Lufthansa Passengers Donate Miles

A year after Lufthansa launched the program “Miles to help,” the airline’s passengers have already donated some 70 million award miles to a good cause. Members of Lufthansa’s “Miles & More” frequent flyer program have the option to donate the miles they have collected to Lufthansa’s Help Alliance organization.

Lufthansa employees founded the Help Alliance in 1999. Current projects include the construction and operation of orphanages, educational facilities, bush hospitals, and care for homeless children. Lufthansa employees personally manage all of the Help Alliance projects on a voluntary basis. Lufthansa also funds the “Living Lakes” network of the Global Nature Fund and SOS Children’s Villages. A “Miles & More” member can use miles to help send a child to school in India, support an orphaned child in Thailand or help protect 2,500 square meters of rainforest in Brazil.

Regardless of what charity members chose to donate their miles to, Lufthansa asserts the effect is immediate. Help Alliance covered the expenses of 10 nurses in Africa for a year, and offered medical care to 38,000 children in India. In Brazil, “living Lakes” saved 139,620 hectares of tropical forest and in Latin America, more than 120 children were reunited with their families through SOS Children’s Villages.