Hans0001

Hi there

I have booked and paid 2 Z-Class tickets FRA-SFO and return for April. Since booking on Feb 8 I do try upgrades from Business to First straight from my M&M account. I have SEN status and sufficient miles. Both flights show 2 resp. 4 bookings on the upper deck 747 and during 3 or 4 talks with the SEN hotline they continue to refuse the upgrade and refer to the booking situation. When I confront them with the "real" booking situation they get somewhat "nervous" and defenceless. To cut a long story short:

- no authorization for SEN hotline to perform the upgrade
- waitlisted until day of flight
- waitlisted for return flight even until during my trip
- etc etc

Any idea how to accelerate this process and get at least the return (overnight) flight confirmed ?

Regards and thanks for any support

Hans J

DFW-SEN

Not sure I understand your question. Unless there is inventory in O class (which is the award / upgrade classs), they will not confirm your upgrade (being SEN has nothing to do with it) and all they can do is waitlist you.

I am not certain how you know that there are only 2 booking (since F on the 744 has 16 seats and AFAIK most public booking engines show only availability of 9 max), but they probably still expect to sell the available seats for revenue (F and A booking class) rather than using them for upgrades.

Based on my experience F between FRA and SFO is usually well booked and you need a lot of luck to get 2 upgrades confirmed. You best bet is to slightly sclae back your expectations and hope for an upgarde duing check in (subject to seats being available)...

Cheers, Stefan

Rambuster

I wouldn't expect the upgrade to clear before a couple of days before the flight, if at all.

As mentioned above it depends on O class availability. LH will try to sell the revenue classes F and A first. If they don't manage to do this they will release additional O class, however just before the flight. If you are on the waiting list now, only HONs can beat you.

Flying Lawyer

What I did several Times on payed C or D is to tell the friendly agents that I would cancel the LH flight and utilize BA as BA would give me the desired upgrade into First (I am gold on both, LH and BA). This regulary works very well.

Cheers
T.

flysurfer

I'm pretty sure you aren't the only one waitlisted for an upgrade on this flight. I also can't see any particular wrongdoing by LH that you may have reason to complain about.

What excatly is the problem here?

If the booking situation is (and stays) like you say it is now, your upgrade will definitely clear eventually. So nothing to complain about.

If the booking situation changes and several more F seats are sold closer to departure time, LH was right by not prematurely confirming upgrades. Instead, all waitlisted upgraders will compete for the remaining seats depending to their status. Again, nothing to complain about.

flysurfer

Extortion is always an option. You appear to be a good lawyer.

oliver2002

FRA-SFO LH 454

Apr 1: F9 A9 O0 C9 D5 Z0 I0 Y9 B9 M9 H0 X0 Q0 S0: 1 F seat assigned
Apr 2: F8 A8 O0 C9 D9 Z7 I0 Y9 B9 M9 H9 X0 Q6 V0 S0:7 F seats assigned
Apr 3: F9 A9 O0 C9 D9 Z9 I0 Y9 B9 M9 H9 X0 Q9 V9 W7 S0: 4 F seats assigned
Apr 4: F9 A9 O0 C9 D9 Z9 I0 Y9 B9 M9 H9 X0 Q9 V9 W9 S9: 6 F seats assigned
Apr 5: F9 A9 O0 C9 D9 Z9 I0 Y9 B9 M9 H9 X0 Q9 V9 W9 S9: 4 F seats assigned
Apr 6: F7 A7 O0 C9 D9 Z9 I0 Y9 B9 M9 H9 X0 Q9 V0 S0 : 9 F seats assigned

so this sectory seems to be either very popular for OIX awards or LH has restrictive policies...

AJLondon

Spot on! There is nothing whatsoever in the OP's post worth complaining about.

No O class = No upgrade. It's really that simple. Upgrades with miles/evouchers are never a guarantee, but always subject to availability.

FtlAOI

I totally agree! It would be ridicolous if a company in this case LH gives a guarantee for an upgrade with miles or vouchers since they want to sell all paid F seats to make as much revenue as possible. If they can't then they will make O seats available! So call one day in advance and inquire about an upgrade or try it at the check-in counter.

Martel

While I feel your disappointment and I am not be able to come up with a meaningful advice for your upcoming and paid journey to SFO, let me add some general remarks.

• In a recently exchange of thoughts with weero, I learned that for him flexibility is hard to quantify and therefore not an issue. From your opener it could be possible that you took advantage of ZSPEC 60+ days advanced purchased fare (= no refund after ticketing besides taxes & surcharges). First Class Award goes for 140K M&M miles, upgrades on both segments for 100K M&M miles. In other words: You are paying a net fare of € 2.310 for earning 25.582 status M&M miles and redeeming 100K M&M miles instead of redeeming 140K M&M miles. If I have to pay this ticket out of my pocket and (income) tax is not an issue, I gave this issue a second thought.
• Before I decide if I fly on LH in Biz, I have a look, if New Biz is available. In you case, it looks like that FRA-SFO is served on LHs outdated Biz product.
• If I have the intention to upgrade, but the relevant booking class is not available at this time and I will try to do this with a non-refundable ticket, I call LH and ask about their forecast. If you do this in a professional manner, they may give you an indication about your chances.
• If “O” is not available, you will be waitlisted. But don’t expect that this waitlist goes on a first come first serve basis. As your “Z” indicates that you bought the lowest paid Biz booking class, customer paying any D fare or HONs will bypass you.
• To conclude: I would be patient for a while and wait if things change in the near future.

flysurfer

True, FRA-LAX-SFO (on LH456) or FRA-MUC-SFO offer better value in C.

Possibly, the OP wants to visit the FCT, that's why he wants his upgrade confirmed before departure day.

Martel

Opener indicates he is from Munich, Bavaria, Germany, therefore going via FRA is a different issue.

Rambuster

If LH knows what they are doing, then they should not fall for your bluff.
Upgrading on BA is much more difficult than with LH. Additionally their op-ups are rare (but seem to be increasing).

You can only upgrade BA flights with miles (MFU) if the ticket was booked through ba.com or their telephone sales (unless you have a dedicated sales manager at BA, who can sometimes bypass this). Once you go through a TA, it's game over for regular BA Gold folks. Of course also BA F is inferiour to LH F in terms of service, but also much cheaper ex Germany.

I persume your "threat" of switching to BA working with LH has more to do with your HON status.

flysurfer

So it's even worse. I don't get it. It HAS to be the FCT.

Martel

Not necessarily , here are other possibilities:

• Booking Class Z was not available on non-stop flight.
• Maybe his ticket looks like this MUC-FRA-LAX-FRA-MUC. He earns additional 2.932 status miles for paying € 75,88 (taxes & surcharges) extra.
• He prefers flying on a Jumbo Jet than on a A343.
• Crew out of FRA is preferable.
• Plane out of FRA arrives almost two hours earlier at LAX.