Update: This offer is expired.
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Barclaycard has once again for a limited time increased the sign up bonus on the Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard credit card to 50,000 bonus miles!

Full terms:

• Earn 20,000 award miles after your first purchase or balance transfer
• Earn an additional 30,000 award miles when you spend $5,000 in purchases within the first 90 days of account opening
• Earn 2 award miles per $1 on ticket purchases directly from Miles & More integrated airline partners and 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases
• Cardholders receive a companion ticket after first use of the account and annually after each account anniversary
• No foreign transaction fees on purchases made outside the U.S.
• Redeem miles for flight awards and upgrades on Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, SWISS, Star Alliance member airlines and other partners
• $79 Annual Fee.

Note: In the past, it was pretty simple to get the annual fee removed. All you had to do was once you received the card, and the annual fee posted to your account, you would then call up and request the fee be removed. If the agent denied the request, you would ask to speak to an account specialist. This may or may not still be the case.

Miles & More Frequent Flyer Program:

The Miles & More program is the award program of Lufthansa, Swiss Airlines and Austrian Airlines.

Lufthansa is also a member of the Star Alliance Network.  This means that besides for being able to redeem your miles on Lufthansa, Austrian and Swiss, you can also redeem Lufthansa miles for flights on any of the other 26 Star Alliance airlines.

Additionally,  you can redeem for flights on Austrian Airlines Group holiday flights, Croatia Airlines, Germanwings, and Air Dolomit. Just note though that Lufthansa generally charges high fuel charges unless you are redeeming for flights on United Airlines, or LOT Polish Airlines.

One of the great benefits of the Miles & More program is the great promotions they constantly run. For instance, they currently have promotions from select locations in the US to many locations in Europe for just 55,000 miles round trip in BUSINESS CLASS!!

After you do the initial spending on this card, you’ll have 55,000 miles! Click here for a full list of promotions and “book by” dates.

Some other great benefits of the Miles & More program are:

• You can book 1-way awards at half the price of round-trip awards.
• It costs only 35,000 miles round trip using Miles & More miles (compared to 50,000 miles United would charge) for a First Class award on United Airlines within the continental US or Canada – excluding Hawaii.
• Barring Promos, it’s 50,000 miles round trip in economy from the US to Europe on Lufthansa, Swiss or Austrian (on other Star Alliance partners it is 60,000 miles). Just bear in mind though that Miles & More charges high fuel charges when booking a reward ticket except when you are booking on United, US, or Lot Polish airlines.
• Traveling to Hawaii in coach class on United using Miles & More points is just 20,000 each way or 40,000 miles round trip. In Business class it’s just 35,000 miles each way .
• 50,000 miles is worth at the very least 2 FREE round trip tickets anywhere in the US with no fuel charges.
• 52,000 miles is enough for a one way business class ticket to Europe.
• Generally, Lufthansa and Swiss Airlines block other Star Alliance partners from accessing “some” of their First Class award seats. Lufthansa gives access to more first class award availability to members of it’s own Miles & More program. So, it may be easier to snag a first class seat on Lufthansa or Swiss airlines with these miles.
• Click Here for Lufthansa’s award chart

Additionally, If your mailing address is in Israel, the Miles & More points may very well offer the best value for mileage tickets, Tel Aviv to Europe. Also, a flight from Israel to the US will price just like a flight from Europe to the US.

– – Before applying for the credit card, you will need a Miles & More frequent flyer number, you can apply for a free Frquent flyer number here

Also, another great thing is that this card is offered through Barclaycard, which means 2 things. 1. Barclaycard generally only pulls from Transunion, therefore the credit pull will not show up on your Experian or Equifax report which is where Chase/Amex (depending on your location) generally pull from, and 2. If you are maxed out applying for Chase/Amex/Citi cards this is another great credit card offer you can apply for.

If you are denied after applying, you can call reconsideration at 1-866-408-4064.

Bottom Line: At the very least you will be getting at least 4 one way FREE economy class tickets within the continental US! Also, if you are maxed out applying for Chase, Amex or Citi credit cards, you may want to consider this card as it is a Barclays.

Hard to reach the minimum spend of $5,000 within the first 3 months? Go for the  US Airways Premier World MasterCard which is currently offering 40,000 bonus miles after your first purchase, which can even be as little as $1!

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Other Barclays cards with mega sign-up bonuses you might want to consider are the Barclaycard Arrival World Mastercard which offers 40,000 points for spending $3,000 within 90 days and is one of the best cash back credit cards around. It offers 2.2% cash-back on everything. Another card you may consider is The US Airways Premier World MasterCardWhich offers 40,000 Bonus points. For a full list of all the Barclaycard credit cards Click Here