I would advise anyone who has the opportunity to collect miles and points to sign up for whatever loyalty scheme, promotion or offer that has caught your eye as you never know when it might be useful. I explain in this article why I think it is a good idea, and this is another example of how I have benefited from this strategy.

In the summer of 2018 when I was participating in the Hilton Diamond status match challenge that required me to stay eight nights at Hilton properties in 90 days, they were also having a promotion which gave 2500 Lufthansa Miles&More points for every stay. This also coupled with bonus points being awarded with BlackLane, the airport transfer company, so I signed up for an account.

Signing up was easy and I even got points for doing so and for using the app. My BlackLane journeys didn’t earn many miles but every little helps. The bulk of my points came from the nine stays I made in Hilton properties during the course of the promotion.

Now, obviously, the pinnacle of redemption opportunities for these miles would be a first class return ticket on a Lufthansa 747 flying from Frankfurt. This would allow my chauffeur to drive into the First Class Terminal, be whisked through check-in and security into one of the most amazing ground experiences that you can get. You can have a spa, eat and drink high quality food and wine, and even hire a Porsche to bat up and down the autobahn.

However, Lufthansa Miles&More are notoriously difficult to earn in the UK and they have a 36 month expiration date from earning. It’s not like on the Avios programme where earning will keep them alive; three years after you get them they disappear. So there was no way that I was going to be able to use them for redemption.

Things like intra-European flights would have been possible, especially by taking advantage of their frequent 50% of promos which would’ve given me a return ticket for 25,000 miles. However this seems expensive given that I can do the same on BA for 18,000 Avios and I am unlikely to be doing any single travelling for the foreseeable future given that I have an eight month old baby in tow.

Given that babies are money-sinks and my Amazon Prime account has been red-hot, redeeming miles for Amazon vouchers seem like a good use of them. It’s very easy to do so in the app. Select their awards and you have three options.

My 26,000 miles was enough for £70 of vouchers. These are very easy to process – you just enter your details through the app and you get a confirmation email. I had the codes to redeem e in my account the following morning. This £70 has already been earmarked for child locks for cupboards, clothes and wipe clean table clothes as we begin weaning so will be used well!

Have you been able to redeem miles for something other than flights like this? Do share your experiences in the comments.