JohnRain

I'm looking to book 3 award tickets in C from GVA via either ZRH/MUC/FRA to LAX at the end of August/beginning of September. As of today availability is very limited, but I've heard that the inventory often opens up a few days prior to departure. Is this correct / realistic?

Thanks

NA-Flyer

Probably not. The time frame you are looking at is peak period and what already released, have been already been grabbed. However, keep looking.

oliver2002

T minus 14 to 21 days is the period when the RM recalc really picks up speed and opens up seats if the loads are not high. Another sweep occurs at T-2days, when theoretically M&M cannot issue tickets anymore and these are meant for enticing pax to upgrade with miles when checking in. The smart FTer rebooks an already issued ticket for 50€ or picks it up using a UA MP premier account.

RTW1

Availability to/from the US is very scarce at the moment.... not a single (non-stop) flight I could find recently in C for the whole month of September to/from the US west coast. You might be able to get some flights on UA with stops though.

But it's going to be a challenge.

oliver2002

Try this trick on sbm12s award search tool:
http://boardingarea.com/thewandering...e-to-anywhere/

It digs out a few gems

JohnRain

Thanks a lot to everyone for your replies, especially to oliver2002 for the award search tool, much appreciated...!

N1003U

I have had excellent luck using with this particular method, especially to find pairs of F awards at the last minute (T < 1 week)...@:-)

JohnRain

I've read quite often in the Trip Report section that people will book a TATL award flight on UA in F, only to switch to LH F at T-14 "when inventory opens up". How can they be so sure that this strategy will work?
As an example, I could have booked a GVA-FRA-LAX award flight in C on UA today departing on Aug 23, but listening to all that's been said in this thread about LH award availability for this period, I'm not sure I want to take the risk.

On a side-note: if direct flights are so hard to get, is it possible to book a multi-segment LH award flight, for example GVA-FRA-DEN-LAX? This configuration is often talked about for award tickets booked through US Airways from the US via Europe to Asia, as lucky9876coins has impressively demonstrated in his TR's, but does it also work in the other direction?

Thanks

RTW1

Nobody is sure that LH F inventory will open up just before departure... they just hope it does :-). Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. If changes to awards are free, or even if you have to pay the change fee, people feel it's worthwhile. The miles to be paid stay the same. And if you already have a flight booked you at least know you will be able to fly even if LH F doesn't become available.

As for not flying the direct route.... it's up to you to determine how many stops and what maximum flight time is still acceptable for you. There are some rules what is still acceptable but adding an extra stop mostly is. So if there is no direct availability to the west-coast just look at some other destination (BOS/NYC/IAD seem to have decent availability for the coming weeks) and find a UA/US flight to your destination from there.

The PITA is that you need to clear immigration at the first stop in the US and that can take a while so you need to factor in a minimum 2-3hr stopover. Combine that with a generally crappy airport experience, a not so good domestic flight experience and most likely a very late arrival and that normally takes the fun out of it for me, unless I really want to fly on a specific date.

But I'm planning a LAX-AMS award right now and its going to be LAX-NYC-FRA-AMS. But that's on my return and I will make it a stopover in NY for a few days and will be flying JFK-FRA on SQ C as well :-). That makes up for the extra stop.

JohnRain

Thanks a lot for your helpful comments, RTW1. One last question though: how do you go about booking a multi-segment award flight, it seems like the LH M&M site won't let you do it or did I miss something?

Thanks

RTW1

You need to call since you will be using flights by *A partners such as UA/US and those cannot be booked using the M&M website.

It helps if you have an idea what is available for awards. The M&M part you could do using the M&M website (supposedly the availability for M&M members is better, although I've hardly seen much difference myself. But if you are SEN/HON you could also request to be waitlisted for a specific flight if some paid booking classes are available).

I normally use the UA website (click award travel) or the ANA site (you need to be a member and still use a trick to get the *A partner awards) to get an idea what is available. Or use the search tool previously mentioned. It helps to search for you transatlantic flight first and then find the "domestic" flights. It's a bit of work that the agents can also do... but for me it has paid asking for specific flights.

But 3 premium seats on the same flights is still going to be a challenge....I normally only need 1 or 2 :-).