lx343

Which route/airline did you book and which class?
​​​​​2x MUC-ZRH-FRA-HND / LH C plus LH F
+
1x FDH-FRA-HND / LH C plus LH F

How many pax and how many award miles?
2pax, 111k plus 55,5k for a companion award
+
1pax, 111k miles

How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
11month in advance

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)?
Yes, checked online for availability, 4!!! F seats were available on our flight.

Booked in online, second one on the phone

How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats?
One time

twoheadedboy

Which route/airline did you book and which class?
LH, First/O, FRA > ORD 1-way (see "booking procedure" section for details/update)

How many pax and how many award miles?
2 pax, 230k miles +262.18 EUR

How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
10 months in advance (mid-September 2023)

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)?
Yes, in retrospect. I was a bit bummed to only be able to find FRA>MUC>ORD in combo Business/First and on an A340-600, after working for over 2 years to build up a pile of M&M miles through Barclays card SUBs for my wife and I, and paying our mortgage/car/other bills through Plastiq using those cards. Then LH cancels and rebooks us on a 7:15am departure for the same flight path, but fully business class, and nothing about refunding any miles! So I called in, and the agent was able to move us to the direct flight FRA > ORD, 10:45am, on the 747-8. And the new tickets were issued as full (F)!

How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats?
I had been researching online/checking availability as I was planning the trip specifics, was a bit iterative as there were some "goals" involved that didn't necessarily carry a specific date (including Oktoberfest). This is the return flight, and 1st in the 747 + FCT has been on the bucket list for a while. BOS > CDG on the A339 in DeltaOne Suites is the departure side, which isn't too shabby, either!

pdeut

Which route/airline did you book and which class?
​​​​​2x HND-FRA-CDG / LH F plus LH C
+
2x MUC-FRA-MIA / LH C

How many pax and how many award miles?
2pax, 111k plus 55,5k for the companion
+
2pax, 56k plus 28k for the companion

How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
7/6 months in advance

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)?
For HND-CDG yes, available online
For MUC-MIA not really, took several phone calls with incompetent agents, but business cleared instantly once on the waitlist. I really needed to get this specific date and flight confirmed so got C confirmed; and then put F on the waitlist

How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats?
See above

GlobalNomad

I am in a similar situation but I don’t understand the change rules. If waitlisted for a different routing can it be changed at anytime with no cost or only on day of departure? I assume changes to the departure and return airports are never allowed free. I am rather jealous because most bookings seem to have better success than I did this time.

Which route/airline did you book and which class?
ZRH-JFK, JFK-GVA-ZRH with LX in F

How many pax and how many award miles?
2 pax, 150% of M&M mileage, companion award

How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
5 months for mid July

Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?
No

Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?
No not at all. Online is impossible for F. On first call was told that LH would not even allow wailtlisting (which seems strange for SEN). Did a lot of reasearch with EF looking for routes with F8/A6. Narrowed down to JFK or TYO as destinations with complete flexibility for departure airport. On first call found and put a hold on HND-FRA (which strangely only seemed A5 while other flights with up to A7 were not available), as well as ZRH-JFK, but neither had matching flights outbound or return. Called every day for the next week of the reservation hold, except for the IT meltdown day. Fortunately LX SEN line was otherwise quick to answer. In third call got a hold on the JFK return via GVA. But kept trying because that was a last resort and other flight loads were showing up to A7 but surprisingly none of those were bookable. On last day managed to get on waitlist for HND-FRA, but unfortunately it did not clear instantly (how I had the good fortune in the past). Then I had my bigger surprise because I needed to change the feeder flights. This opened a huge can of worms, because they could not be added without cancelling the reservation hold, and risking the F seats being withdrawn. On the outbound I could add a hop from Germany but had to pay extra miles for one way to ZRH, and on the return it was impossible. After 1 hour 15 min with the agent I was just fed up and booked and closed on this routing.

How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats
6 times, including the last call of 1 hour 15min

GlobalNomad

A tiny bit of good news is that yes, changes are possible on the routing with same departure and arrival airport, without any fees (just a recalculation of taxes).

After than the news is all downhill. I only was waitlisted for the new F flight JFK-MUC-ZRH, but the ticket was issued anyway, and unbelievably my confirmed seats on the original routing were simply deleted! As Oliver mentioned on the A380 thread, this is the way it works, but someone should have warned me. It took three calls and over two hours in calls to get my seats reinstated on the original routing.

Now I still really want to get on that A380 in F. Availability is showing as F8/A7 which is promising at least. I could book a new flight and waitlist, but I don’t enough miles (even with SEN overdraft) until I get refunded for the original routing. Is there any way out of this dilemma?

If not is there anyway I can get notified if two seats open in F award space? Or is there some rule of thumb on when seats are released? I really want to avoid calling LH endlessly to check on availability.

lxfc

Which route/airline did you book and which class?
2x ZRH-ZNZ / LX C
+
2x SFO-ZRH / LX upgrade from PE to C, 1 eVoucher for each pax

How many pax and how many award miles?
2pax, 70k miles + 35k for a companion award
+
1 eVoucher each

How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
11month in advance
+
Was put on the waitlist for about 4 months, then the upgrade cleared about 3 weeks before departure

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)?
Had to book via phone because it was a WK operated flight, which apparently needed extra clicks and prevented me from booking online despite the flight being offered.

How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats?
One time

cas_de

Which route/airline did you book and which class?
2x MUC-LAX-MUC, changed to MUC-SAN // LAX-MUC in I


How many pax and how many award miles?
2 pax, 155k miles + 77.5k (companion award)

How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
2.5 months out, rebooking w/change of destination less than one week prior to departure. Booked in early January, flown end of March.

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)?
It was ok. Had to call in, because I had to use the SEN waitlist.

How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats?
3 times (original booking, 1 date change, 1 change of destination)

SK AAR

You mention 2 rebookings - these were invol. rebookings due to schedule changes or cancellation, or voluntary?

cas_de

Voluntary rebookings:
#1 - change outbound flight from 23MAR to 22MAR
#2 - change outbound routing from MUC-LAX to MUC-SAN on 22MAR

NUEflyer

Which route/airline did you book and which class?
LH BER-FRA-SIN in First (O), domestic segment in Business (I)

How many pax and how many award miles?
1 pax, 111k M&M miles and EUR 343 fees & taxes

How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
Booked online 17 days in advance

Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?
There was some availability for April 2023 and it actually matched my plans

Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?
Absolutely, because I stayed online. Fast and smooth.

How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats?
It was a spontaneous idea which I was luckily able to turn into reality.

NUEflyer

Which route/airline did you book and which class?
LH DRS-MUC-ORD in First (O), domestic segment in Business (I)

How many pax and how many award miles?
1 pax, 91k M&M miles and EUR 390 fees & taxes

How many days/weeks/months did you book in advance?
Booked online 6 months in advance

Have you been able to book your preferred dates of travel?
I would have been happier to fly one day earlier, but this is also fine.

Were you happy with the award booking procedure (e.g. online/by phone)?
Absolutely, because I stayed online. Fast and smooth.

How often did you have to check/call until you got the seats?
There was no availability out of BER which I would have preferred as departure airport. Maybe I could have dealt this out with the M&M SEN hotline, however, DRS is also fine in this case. There will be a CR9 on DRS-MUC -> limousine transfer in MUC. On BER-MUC, it's not very likely to arrive at a remote position in MUC.

SK AAR

Wait for a cancellation or significant schedule change and then ask to be (invol) rebooked to BER-MUC?

demue

Nice one, you are on a roll with the F awards this week.

behuman

COPA awards blocked for all itinereraies around mid February 2024, but easy to book LATAM award MEX-SCL for only 30 000 miles in C - an 8 hours flight in a dreamliner lie flat.

NUEflyer

Let's see how LH will cancel down their summer itinerary (I will be on this flight in late summer). However, I'm fine with flying out of DRS, as the city of Dresden is always worth a visit, imho. Especially when you are flying to such a place "without tradition" like Chicago. And, this is the FT point of view, I have more than 4 hrs to spend in MUC. It will be plenty of time to check the T2S F Lounge, which I haven't visited so far.