Hi -
I'm 1K with United. I'm familiar with the concept of calculating PQP and PQF on partner airlines, but i'm still trying to figure out things like picking seats.
As an example: Trying to book a flight with Lufthansa in a week - it's $300 cheaper than United, on the "Economy Basic" (which to my understanding is regular economy equivalent on United), but once booked, will i be able to pick a seat?
United doesn't seem to do cabin upgrades on international flights (I still don't understand why), but does Lufthansa?
Trying to make sure i get the best bang for my buck
Not sure how seats work yet - i remember in the past not being able to select a seat, which was pretty disappointing

Or on the flipside, if i book a ticket on United's website for a Lufthansa flight,i remember i couldn't pick the seat from United's website because it was a 'partner operated flight', but when i went with the Lufthansa confirmation code to their website, i was unable to pick a seat without paying extra for it.

United does offer free international upgrades within North America. As far as I know, no airline offers free intercontinental upgrades.

If the fare you purchased doesn't come with free seats, you don't get them even though united.com says you do.

Just Star Gold perks, that's it: https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/...-alliance-gold

I received a free upgrade on TAP a few years ago, but I think it was due to an oversold situation. Flight was LIS-LHR

However, I fly LH quite a but and have never been given an upgrade and if 016 ticket LH wants a fee to preselect seats. I do not pay the fee but i have friends that do. The seats allocated to me have always been fine on LH.

You do not get advance seat selection for free in economy on LH. How would you like to upgrade your LH flight, there are several possibilities, depending how you book you ticket.

It generally only matters who operates the flight (metal), although if the marketing carrier (flight numbers) is different than the operating carrier this can make everything harder.

Lufthansa will not permit free seat assignment (ASR) in Y or PE unless you are LH *G (or equivalent status within the LH Group) or on a full fare. UA status is not good enough for this. If the flight were operated by United, you could choose an Economy Plus seat for free like usual.

Correct, "Economy Basic" is the equivalent of regular Economy in United's terminology.

For the record, also free for award tickets.

OP - if you would like to reveal your itinerary, it might help with suggestions.

There are no complimentary upgrades on LH for UA 1K. You�ll for sure receive *G benefits.

As for upgrades, you can use miles to buy Star Alliance Upgrade Award on 1 segment on LH provided you have one of these fare classes: C, D, Y, B, J, E, G, M, U.

Or, as a 1K, you could use PlusPoints to upgrade 1 segment on LH provided you have the following fare classes: B, C, D, E, G, H, J, M, Q, U and Y.

LH doesn�t offer free seat assignments anymore at all in Y, except (I think) to their own HON members. Lasttime I checked, it was $35 for international flights (I think that was for most, but at least that�s what a TATL was, and I beleive also FRA-India was - not sure if there is differentiation based on region, or pricing has changed).

also, used to be that if you booked via UA on a codeshare flight (UA flight number, LH aircraft), you could not pay for a seat assignment in advance, but if you booked an LH-coded flight via UA.com you could. Maybe that�s changed now - just note it�s very difficult to book a native LH flight number on UA.com - it could be offered that way but most of the time, it�s just the codeshare - and I�ve never found a way to force it to offer the native flight number.

i will share the frustration about not being able to select a seat in advance. It would be nice to see them standardize elite benefits throughout the JV at least at a basic level with stuff like seat selection, economy plus / extra legroom seats where they exist, and same day flight changes.

The current situation where booking on LH removes many benefits of status usually has me staying on UA metal even if the price and schedule are worse, which I'm sure is the exact intention from all parties in the JV. Any reports about whether things any better with the other LH group airlines across the Atlantic, or with AC when booking through a codeshare?

Not that I can remember but I might forget some. As a general rule though, most carriers grant their own *G much better own-metal benefits in terms of seat selection than they do OAL *G. It's not like UA offers free E+ at booking to LH *G either, or any other seat selection benefit relative to a general member.

The standout in my memory is that NZ treats any *G more or less identically to their own *G, all the way down to admonishing me for calling the non-elite line

Moved the discussion about UA upgrades to Complimentary upgrades when UA's international premium / Polaris cabin(s) are open? so this discussion can focus on partner flight benefits.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator