Originally Posted by
LufthansaFlyer
OP,
Disregard the opinions. Long sells are in fact possible and not difficult. Obviously LH has to have the inventory available in F or C or Y for that matter. What sometimes happens is that the Inventory is not updated on UA.com in real time.
Long sells are open to any mileage plus member, you dont have to have any minimum elite level. The key is, and always will be finding an agent willing to take the 30 seconds to submit the request to LH. My best luck has been with the HNL call center. They seem to be the most knowledgeable and most willing.
HNL call center usually comes on line midday US eastern time (at least thats been my experience). All my long sells have happened through HNL and most of the time I am calling between 12 & 3p US eastern time.
I'm PM you and I can try to help guide you on this. I just can guarantee that we'll get one! I've had about a 60-70% success rate this year finding F and C via long sells when the UA site did not show it.
I know your trying to help him and everything you say is true. I learned about long sells from someone like you. The problem is he has no Status. The HNL call center is for status Elites only. Used to be strictly 1K, now it's mixed but he will never get an agent in HNL. Since its COs policy not to allow that, every CO and off shore agent he gets will say no or not even know how to do it. Your giving good advice to a Platinum or 1K. Not a GM