Wow! T-12 is pretty far out for LH F and 2 seats no less. Congrats!

Just booked LH F for a segment about 6 days out...change to a trip originally booked on UA segments (far less than optimal ).

Great UA phone agent, knew about phantom availability and right away told me she would check to make sure it actually exists before she touches my existing flights.

Modified existing PNR. Called Lufthansa right away and they confirmed they have the flight ticketed and provided their PNR.

I was hesitant to mess with this trip with all the SHARES drama, but for me on this instance....so far, worked fine.

Still have to confirm with Thai Airways that the TG segment is ticketed and visible and blessed (or whatever the right term is), but their US office is closed until Monday.

Ditto. Booked LH F on UA site couple of times 14-7 days out. Last one was ORD-MUC direct on A340.

Three months after my first PM to UA Insider about the subject of phantom availability, and after four resends, I received a reply along the lines of 'we'll look into it' and to be patient.

I'm hesitant to post the contents related to this issue not just because it is in a PM, but because the entire email chain has really made me wonder about UA Insider and left me even more frustrated with UA's public face on FT.

it's a waste of time in my experience. I major problem last year also resulted in 'we will look into this issue and get back to you', but I never received any follow-ups and subsequent PMs were not answered either.
If the issue is major enough, a DOT complaint is probably getting more attention; although with the current statistics where UA is dead last ... it can't get any worse, can it?

Getting back to the topic, I was also able to get an LH F-award ~ a week before the flight online.

Booked DFW-FRA-NRT in First on both legs 14 days out. Excited to try their product!

There is now phantom availability of UA flights as well as LH flights..

I can't believe SHARES does not even know its own inventory. A few ZRH-EWR and BRU-EWR flights are showing O1 but even the agents can't sell it. Spoke to web support and they confirmed its not avail.

Huh? O class should mean O class. Any possibility they are two class pmCO planes and thus there is no O?

The EWR-BRU/ZRH are operated by PMUA 763 - so a true F cabin exist.

NOPE- Here is an example. UA 957 / 15JULY. 3 CABIN 767
Shows avail in GF on .COM and when you look at the fare buckets it says O1 ON1. But look on ANA and Expert Flyer and NOT showing avail. I tried booking it online, with THREE different agents (one of them tried to book manually) and even called WEB Support - IT'S PHANTOM AVAILABILITY And it's a UA FREEKING FLIGHT!!! SHARES is getting WORSE, Not better

Something is really amiss there. Agree that O1 is showing on UA.com. It DOES show on EF as well. However, it does not show on NH, which I could expect. UA doesn't necessarily have to release award space to partners, just like partners don't have to release to UA (or StarNet as a whole). If this trend continues it is REALLY disturbing

I didn't see it on exec flyer. They update based on what UA says and UA says its avail......BUT IT'S NOT. How ridiculous if we have to start using ANA to check everything, even UA flights

The thing is.....I don't even want that GVA flight. I just needed something to complete a R/T and then change it later. The one good agent (pmCO if you can believe it) found me a FRA-IAD flight on the 17th that was not even showing avail. The PMCO agents are actually the best if you know exactly what you want and no thought or creativity is involved as they know SHARES better then anyone. But the pmUA agents are more creative and willing to bend over backwards for us. IMHO of course

After trying last Thursday and Friday, I was able to book a Lufthansa first saver award last Friday night around 9:30pm for an TATL itinerary around the Labor Day holiday. It took about an hour and forty minutes from the time the website confirmed my booking to the time it ticketed me. But, I have a valid 016 ticket number and got the Lufthansa PNR from the 1K line. The Lufthansa PNR shows up as valid on the Lufthansa website along with the 016 ticket number. Miles have been deducted from my account and my credit card charged appropriately for the taxes.

The flights I had wanted had shown up as available on the United website on last Thursday and Friday; however, each time I went through the motions of booking it, I got the fateful error message. Called up the 1K line a couple times to see if I could book it over the phone; however, even the agents were unable to book it.

Looking forward to visiting the FCT during my layover in FRA!

Just got 2 in F for EWR-FRA next week. UA.com phantom space of the past couple days became no space just now, yet KVS showed 2 seats. Agent originally saw 1, had to convince her to book 2 simultaneously. It went through.

I am looking to book a couple of first class tickets ORD-FRA-ORD on LH. However, no matter what date parameters I seem to choose I can't seem to get FC availability. Tricks or hints would be much appreciated.

Notes: Looking for April/May of next year; current 1k

Regards,
Fraz2007