I searched in/out of FRA, not CDG. I simply picked it because it's the major Star hub in the region.

CDG is the big Skyteam hub. So when you search SFO-CDG, you're mainly getting United metal from a U.S. hub airport directly to Paris. That means a lot fewer total options. United's site doesn't seem to search every possible routing permutation through Germany, Switzerland, and Austra like you would hope it would.

So, on the 11th, I search the SFO-FRA award and find it available: SFO-SEA-FRA in LH F. Then, I search FRA-CDG and find every single LH flight available in both cabins (they're just narrowbodies with Y and a quasi-J type cabin). Thus, when you call United, you *should* be able to ticket SFO-SEA-FRA-CDG as a single one-way F award for 67.5k plus taxes.

If anyone has any reason to think this would violate a routing rule of some sorts, please feel free to correct me. If there's a way to force United.com to show this online, I'd love to know that too. Last time I booked one of these (almost the identical itin) it was under the premerger United site and there was definitely no way to book it online.

Oh, and if you do this, leave yourself ample time in FRA. You gotta check out the separate F terminal. That's half the fun of flying LH F through FRA.

See the other thread...you'll probably have to piece it together via one of the European Star Alliance hubs to get your premium cabin seats. Unless you have a way of fattening up your DL balance to go Skyteam.

Sorry, I have always just use the dumb way and get them direct. Can you explain?

I can fatten up delta via AMEX points. I thought it's difficult to get award seats with delta pesos?


I found that i can go through Frankfurt, but can i get another flight for free as connection via Frankfurt? do i do multiple cities when I look up the flights?

Thank you!! Anything fun to do to worth a layover in FRA? I just checked there are availability in FRA!! I wasn't able to do the search online like you said, I can call definately.

What are your suggestions for the return flight? Where should i fly out of?

For Business/First awards, you can't be too choosy, not this close in, but they do exist since March is still low season.
My results are in the title above. How you get from those places to London, I'd look at budget European carriers to link you back to London.
I also checked MAN, DUB, MUC, CPH, WAW, IST, ROM, MAD, SMP, TGL, VIE and GLA.

Yes. The overseas leg is critical path. A couple months ago, I got SFO-FRA-NUE. I've also gone FRA-STR and FRA-MUC.

I just noticed that UA's n/s SFO-CDG service is back. Unfortunately, 3/11 is not in the timeframe for the 50-100% RDM bonus that's good for travel in 4/11-5/31.

In my experience it is best to call UAL to check the available flights.

Look at the partners list to see who might go where you want to go and check possible routes before you call since the agent does not always know all the options on non-UAL flights.

Do not depend on the web to show you all available options.

I'm not an expert on Frankfurt itself. You could theoretically insert 23 hours on the ground there and go exploring. My personal take: I'd just insert about 4 hours on the ground there, enjoy the First Class Terminal for a while, and then move on to Paris.

Coming home, reverse the search process. Start your search for FRA-, MUC-, ZRH-, and VIE-SFO. If you intend to end up in any kind of major city, you can always search from there and see if there's a United flight directly home. Figure out what the best set of TATL options are for your homeward bound date, and then search for the accompanying short-haul Star Alliance flight to that point. You can have up to a 23-hour connection on a one-way award so if you're looking at 8AM TATL departures, just fly to the European gateway the day before. MUC or VIE would be a fun place to spend a day anyway.

In the middle of your trip, you might end up buying a separate one-way ticket (which should be cheap). For example, if the 2nd city in your itin is Rome, you probably have to buy Paris-FCO on Skyteam or some low-cost carrier. On pre-merger UA, you could do a stopover within a round-trip award, but the stopover city had to be a logical routing within Star Alliance. I've done one with Munich as a stopover, routed through FRA (for the FCT, of course!).

Well, the only thing I'd add to this is that I'd use a good search tool to find what's actually available as a Star Alliance partner award before calling the agent.

I'll give UA (or CO) credit: their own site is now 100 times better than it was a few years ago. Premerger United.bomb was a primitive piece of junk. But now, you can do a ton of searching right there, segment-by-segment if you have to put something creative together. I still tend to poke around in Awardnexus first, usually so I can run a parallel Oneworld search, then write everything down, and then call the agent (if I must) with known "good" flights in hand. Saves a lot of time on the phone.

I haven't run into any strange issues like Starnet blocking on present-day UA. There are known blocks on US, my other *A carrier, so I don't even try to go there.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"I'm hoping to visit my aunt in london, but i don't have to fly directly into london."

If you want to visit London on this trip, fly into London, and fly home from somewhere other than the UK. That way, you will avoid the high UK taxes on long-haul, premium class departures from London. (You can take the train or a short-haul flight to get from the UK to the Continent.)

I just looked up IAH-LHR and there are many options during that week, you could always connect in another US city and then continue on.

You do not need to fly to and from the same European city. Knowing this may help with award availability and also reduce costs of travel within Europe.

Somehow I missed the London part during the thread merge. The point about departure taxes is a very important one - that's a pretty hefty tax in a premium cabin out of LHR.

I'm going to guess that SFO-LHR in a premium cabin is going to be tight. You might still want to employ the Star Alliance hub (e.g., FRA) method, depending on what's most important to you. Total door-to-door travel time, best J/F products, exact travel dates, or even a willingness to fly Y if necessary to get the nonstop...all of those factor in to the decision.

But no matter how you do it, if London and Paris are the two cities on this itinerary, guv1976 has it spot on: fly into London, take a train to Paris, and fly out from there. (Again, via a *A hub if you're looking for the better J/F services.)

I want to thank ALL of you for the helpful hints and responses!!

I was able to get business saver award to London and back via Munich!!

THANK YOU!!