Europeanexplorer

Fellow FT members,

I have a flight booked in late March 2018 on LX38 (ZRH-SFO) into booking class P. F is wide open (F8A7).

Am I correct in thinking that the only way to upgrade this flight is:
1. With M&M miles as a M&M Senator.
2. With an LH eVoucher.
3. Cash.

I presume UA miles don't work for upgrades into F just as with awards?

NewbieRunner

1. You don't have to be a Senator to upgrade from P to F.
2. You need two eVouchers.
3. Yes (I guess anything is possible with cash )

I think you can only upgrade C, D or J with UA miles.

airoli

1. No need to be SEN, but need to use M&M miles.

Europeanexplorer

Thanks both - that's very helpful.

Looks like I need to find a way to get my hands on some M&M miles or LH eVouchers. At least there is no Senator requirement, which would have made this impossible.

worldclubber

If you are not SEN, and have never been, it is kind of hard to get M&M eVochers.

Upgrade shouldn't be a problem, though, if you can get your hands on enough miles.

Good luck getting an upgrade ZRH-SFO! Just upgraded a flight from P to A and had to be somewhat flexible with dates, as even F8A6/F8A5 did not go through (as SEN). Swiss hotline told me that booking class "O" was already closed and M&M then confirmed no availability.

NewbieRunner

When I upgraded P > F with eVouchers I picked a flight which was F8A8.

Europeanexplorer

Yes, I just saw the number of M&M miles to upgrade from P to F (70,000). That's crazy considering you need 85,000 for an outright award. No thanks!

I can get hold of some eVouchers as I know some SENs who sometimes have some leftover ones they cannot use (and before someone says that no one ever has leftover upgrade awards, it does happen: I have 2 UA GPUs and 4 AA SWUs which I cannot use this year).

There is one seat available in "O", so there is hope yet! It sounds like eVouchers are the best way forward.

cfischer

no, not even that. LX is the most restrictive airline in *A when it comes to that. You can upgrade LH on D-class ... but certainly not LX!

best is to use cash upgrades from P fares IMO.

LonLH

I have some e-vouchers due to expire in December, I am trying to book P and upgrade to F on LX as P fare is 1400 GBP while taxes and fees on award ticket is 600 GBP. D fare on LH is 3200 (which has good O availability)so I would rather fly LX than LH. My dates are fairly flexible.
I can see no LX award availability on M&M website, even on flights wide open F8A8, for weeks. I called the SEN line, the agent say I need to ticket the flight first, then they have to request seat from LX (which may or may not happen). The risk is that my P fare is non changeable and non refundable so I will be stuck with it if the evouchers don't clear, thus negating the whole reason for booking it in first place.
The agent says Swiss release O space only against request.
Is there any way to check O space on LX or is the agent correct?
TIA.

worldclubber

As you said, I would alwayys use eVouchers for upgrades and miles for awards.

BTW, to my mind, LX is not the most restrictive for M&M-customers, as they allow upgrades into the F-cabin from P and Z, which LH does not. Hope LH will do that again soon, too; until then, LX takes the cake.

worldclubber

LX awards cannot be seen onlien and the booking process of upgrades is a bit of a pain in the neck. Although there is never a guarantee, a few strategies have proven successful:

1a) Call Swiss and ask for availability of "O" just before you book the flight.

or

1b) Call M&M and ask for probable availability of an upgrade just before you book.

Then:

2) Immediately call M&M and ask them to request the upgrade from LX (takes a few seconds). Most of the time it will go through right away.

If the feces hit the proverbial fan and the upgrade disappears between the first phone call and the second, make use of the 24 hour grace period and cancel the flight without penalty (even non-refundable fares).

Good luck!

chris63

Call the LX SEN line, they can tell you which days an upgrade would currently clear, book online & call back directly, if something goes wrong ask the agent to cancel under the 24 hour rule or change the date & clear the upgrade.

LonLH

I guess that is the SEN contact number in Switzerland, yes?

worldclubber

You get an estimation from the LH SEN line, the LH SEN line or M&M, does not really matter.

cbourl

Make sure you call the LX Senator line not LH Senator line LH Sen line sis not LX Ive always done my upgrades through LX Zuerich Sen Line!