2919scott

joer1212,

Congratulations on booking your first trip in a premium cabin for your upcoming trip to Munich next March. Even though you have flights you can live with, keep searching for a better reward option as Saver First Class Awards may open up closer to your flight date. A round trip saver 1st class award to Europe is only 135,000 miles. Of course you would have to pay a change fee as it looks like you don't have status with UA.

United may open up some saver 1st class seats to either FRA or MUC in the next few months. Lufthansa never opens up saver 1st class seats to UA any earlier than 14 days before the flights. You may want to look at the thread "Anyone booked LH F awards recently?" in the United forum. It will help you find LH F seats if you want your first trip in 1st class.

Keep looking you there is a very good chance you'll find something better.

joer1212

I actually chose the A340-600 EWR-MUC, and the A330-300 MUC-JFK. I did this purposely, so that I could try 2 different business classes and compare them.

joer1212

Wow, my inexperience certainly shows. Here I was rushing to secure my seats on LHF in J, because I thought they would soon be gone, when I should have probably waited.

Well, I may end up just staying in J, especially since I've never experienced it, and I'm curious. F can wait for another flight, I guess.
How much are the change fees typically?

Oh, another problem with changing from J to F is that I won't know if a window seat will be available in F until after I make the change. This may sound crazy, but I'd rather have an ideal seat in J than a mediocre one in F.

2919scott

Without any status your change fees might be as high as $100. You did the right thing by making your reservations now, you have flights you can live with. If something better comes along, you can change, if you don't find anything you're good with your existing flights.

If you fly in and out of Munich (and some flights to FRA) the seating in LH's 1st class cabin is 1-2-1, so half the seats are windows and half are aisles.

joer1212

But in a premium cabin, I consider a window superior to an aisle. Only in coach, on a long-haul flight, do I value the aisle more

zrs70

I would be vigilant in checking for SQ's JFK-FRA flight. I'm not up on whether SQ still releases seats. If they do, they are the carrier to go with.

joer1212

How would I change my flight if SQ opened up in J, or LH did in F? How does the procedure work? This is my first time booking an award flight, so any advice would be helpful.

I am kind of having buyer's remorse for having booked LH in J after reading this:

http://boardingarea.com/onemileatati...n-eight-seats/

Anyone know if LH's EWR to MUC in J has this much-maligned seat?

joer1212

Thank you, I'm really looking forward to it.
Should a First Class saver award open up, how would I actually go about changing my booking from J to F?
Also, I really want a window seat. But LH's site (if I remember correctly) doesn't allow you to see what seats are available before I book them. I would really hate to change my J window seat, only to find out that the only F seats available are middle seats.
Thanks.