Lufthansa 747-8 upper deck can't see available seats
 

I am trying to book a flight from SFO to FRF next fall. I want seats in the 747-8 upper deck. Lufthansa won't let me see seat availability until after I book the flight which locks me in with a flight where the upper deck seats are not available. I have tried United and other booking sites and still can't see what is available in the upper deck. Is there some trick to getting this information without being locked in to purchasing the ticket first?

Thanks,

I can see UD seats perfectly. You did click on the UD tab in the seat map, did you?

You should be able to see the seat map on Expert Flyer. You can sign up for a free trial to do that, or post the date and I’m sure someone with a subscription will look it up for you. It’s a great resource for such things!

To be clear, FRF isn't the code you should be using for Frankfurt (if Frankfurt's your target). The code would be FRA. But we can probably assume you had it right on the LH website.

On to the seatmaps: Using lufthansa.com and going through the booking process (but before entering any passenger details or payment method), I'm consistently greeted with this page when the website isn't broken.

This is where you can toggle between upper deck and main deck by simply tapping on the words "Upper deck" or "Main deck" . You can't see both seatmaps at the same time. You have to chose one or the other.

If your chosen flight is showing zero upper deck seats available, something else is going on there--maybe that flight is highly desirable and already filled up (one big royal family could do it), or maybe it's not really a 747-8, or maybe you're enjoying a delightful IT glitch. Hard to say without details about the specific flight.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...67a6e44704.png

I need to use a seat map site.

Especially for the general aviation segment to FRF !

As the OP said, this is the best way to book seats on LH web, once you finish selecting flights, and before paymant page.
But be careful, it is still a long time ahead, LH as others, can change equipment several times, and it is not 100% that this flight will be operated by 748, it can be 333 or even 380. If you do buy ticket now, go back to "manage my booking" every now and then in order to follow up the seats.

Does LH do that thing for longhaul where they close off the top deck to limit the number of crew needed? If they do (they did for the 747 domestics few years back) then it might also mean the business demand is low and projections point to main deck being sufficient.

I find this to be almost impossible for a route like SFO-FRA.