had the pleasure on short-haul flights will miss out.

2. Eurowings Northern Lights

With this Uptrip collection, you receive a €100 Eurowings voucher. A total of 100 are available. Six of the nine cards must be originals. This time, Uptrip requires rare cards such as Kittilä, Rovaniemi, and Ivalo.

3. Eurowings Specialties

With this new Uptrip November collection, you receive a voucher for the Eurowings fan shop, which, admittedly, was previously unknown to us. The value of the voucher is not specified, making the offer feel somewhat non-transparent. To redeem, you need 14 cards, 10 of which must be originals. Here, too, some of the cards required are rather rare, such as Agadir or Lamezia Terme.

Addendum: The voucher value is €50. This should correspond to the value of the Eurowings hoodie.

A new and clever feature: Uptrip now directly links to the Eurowings booking page (Agadir is advertised there from €49.99) if you do not yet have the corresponding card.

Uptrip Joker Card with a 30% Discount

The Joker Card counts as an original card and can be used as a substitute card in any collection. You may only possess one Joker Card at a time. If you don’t have one yet, you can now save money: instead of €9.99, it now costs only €6.99.

Updates to the Uptrip Marketplace

In addition to the new November collections and the nine Swiss A350 Wanderlust cards, there’s also a change in the marketplace. The number of offers you can place has been reduced to five per hour. This is presumably meant to counteract the offer spam that has annoyed many users in recent months.

From our perspective, this is a reasonable step. However, implementation still feels rough: despite being labeled an “hourly limit,” the restriction seems to apply to all active offers. In my case, I can have a maximum of five active offers. Regardless of whether they were posted an hour ago or several days ago. A fix will likely be needed here.

We consider it unlikely that the change will remain in this exact form. There are notably fewer trades on the marketplace now, which Uptrip surely won’t like. They will probably increase the limit or introduce a true hourly cap to keep trading volume stable.

Conclusion on the Uptrip November Collections

We really like the new Swiss Wanderlust cards. It’s also positive that there are only nine designs this time – instead of the nearly endless variations of the Allegris cards. That makes collecting more realistic.

Overall, however, the yield of the collections is rather modest. For true airplane enthusiasts, the A350-900 model might be appealing, but since it’s only a raffle, our excitement is limited. A €100 Eurowings voucher sounds great on paper, but the rarity of the required cards and the limited availability significantly reduce its attractiveness.

Hopefully Uptrip rolls out something big again for Christmas!

Original post: The Frequent Traveller (FTL) status of Miles & More is the entry point into Lufthansa Group’s status world. Normally, this requires 650 status points and 325 qualifying points – which in practice means about 33 flights.

But there is currently a much simpler shortcut: the FTL Status Collection from Uptrip.

What is the FTL Status Collection at Uptrip?

• Valid until the end of 2027
• Intended only for customers without existing status
• Non-transferable
• Limited availability of 10,000 redemptions
• “Redeemable only once (even if the collection is extended, it cannot be used again!)

Interestingly, reports in frequent flyer forums suggest that Miles & More has been very generous so far and even extended status for existing FTL members through the collection. We asked Uptrip and learned that the FTL Status Collection will be officially extended during 2026 and will therefore be valid until end of February 2028. Unfortunately, they did not give us a date for when the collection will be updated. We’ll keep an eye out!

How the FTL Collection Works

To redeem the status, you need 50 cards:

1. 40 Original Cards (earned from actual flight segments)
2. 10 Non-Original Cards (from promotions, exchanges, or purchases)

Card distribution at a glance

• 2 cards per flight segment (1 flight = 2 cards)
• Therefore at least 20 flights for the 40 Original Cards
• Plus 10 Non-Original Cards, which can be collected more flexibly

Earning Extra Cards Without Flying

Getting started is easier than it sounds, since Uptrip already gives cards at the beginning:

• 3 Welcome Cards (Miles & More Member, Travel ID, Uptrip)
• +2 cards through referrals (for example, with this referral code: MA-2E4A6651-12DA when signing up in the app)

With a bit of luck, the referral cards can be exchanged (e.g., Brussels or Paris), effectively giving you 2-for-1 and bringing you even closer to the target. Forum communities also often help with trades if you ask politely. Alternatively, Non-Original Cards can be purchased cheaply as NFTs (for less than €1).

Example Calculation: The Road to Lufthansa FTL Status with Uptrip

• 20 flights = 40 Original Cards
• +10 Non-Original Cards (from welcome cards, trades, NFTs)
• = 50 cards = FTL status valid until 2027

That means: instead of 33 flights under Miles & More,only 20 flights are required – less than one flight per month. With connections, it becomes even easier. Even better: Uptrip flights don’t have to be flown within a year and can be accumulated over an unlimited period of time.

Pitfalls and Special Cases

1. Train segments don’t count
   Unlike Miles & More, Lufthansa Express Rail segments do not generate cards.
   
2. Uptrip promotions
   Around Christmas 2024, Original cards were briefly available without flights. These were quickly reclassified as Non-Original. In 2025 Uptrip issued Original cards again and thus reducing the required flights by 1.
   
3. Joker Card
   For €10, you can buy a Joker Card, which counts as an Original. This allows you to save at least one flight segment. In the past there were some opportunities to gain the Joker card for free.
   
4. SAF bonus cards
   Cards from the “Make Change Fly” Sustainable Aviation Fuel program are technically Original but not valid for the FTL Collection. Even though terms suggest all cards are redeemable, these SAF cards are excluded. If they counted, one could theoretically reach FTL with just 13 bookings (13*2 cards + 13 SAF cards + Joker = 40 Originals).

Historical Comparison: Easier Again?

Until the end of 2023, FTL was also achievable with 30 flight segments. With the shift to the new points system in 2024, this option disappeared.
The Uptrip Collection is therefore a rare sweet spot: only 20 flights are needed to secure status – valid until the end of 2027 (and soon 2028).

Conclusion: Uptrip Makes FTL Easier Than Ever

The Uptrip FTL Collection is currently the easiest way to achieve Lufthansa Frequent Traveller status, and possibly the cheapest, since award flights also qualify. Instead of 650 points or 33 flights, 20 flights plus some smart collecting or trading of cards is enough.

For newcomers without existing status, this is a real opportunity.