So I have just taken a trial subscription to EF. I have bumbled on pretty well by myself so far without EF, scoring S fares & SWU to Z buckets, rarely paying more than S, sometimes I. I took a trial EF because I need to watch an O fare availability & this seemed the most efficient way.

I have begun to explore EF for the rest of my travel, and am puzzled.

First, are there really no Z buckets from the US to Europe (in particular LHR) anymore? There must be some, as I managed to use a SWU on one yesterday (for travel in April). I am now looking at June, same itinerary. It seems quite easy to get Z bucket on the way back, but Zilch on the way over, over the entire month of June. Is this because people are more likely to buy J to be able to sleep on the East-bound, whereas sitting up in EC on the West-bound is more tolerable so DL throws us a Z-bone? I looked in April, and the Z inventory ex-US is 0, so I'm not sure how I scored my win yesterday, perhaps the only Z bucket seat in the whole of April??

Second, I find S fares (few and far between) by looking at availability under "Upgrades and awards" and selecting S in addition to Z. But when I plug in the dates I know have S fare availability, and search on Fares for those days, nothing shows up in S (whether or not I use "Validate"). Can old hands help an EF n00b? Right now, I feel I do better by myself, stumbling through dl.dumb & making calls.

Thanks!