SK_RSJ

Member service is not available at this hour so I am posting this here.
Anyone knows if the number of EB pints required for travelling in F ARN-FRA-NYC / ARN-AMS-NYC or ARN-LHR-NYC has been lowered in the same way as the number of points required for Business class (lowrered from 110' to 90')? And what is the number of points required? And is it possible to combine F one way with Y or C the other way using EB points? And is the new F terminal in FRA available on award tickets?

vedette

Are you sure there is such a thing as first class? I thought biz was it.

AJLondon

Presumably the OP is referring to redeeming EB points to book a First class ticket to NYC on Star partners LH/UA flights. Hence the routing via FRA/LHR etc.

vedette

Oops! You're probably right.

kempis

F class award to the US is 145K now.

You can combine F and C/Y if you like but you will still have to pay for the highest class, in this case 145k even if you only fly F one way over the Atlantic.

The new F terminal should be available. It doesnt make a difference if you have a awardticket or a "normal" ticket. Check the LH forum for more info about the F terminal and access.

SK_RSJ

kempis, are you really sure about this? I understand that the connecting flight (e.g. ARN-FRA) on F award will be seated in C, but if I choose to make the return leg (e.g EWR-ARN) in economy class doesn´t it look like this:
Outbound F class: 145000/2 = 72500
Inbound Y class: 60000/2 = 30000
Totals: 102500 EB points

If this is not the case I will of course book both ways in F...

I am not going to book this untill tuesday, so I will call member service tomorrow anyhow.

If access to the F terminal in FRA is available I will definately go for a transfer at FRA and try to get a long layover

kempis

On a F award ARN-FRA-NYC with LH you will be seated in business class from Stockholm to Frankfurt and then in F.

If you travel ARN-FRA-NYC in C and F and then EWR-ARN in Y you will still pay 145K. Its only when you have a SK roundtrip you can mix and match between C and Y. Like ARN-EWR RT with one way in economy and one in business and paying 75K in that case.

SK_RSJ

Aaait. I have the points, so I will drop them an e-mail about availability F r/t.

SASDC8

I have tried searching this forum for threads about F awards using EB points on Star partners and this is only thread I could find

Does anyone know availability for F awards on LH/LX to west coast US using points??

Anyone been able to book such an award flight, or any award flight in F??

I have tried calling EB, but no help there...

Cheers
Stein

another_shot

I was looking for C award to the States a week ago, was going through ANA tool for all dates in October 2010. LH FRA-LAX nil availability both F and C, LAX-FRA one flight was avail in F, nil in C.
East cost was only marginally better.

Fredrik74

I have been able to book an award flight in F between FRA and JFK with EB points. This was in February this year and it was a SQ to JFK and LH on the way back. Back then availability to NYC was quite good on LH so I can imagine it's a seasonal thing.

Chriscross

Ana skyweb is your friend, and now you can also search for LX-flights. You should first try to find availability from a hub (e.g fra, muc, zrh) to West Coast and then from your departure city to that hub (eg arn-fra). Availability does not always show up when you search connecting flights. When you talk to member service it is important that you specify each segment with the flight times you have found availability on at ana skyweb. And do not try to book this in the evening, then they always tell mee it is fully booked.

I have also been sucessful in getting F-award one way and C on the return. When F-seats have been released for the return, I have called member service and been upgraded on the C-leg (price is the same).

To get to west coast in style you could try to get F to JFK and then a UA PS-flight to LAX/SFO. I have found availability in June. If you found F-availability on the 21.40 Flight JFK-FRA in July, you could get really lucky as this flight might be operated by A380 (just speculation).

BizflyerNorway

Don't be to sure that the ANA tool will show the same availability as SAS have. I have used this to find myself award trips, and then called SAS that could tell me that the availability ANA have is not necessarily the same availability as SAS have.

I am very tempted to book myself a F award ticket to BKK/MNL this summer. As I heard, its very hard to find F seats on SQ. On the 380 flights its impossible. And on other flights they will only release 1 seat pr flight for award tickets. So if you are traveling 2 or more together, just forget it.

If we talk about TG, I would not waste my money on their F, as I find their service below the standard I would prefer for F.

After reading a couple of TR here from LH flights in F, combined with the LH F terminal in FRA i must say I am tempting to try them. Maybe LH outbound and LX home just to get to sample both of them? But how they manage their availability I really don't know!

BF

oliver2002

LH F availability on the big routes is tight, not because LH restricts it, but because demand is high (and US Air points can be bought for nothing). The ANA tool availability should match that of SK.

Flux

Be aware that TG does not have F to MNL. Unless you need a stopover in BKK, I would suggest flying via SIN, as SQ is you only option in F to MNL. (Regional F seats, but the Dom and Krug is the same!)
You could do like me and fly the new LX F (A333) ZRH-DXB, then DXB-SIN-MNL in SQ F. If you do fly via BKK, I'd recommend the TK 77W F suites via IST ^ (Apparently TG now operate the exact same 77Ws from Jet Airways. Might be worth a try as well.)

My experience is that LX release a bunch of F seats about 3 weeks ahead of the flights. Beyond 3 weeks, you'll only find 2 available seats on LX F.
I have found TK F to have at least 4 F award seats at any given time ^