Originally Posted by
dvs7310
This has always been available from the US East Coast, however as far as I've been able to find it doesn't apply to any of LH's gateways east of IAD if I recall correctly. It's a fabulous deal and I used it last year myself. LH's seat is disappointing compared to other more modern F seats, but the service, food, and FCL in FRA are all great. If you are using Business class, the same deal is available on LH, LX, and OS as well (for biz class rates).
(Maybe I stand corrected, seems someone above found SFO-FRA-HND. I've tried several times to get ORD or DTW but it's refused to give me the routing.)
The catch seems to be that the farther west you go in the US, the harder you have to look and the less in advance you can book. I've only ever found those flights when searching same-day or next-day availability. Last night I was searching flights for the 7th (today) when I found the SFO route. Now looking this morning, it appears that the ex-SFO availability is gone, but now there are a couple in the next few days out of LAX via MUC. No layover to speak of, though. Moral of the story is that F award space on these flights definitely changes every day and you've got to be willing to book very short notice if you want one of these really long routings.
ORD is the farthest west I've found that's available with some consistency outside of about T-2 days.
Weird thing is that I had to search from SFO directly to get it. Wasn't able to do it from MCI, although it sometimes has on other days. Seems weirdly hit or miss whether it will allow that connection. Makes me wonder what other possible connections I'm only seeing part of the time as I've been looking for this award space.
EDIT: Just as I was saying I couldn't find squat for this out of MCI, I found a ton that just opened up for tomorrow, albeit not with the west coast connection. MCI-ORD-FRA-HND with 8 hours in ORD and 11 hours in FRA. ORD-FRA is "only" 8 hours but considering you've got 11 hours to enjoy the FCT and another 11 hours to enjoy the F product after that, I think it's still a pretty good deal.