upnup

Now holding two first class award tickets SFO-FRA in late November. Should I be on the lookout for first class on the LH flight which leaves one hour after the UA flight - perhaps a week or two before departure? Is there a change fee if I am able to switch to LH?

walkerci

They already did and they WILL continue to do so. The precedent has already been set.

gnaget

For NRT-Europe there is usually a lot of availability. However, the UA website often shows F on the A380 but if you try to book it then it doesn't work on the last step. You don't encounter that problem for C class or the flight to MUC.

I booked LX F in March or April for a flight in June. It wasn't that great even though I was the only passenger. (It's of course much better then UA, but I had higher expectations.)

AZjohns

Depends on your level. 1K, no fee. Less status, $25-$75 change fee (see bottom row in chart):
http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...ticketing.aspx

chinatraderjmr

The LH 380 from NRT-FRA is avail almost every day. However they sometimes don't open those seats till 2-7 days out. I booked it FRA-NRT 2 weeks out but the return date I wanted was not avail till 3 days out. It no problem if your a plat or above as there are no fees but under that level, you must pay for each change. The reason you have no trouble booking NRT-MUC is that flight is usually avail before 14 days. It is not a popular flight with full F passengers (A340 w old F product). Most people paying for actual F will prefer the 380 and go thru FRA. EIther way you end up in MUC the same time in the afternoon

LX F was avail just like LH F up till a few weeks ago. They then announced they were pulling the F availability and by checking flights that used to have plenty of space (NRT-ZRH or ZRH-JNB it looks like they did pull all this space (however some people say they do release it again within 1-3 days)

For LH F everyone needs to forget looking for availability on the UA site. 90% of what shows as avail is just ghost availability. Your time would be better spent taking a long walk. The ONLY way to find true LH F avail is thru the ANA site. STOP WASTING TIME ON THE UA SITE TRYING TO BOOK LH F. 90% OF THE TIME IT WINT GO THRU

thierry

I booked CDG-ZRH-BKK on LX F in May for a June departure and 2 CDG-ZRH-PEK in May as well in F for a December departure
No problem at all

chinatraderjmr

Yeah but the point is you can't do that now. LX had plenty of F availability all over the map. About 3-4 weeks ago it was all yanked. You now can't find an F reward seat anywhere on LX (except I have heard some reports of them opening seats 1-3 days out)

HumbleBee

+1.
Seen flights leave with 9 F seats not sold & no avail even 1 hour before departure.

JetAway

If that's the case why continue having a First cabin? SQ is learning that flying around with empty premium cabins doesn't help the bottom line in a tight economy. Better to use that real estate for something that generates cash.

dcsnowwake

why was it not great?

chinatraderjmr

Who says SQ is learning anything. They issued a bunch if F award seats by accident and while it looks like they will all be honored, they went right back to ZERO award availability in F for awards. I fly SQ fairly often in F and many many times I have been the only F passenger or at worst 1 of 3 or 4 (some routes are an exception and are full). There is no indication I have seen that SQ plans to change anything

redtop

ual.com is showing 8 award seats in F on tonight's Swiss LX53 flight from BOS-ZRH. (It leaves in 10 minutes). I had thought Swiss F was not available to partners any longer. Has this recently changed, or is ual.com showing phantom Swiss availability as it does with LH? Aeroplan also shows 8 seats in F tonight on the same flight. ANA does not support searching for award flights leaving today so I can't cross-check with any other source.

nevansm

I have never seen LX F show as phantom, it just never showed up in the past year or so. So I'd say it may have actually been available?

PV_Premier

who knows when it actually came available but at T-:10, there is little danger in someone actually getting use out of it as LX fears might happen.

Madone59

Correct but if you could score a C award, a few days out, and just wait be the last person to board, ready to spend a few more miles this could pan out..