LH had a very strict stance on not overbooking F but that's changing now during a trial period:

Revenue Management has identified some routes with very frequent changes by full fare ticket holders so that F is not sold at the optimal point.

For a trial period till the end of the year, LH will sell up to 10 seats up to a certain point before the flight, ensuring the highest number of paid for tickets at departure.

They are certain that their forecasts are so precise that they never have to offload or downgrade any passengers as 10 sold seats would go down to 8 due to the mentioned frequent changes.

In case there would be an actual overbooking situation very close to departure, Frankfurt would discretely reach out to some passengers and offer them some kind of deal in case they are willing to change their flights.

The change will increase revenue but will at the same time further minimize the changes of an upgrade with miles or an award ticket.

Interesting idea- I suppose in most cases this probably will work OK- the only difficulty is due to such a small number of seats (8) it is more difficult to predict correctly.

Let's hope they will still keep overbooking Y over the pond like crazy so that we poor S econ tix passengers can enjoy more op ups to C. Well actually this change means less C to F op ups so probably less Y to C op ups too I agree thought that it is an interesting idea. I thought that LH overbooks all classes.

that's a significant change. Interesting to see if it will work out for LH. Definitely bad news for last minute award tickets and upgrades.

The policy behind the release of O inventory (to M&M or FFP partners= has also been 'updated' . The days of UA MP folks booking a T<14d award are also counting down.

If LH can indeed sell 8 F seats, good for them and I have no complaints. But if LH has decided to further restrict access to award seats (beyond the already very strict "no F awards at T>14days" rule) even when availability is wide-open, I give this another big .

BA has been doing this for years, but unfortunately their crystal ball does not seem to be as accurate as LH thinks their crystal ball is, with the results of quite frequent downgrades during boarding on oversold flights.

Of course with LH this will also result in less opportunities for last minute upgrades with miles or vouchers.

I cannot believe LH would oversell during some of the very major conferences/events in Beijing, HK, Shanghai for example where the travel dates are pretty much locked and the passengers are full F paying fare and have very unflexible agendas.

overbooked F-pax can still travel in C ... hopefully on a full flat horizontal seat

Let's face it: it's another enhancement.

[QUOTE=SMK77;21332632]

They are certain that their forecasts are so precise that they never have to offload or downgrade any passengers as 10 sold seats would go down to 8 due to the mentioned frequent changes.

Yes, sure, LH Revenue Management, when have we ever known them to 'mess up' ?

Obtaining O to SIN on LH is extremely hard unless you are HON, so who do they downgrade first, when they make a mess of this as I predict they will

It's even hard with HON status...
I even had trouble getting A class tickets rebooked.

So hypothetically speaking, in a scenario where they overbook F, who gets downgraded first? Is it based on time of booking, award vs revenue, or some other factor?

The hacking order is O, A, F. O get's touched first, F last.