Originally Posted by facula

I'm trying to book an award for a specific day in May in J or F. The availability at this point isn't great, of course, so I'm trying to grab what I can when it opens up.

My main question is about the route on AC through YOW which would be the A330-300 to FRA. There is saver space on that segment but not on the United Express flight ORD-YOW. It seems like my options are:

1. Hope the first leg opens up while there is still space on the AC flight
2. Book the segment now and hope the other segment opens up before Feb 1; pay the change fee
3. Take a double connection ORD-YYZ-YOW-FRA
4. Overnight connection in YOW
5. Add the segment separately anytime it opens up later (so as not to eat the change fee plus increase of miles post-Feb 1)

Any other way to handle this?

I'm probably going to grab the LH 748 for the return and just treat this as two one-way flights as I'm not going to be able to use a stopover on this trip anyway.

I'm also open to any other advice of what I should be looking at. It seems to come down to these options:
- LH 748 J if space opens back up on my outbound date
- UA J/F if space opens back up
- AC J
- LOT 788 J through WAW (space is available but this doesn't work as well for me since I'll arrive later in FRA and still need to catch a regional train afterwards; but it could work)
- I'm doing all I can to avoid the old LH J angled product

LH F would be nice of course but I don't think I want to risk playing the cancel/hold miles game in case that even works.

Summary:
- I'm about to book the one-way return on LH 748 in J unless there is a good reason I should hold off.
- Can I make the AC option work somehow?
- How should I prioritize my options and is there anything else I should look at?

Thanks for your expertise.