LHR/MEL/Europe FF

shanghai airlines (FM) used to fly it for star but they got absorbed into china eastern.

NE flier

I just wanted to see if others are still having problems booking LH segments with DM. I need an LH short haul intra-europe segment, but the agents can't see this segment -- or any seats in Y or C -- for the city pair I'm interested in (MXP-MUC). They can see seats on the two days before, but they can't see any seats on my desired date, even though both UA and Aeroplan show availability on every flight that day.

I understand that this problem has been reported in the past but US was usually able to see the seats in a day. I haven't had luck for the past two days and my courtesy hold expires soon...I have HUACA many times but no one can see the flights I want -- and that both AC and UA say are available. I would appreciate any advice!

Air Rarotonga

The LH problem still consists. Some People in German Forums say that LH domestic and European flights after 1.NOV.13 were only available on Wednesdays and Saturdays...

Try to route on LX / ZRH, OS / VIE, SN / BRU if possible...
A3 / ATH, SK / CPH and LO / WAW would be the other possiblities...

Air Rarotonga

OT: my post # 1000

KRS

I just placed a couple of bookings on hold; For the outbound ANA was showing a Friday (in December) as wide open on LH but the USDM agent could not see any flights that day. Saturday was available though, so luckily that worked for me as well, though the 0630 departure sucks...

On the return I may have had the same issue (a Sunday in January): had to route SK through CPH instead of LH through FRA even though ANA was showing flights.

As a side note (this may be common knowledge that SQ is available, but I haven't been paying attention lately): I was having a hard time finding any availability from BKK to Europe for early January so in desperation I tried a search from SIN as well, and was able to get two seats in business on SQ SIN-FCO.

SubPar

I'm also experiencing the LH problem. ANA shows FRA-BLR on 1/3 as ok, but US can't see it. I have tried HUACA to no avail. Now to decide - do we take the Asia routing that is 42 hours of travel, or do we push our travel back 4 more days.

RealHJ

Not so. I booked an LH intra-EU (short) flight, a few weeks ago (in July), that is on a Tuesday in May of 2014. Had no problems booking it (but it was the only LH flight on my whole itinerary also, didn't try - or need - any other LH flights).

The whole US award booking was such a breeze - amazingly easy and quick compared to how difficult it is with DL (and can, literarly take, as many hours as the total flying time to actually book it, sometimes takes a few weeks in fact of numerous escalations and some manual award availability checking process even more backwards and slow (takes a few weeks to confirm) than long-sell) - despite it being a bit long routing, with two ~23h not-really-stopover-stopovers and the total distance being just a few miles short of MPM 25M (125% of MPM). The agent checked where did I get the routing, I said some parts on AC some parts on *A, but that I didn't reall exactly. She had to check the routing, I think the MPM, but it was quickly verified as being good and was easily and quickly booked (OZ, TG, LH, TK, UA flights). And as US agents are so famous for, indeed their command of geography is rather poor. I had to give her (very helpful and quick though, though) a geography lesson or two along the way.

Kilian Zoll

Hi guys,

Is the following itinerary allowed on a USDM award ticket?

TG462 MEL-BKK
TG664 BKK-PVG
(Destination)
NH920 PVG-NRT
(Stop Over)
TG677 NRT-BKK
TG465 BKK-MEL

All in C.

Now, NRT is marginally further away from MEL compared to PVG, suggesting that NRT should be the destination. However I would like to avoid CA (which would be the only alternative if PVG was the stop over, as it would be the inbound hub carrier). Any thoughts?

Thank you guys!

johntake

So, after *years* of lurking and learning through this thread thanks to y'all, I thought I had it all figured out - just earlier this week booked a convoluted trip for next summer. TUS/PHX/EWR stop JFK/BRU/FCO destination FCO/BRU/IAD stop DCA/PHX/TUS - can't wait for that, eh!

BUT imagine my surprise when I go to book a simple Star Alliance economy award trip for my wife and three kids coming to visit me at my work in New Orleans...

I see availability on ANA and AwardTravelr on 10/12 for UA travel on TUS/IAH/MSY, no problem calling up US CP desk there. And but so UA and US travel for the MSY/IAH/PHX/TUS return on 10/19 looks just as fine in ANA and AwardTravelr - however CP desk says "nope!"... HUACA, HUACA, no dice.

Is this phantom availability? Can I use FlightStats tool and check for a certain fare bucket?

PVDtoDEL

UA expert mode is what you need.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

the hub carrier rule is rarely enforced. as long as you are stopping in a star hub you shouldn't have any problems with your itinerary. at a push you could always fly air china out of PVG for the short sector to NRT.

coastalguy

Thanks to the information here and the suggestions, I just booked the following for late March/early April 2014:
Business class for 2 adults = 100k mi each, and $105 in taxes total. We're super excited!

ecgz88

I'm planning to get business class YVR-PVG via Europe for 2014 Summer for my family of 3 , can anyone pls give me some suggestions which Europe city I have better chance to get stopover, I've searched for last few days but get nowhere, looks like London/Paris/Rome all is not HUB city, so my best chance is Lufthansa hub city in German?

many thanks!

belfordrocks

VIE/BRU/OSL/WAW/CPH/ARN/LIS/ATH/LJU etc

johntake

Thanks! That piece of advice cleared things up!