Converting PAYBACK Points to Miles and More

The ratio is one to one, so the question is not what a point is worth in euros but what the same point is worth redeemed directly. A PAYBACK point buys one cent at a terminal, so a balance converted at one to one is worth exactly the same before it reaches the airline. The airline is where the difference appears: the same mile spent on an award can be worth several times what it is worth on a voucher, and the size of that gap depends on the award, not on the conversion.

Two conditions sit on the conversion, and both are PAYBACK rules rather than estimates. A balance has to be at least 200 points, and a single transaction is capped at 999,999 points. The cap is per transaction, so a balance above it converts in more than one step.

A conversion can be started by hand from the PAYBACK account whenever the balance allows it. The subscription is the second route: it converts the balance by itself at the start of March and at the start of September, as long as the balance holds 200 points or more. The two dates are fixed by the programme, so a subscription suits a reader who collects steadily and does not want to watch the balance.

The choice between them is about timing rather than price. A manual conversion keeps the points in the PAYBACK account until they are wanted, which protects points that are close to the 36 month expiry. A subscription moves them on a fixed schedule, which suits a balance that would otherwise sit at a few hundred points and never be spent. Running both at once is not possible: the subscription converts the balance on its dates, so a manual conversion in the same window has nothing left to act on.

PAYBACK states that both the conversion and the visibility of the miles in the Miles and More account can take up to five working days. A balance emptied on a Friday can therefore still show as a positive figure in the Miles and More account the following week. This matters most at the two ends of the year, when an expiry date and a subscription date fall close together.

PAYBACK points are valid for 36 months from the date they are credited. Points that run out expire on 30 September of the year after that period ends, so a point credited in October 2024 reaches its last day on 30 September 2027. Points within a year of that date are shown in the account, in the app and in the summaries, and expired points remain visible for a further three months, from 1 October to 31 December.

Two exemptions are stated. A customer who has a PAYBACK Visa or a PAYBACK American Express associated with the account is exempt from expiry while actively taking part in the programme. The exemption is tied to active participation, so a card that is held but never used does not on its own keep a balance alive. Nothing in the sources exempts a converted balance, which is the second reason the conversion is close to irreversible: the miles are subject to the Miles and More terms rather than the PAYBACK ones.

Miles and More states that converted PAYBACK points count towards the frequent flyer status. That is the one route by which a PAYBACK purchase reaches a status requirement, and it is worth weighing against a redemption, because status carries benefits that a single award does not. The rest of what a mile buys depends on the award chosen, which is covered under spending Miles and More miles, and on where the miles can be earned in the first place, covered under earning Miles and More miles.

PAYBACK and Miles and More both describe the conversion as available whenever the 200 point floor is met, and neither publishes a limit on how many manual conversions a balance may take in a year. Whether a limit on manual conversions exists is not answered by the pages read on 2026-10-01, so it is left open here rather than guessed. The terms on both sides also leave open whether a converted balance can be reversed, which the sources describe in one direction only.