FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Award ticket to EU in the next few weeks?
Old Feb 20, 2013 | 9:30 am
  #16  
pinniped
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I searched in/out of FRA, not CDG. I simply picked it because it's the major Star hub in the region.

CDG is the big Skyteam hub. So when you search SFO-CDG, you're mainly getting United metal from a U.S. hub airport directly to Paris. That means a lot fewer total options. United's site doesn't seem to search every possible routing permutation through Germany, Switzerland, and Austra like you would hope it would.

So, on the 11th, I search the SFO-FRA award and find it available: SFO-SEA-FRA in LH F. Then, I search FRA-CDG and find every single LH flight available in both cabins (they're just narrowbodies with Y and a quasi-J type cabin). Thus, when you call United, you *should* be able to ticket SFO-SEA-FRA-CDG as a single one-way F award for 67.5k plus taxes.

If anyone has any reason to think this would violate a routing rule of some sorts, please feel free to correct me. If there's a way to force United.com to show this online, I'd love to know that too. Last time I booked one of these (almost the identical itin) it was under the premerger United site and there was definitely no way to book it online.

Oh, and if you do this, leave yourself ample time in FRA. You gotta check out the separate F terminal. That's half the fun of flying LH F through FRA.
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