a major glitch in your logic, I think :rolleyes: if seats are free in LH it is because passengers are not buying them. The money is chasing SWISS seats ..

- Which route/airline did you book and which class?
BSL-FRA-LAX-EWR-FRA-BSL (long-haul in LH F, US domestic in UA F, short-haul in LH C)

- How many pax and how many award miles?
2 Pax, 280.000mls

- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
about 10 months

- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?
Yes

- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?
How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats?
I checked availability online before calling. Call center agent was very friendly and helpful,
everything went excellent on the first attempt! ^

Not sure but would give them the benefit of a doubt and say lazy agent maybe or they really want to fill those Y seats for miles as this is rubbish value for us. ;) I mean fine if they want to offer their own metal first but if they basically have no award availability on SE Asia routes in C over a 4 week timeframe than offer me something else in the requested class of service. Maybe just bad luck.

OTH, I once had an agent (M&M) that got very snappy when I declined the offer of LH operated flights for SIN-FRA-SIN (LH779/778) and said I would rather fly SQ. She just stated "What's wrong with LH? ... and there is nothing on SQ. Good Bye." and hung up :). A call to a supervisor and a bit shifting of dates got me then the flights I wanted on SQ and an apology.

- Which route/airline did you book and which class?
MUC-SFO // DEN-MUC both in LH F-class

- How many pax and how many award miles?
2 Pax, 210.000mls

- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
about 4 months

- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?
nearly, was flexible enough about the routes, but not about the dates

- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?
sure! hotline was good, but checked the flights and possibilities on the net before...no LAX no IAH no SFO on the return flight to germany in F

- Which route/airline did you book and which class?

SZG(OS)-FRA(LH)-BKK(TG)-SYD(NZ)-AKL(NZ)-SYD(SQ)-SIN(SQ)-KUL(LH)-BKK-FRA(OS)-SZG

all in F, except the NZ segments which only had C/Y

- How many pax and how many award miles?

1 pax, 240k

- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?

about 10 days

- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?

got exactly what i wanted!

- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?

looked all flights up with the ANA tool first, took around an hour to do. then called SEN line and booked, very helpful agent, came up with some better connections on NZ actually. all was done within 20mins on phone...

- Which route/airline did you book and which class?

BKK-SIN (SQ)-AKL (SQ)-NAN (NZ)-AKL (NZ)-SIN (SQ)-BKK (SQ) (but had to cancel eventually :()

MEL-AKL-PVG-AKL-MEL - all NZ

All in C

- How many pax and how many award miles?

1 pax, 90k each

- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?

5 months and 7 months respectively.

- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?

Had to tweak my travel dates a little for the first one - ANA tool shows different availability for NZ segments to what M+M had.

Got exactly what I wanted for the 2nd one.

- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?

The first time round I naively called the Australia hotline - was an experience I'd rather forget.

2nd time round I called the SEN line in Switzerland - very helpful agent. Only annoying bit was when NZ rescheduled and left me with an illegal connection. LH couldn't help me with talking to NZ, but a call to NZ myself resolved things in my favour. Don't the different airlines have liaisons to *A that talk to each other to resolve these things?

It's a pity M+M is so inflexible with the zone system, which more direct options via SIN/BKK to North Asia a 3 zone award and resulted in the backtrack to AKL to get to PVG (or via SYD/ICN on UA/OZ) to stay '2 zone.' My other FFP AAdvantage has several exceptions to get around limited direct flights between 2 regions, for eg the ability to go from South Pacific to North Asia via South East Asia (and no not talking about 'oneworld awards') for the same amt of miles.

That was a special situation. Booked LH FRA-CPT-FRA in C, was rebooked on SA FRA-LHR-CPT(in F)-FRA due to LH schedule changes. Then rebooked LHR-CPT in C (downgraded, with compensation).

- Which route/airline did you book and which class?
SA FRA-LHR-CPT-FRA in C

- How many pax and how many award miles?
2 pax, 135.000 (-20.000 for LH flight cancellation)

- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
started 8 month before, but only get it 6 month before on LH, then was rebooked to SA 4 month before departure

- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?
NO, no chance. I was told that CPT, LAX and SFO are the most popular award destinations for LH.
=> Have you heard this too?

- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?
Well, this was a special case...Not really...

How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats? >30 times

- Which route/airline did you book and which class?

SYD-BKK-FRA-HAJ-FRA-BKK-SYD on LH and TG in F and C domestic.

- How many pax and how many award miles?

1.5 pax 240,000

- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?

3 weeks

- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?

yes

- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?

All very easy. LH in MEL sorted everything out. Only problem were seat assignements because LH and TG do not block bassinet seats.

Yes, exactly the desired dates; friendly agents.

- Which route/airline did you book and which class?

HAJ-FRA-SFO-FRA-TXL in C

- How many pax and how many award miles?

1 pax - 90k

- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?

about 4 month

- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?

outound had to move dates for a week, inbound a I wanted

- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?

over the phone - little complicated as both legs were in peak travel season (outbound summer holidays, inbound christmas)

- Which route/airline did you book and which class?

TXL-FRA-EWR-JFK-FRA-HAJ in C

- How many pax and how many award miles?

1 pax - 90k

- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?

about 8 month

- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?

exact dates

- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?

over the phone - very freindly and helpful agent

- Which route/airline did you book and which class?

FRA-(TG)-BKK-(TG)-DPS-(SQ)-SIN-(SQ)-FRA-(LH)-LEJ in C

- How many pax and how many award miles?

2 pax - 240k

- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?

about 3 month

- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?

exact dates

- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?

over the phone - everything allright

If you add MIA and BKK the list would be more complete.

- Which route/airline did you book and which class?

FRA-(LH)-LHR-(NZ)-LAX-(UA)-HNL-(UA)-LAX-(LH)-MUC-(LH)-LEJ

in C and domestic F

- How many pax and how many award miles?

3 pax - 450k

- How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?

about 6 month

- Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?

was flexible but seats were pretty hard to find

- Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?

over the phone - needed 3 calls, then I had the best call center agent ever she spent the entire saturday night calling me back and discussing options - great job !!!!

Are you on a "burn miles burn"-run?