Brocki

Hi Everybody,

I've read about this forum in several blogs and I thought this could be a good place to get an answer for my question.

I booked an Economy Class - V flight from IAH -> FRA for the of May. This flight was booked as an CO flight but actually this particular flight is operated by LH. I earned some miles in the last year and would like to spend them for a business class upgrade for this flight. Is this possible? If yes, how many miles will it cost?

Thank you very much!

Greetings,
Brocki

red star

Welcome to FT.
Title says operated by CO, text says operated by LH. Assuming the flight is booked as a codeshare, for CO the answer is no and for LH if you are lucky perhaps at C/I (50k miles).

Brocki

Thanks for the answer and sorry about confusion! The flight is booked at CO and operated by LH as a codeshare (CO 5007). I'm still thinking about to change the flight date. But even then, the flight will be booked at CO.

So can I say this: It is not possible to upgrade any Star Alliance flight from Economy-V (or all less Y-Class tickets) to Business Class when the flight is not booked at LH, right? This could make my miles a kind of useless because LEX just became my new home airport...

When I can't get such upgrades, how does't it work with award flights? I'm a little bit confused about that because I can't lookup any flights from LEX to any other city in the USA in the M&M online flight award booking system.

Many thanks again!
Greetings,
Brocki

red star

With M&M miles you can upgrade on LH flights from V (or above) and on many (not all) *A airlines from B and Y (with some exceptions, eg S on SQ).
Just avoid codeshare flights.
For redemtion flights on other *A airlines you need to call M&M.

Lack

I don't think V or Y matters that much here, codeshare ruins the possibility. You can upgrade with you M&M miles (I assume you want to use those) when the flight goes to airport control.

M&M shows availability only with integrated airlines. You have to call and ask to find space on other carriers or you special tools like KVS or expertflyer.

Brocki

Thanks a lot for your responses!

I just played around with KVS and I must say: It helps to understand how miles can be used on my upcoming flights. It would be nice to have when such a tool could give me something like: "50k miles needed to upgrade this flight from V->C".

Anyway, what do you think. Are my chances to get an upgrade at the airport higher when the flight is a codeshare and operated by LH ore when it is a regular flight operated by CO. Because, maybe I'll change the flight date/itinerary and then it could be that the flight will be operated by CO itself (by doing this I could also avoid to fly LH-747 economy...).

@red star: ok. Good to know but this makes the M&M program much less interesting when you want to use it in the USA. Because you can't book LH tickets for most of your trips and unless you buy a full fare Y ticket you can't upgrade them. Even when it's not a codeshare...

flyingfkb

I'm not sure but don't you have to book the flight under its operating airline number to upgrade it? So if it is operated by LH but you booked it under the CO flight number you can't upgrade. Can someone please verify this?

I know for sure that award tickets alway have to be booked under the flight number of the operating airline.

alex0683de

If you have an LH-operated flight booked as a codeshare flight by another airline, it can be upgraded with M&M miles or eVouchers at the airport, provided the booking class is high enough. Not at any time before that though.

Brocki, if I understand you correctly, you have a CO ticket in V class on a flight operated by LH, is that correct?

If yes, then your ticket is indeed upgradeable for 50K M&M miles at the airport, provided there is availability left on your day of travel.

alex0683de

If you change your flight to a flight operated by CO, you cannot upgrade the flight with M&M miles unless you are booked in booking class B or Y. So your chance for an upgrade (which is probably not too bad, even though it is airport-standby) drops to 0, but your fallback position improves from LH 744 Y to CO Y. Is IAH-FRA still a 764?

Starbucks

Unfortunately yes.

alex0683de

Why unfortunately?

If you're stuck down the back, the 2-3-2 configuration of a 764 is a lot better than the 3-3-3 of a 777!