gpeso8

I was able to book DFW-FRA about 10 days out in F. I was then able to swap for LAX-FRA about five days before the flight when it opened up. Had a great UA agent who did the swap in less than three minutes.

Maluku_Flyer

Any idea what day of the month it gets updated when it's still monthly? Near the 1st of the month, the 15th or toward the end?

fflyer1

what does this exactly mean?

oliver2002

Some time ago UA & LH started to revenue share all their flights between north america and europe, under which LH filed all the fares westbound and did the capacity controls, UA did the same for eastbound flights. Last year this got expanded to include LH/UA/(CO)/(BD)/AC/OS/LX, the same control mechanism still apply.

fflyer1

so I got it right, that UA now calculates the available award inventory for westbound LH TATL flights?
Funny, I always thought inventory control/yield management was each airlines top secret philosophy...

oliver2002

UA does this since 1998, when you revenue share such deals are allowed, although LH has been much happier since UA started doing it with the CO software in 2010, the Apollo based revenue caclulation must have been a desaster in accuracy.

NewbieRunner

Shouldn't LH let UA do all the capacity control not just for eastbound TATL flights?

Going slightly OT but how come on the same TATL route UA fares are often lower than LH? At least they used to be, though I haven't noticed it recently.

Even more OT but as a consequence of the JV between LH and NH, discount Business fares on NH from the UK to Japan (via Germany) are now only slightly higher than LH/LX. Since all Business booking classes on NH seem to earn 200% M&M miles it could be a viable alternative even without the Executive Bonus of 25% and you are guaranteed fully-flat seats (as long as you don't fly via MUC). ^ These fares don't apply ex-LHR presumably because the JV is between Germany and Japan but without MAN-LHR *A flights there's no incentive for me to fly via LHR anyway.

oliver2002

hmm... you have to be more specific. The booking classes should be in synch, as is the availability. The fares are a little different to account for the different YQ calculation logic, leading to the same end price though...

NewbieRunner

It was at least a couple of years back but when I saw bargain fares in Y advertised for UK-US via Germany, the lowest fare was almost always on UA metal. Now the price seems to be more or less the same, but it didn't use to be.

Thor3

Any idea the time the recalc inventory goes out? e.g. Is it midnight FRA time? or does it matter when the "UA computer" updates it? e.g. after midnight CDT? I have noticed new scattered F and C TATL inventory appearing around 10 pm MDT and early mornings.

I have my eastbound seats. I am checking constantly for westbound F - which appears to show up 13 days out.

LufthansaFlyer

If you're dealing with UA, call the res center and ask to a long sell request when there is phantom inventory. I had luck 2 or 3 times this year with UA contacting LH directly about an award seat. Both in C and F.

RufussCkingston

Can you clarify this "long sell request" technique you speak of.

Thanks

LufthansaFlyer

Its basically United asking LH to free up a seat so United could book it. So if you see phantom inventory (or even a flight that doesn't show availability), you ask the UA agent to do a "long sell request". A well trained (and more importantly) willing rep will take the 30-60 seconds to do it. They usually hear back real-time from LH and can tell you if LH freed up a seat.

This is definitely a "YMMV" experience and you may need to call back a couple of times or more to find a willing agent (or one that knows how to do it). I've had the best luck with the reps in UA's Hawaii call center. They seem to have their act together out there!

Its worked for both C and F seats for me this year.

oliver2002

Long sell will get you the phantom seat you see online. However finding a *A FFP agent to do it for you is tricky, US DM agents have been clearly instructed not to do it. Longsell is fairly tricky to enter, an example in amadeus is shown in this video around 2:40: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wIo0...feature=colike

chinatraderjmr

Any help? Vas is dis AFAIK?