Kacee

Yes.

747FC

delpiero223

Any experience on booking a LH Miles&More award Ticket and using 1K status to receive free Eco+ seats?

Edit: Overlooked post #65 where it's said to be possible - so I guess it's solved already.

raehl311

Inventory has been similar for a couple weeks on (at least) the IAD-BRU flight for 7/14. J2 RN9, but the seat map has about 9 empty J seats (yeah yeah seat map does not equal inventory) but only 4 empty R seats.

Seems like United is overselling their PP cabin and underselling their J...?

jsloan

Were you checking the inventory with a connecting flight? I see 9 in every fare class.

sskl1998

United Mileage Plus Silver & Air Canada S100K (SA Gold) here. Can I get complimentary Economy Plus seat if I charge the miles to AC?

mahasamatman

Your MP number must be on the record to get E+ at check-in. If you change your number to AC after that, you may or may not lose the E+ seat.

SFOrunner

My girlfriend and I booked a one-way into CPH for a NYE vacation, and have yet to book a return flight home. Ideally we would fly from CPH through FRA, back to SFO on Sunday, January 5th, but at this point there is no saver award availability through UA.com. That said, we can be flexible with when we leave, and where we leave from (Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Munich, etc...) Is the below strategy a recipe for disaster?

I currently have seat alerts set on ExpertFlyer for non-stop routes like FRA-SFO, MUC-SFO, CPH-SFO, and ZRH-SFO, looking for I and O availability on January 4th and 5th. Obviously if a saver fare comes available between now and then, I'll book it. But I'm planning on that not happening anytime soon, and instead planning on booking sometime within seven (7) days of January 5th. Taking advantage of my 1K status, I can book / cancel / change award flights up to T-24. And my dummy bookings for FRA / MUC-SFO for July 15-22 (as well as in weeks past) indicate that LH will likely have O availability at least to BOS, DEN, ORD or IAD.

Is waiting until we're in Europe and within seven days of our planned return a dumb idea? Or is it likely that we'll find some saver awards for premium TATL tickets, similar to the availability I see today.

findark

How bad is it if you have to shell out for Standard Awards? Do you have enough miles? Are you going into credit card debt to cover the difference? Can you fly on Tuesday the 7th instead?

This is a gamble that will probably pay out in your favor (i.e. you should be fine), but I wouldn't do it unless you can accept the risk of needing to go with a backup plan.

jsloan

If you specifically have to travel on the 4th or 5th -- it's probably not a great idea. You might find something -- maybe O space on LH -- but, then again, you might not. Weekends are tough, and the weekend after a holiday means that you're competing not only with passengers who were willing to pay for business class for their vacation, but also business travelers who are starting out the work year by traveling to the US.

At a minimum, I'd have a solid plan B ready to go.

SFOrunner

Plenty of miles to cover two one-way standard awards home, either in Y or J. And yes, we can be flexible with dates if absolutely necessary.

findark

As long as the Standard Award route is an acceptable backup, I think the odds are pretty strongly in your favor. I'd go for it and enjoy the spontaneity! As a 1K you could also just book a Standard Award now and hold it until you get the better option.

Boraxo

Agree. A 1K colleague just tried this for flights around Memorial Day weekend. he actually changed flights to one with more open seats but nothing opened up for his GPU and he flew back in coach. Now admittedly you have more options with saver awards as you can cancel and rebook on a partner. But no guarantees particularly with the new MP "no award chart" program - we don't know how that will play out with partners going forward. I am sure there will be a standard award of some sort that will have space but who knows how many miles that will cost.

SFOrunner

I am banking heavily on not flying UA metal across the pond - specifically because the UA awards from FRA-SFO are close to 240,000 miles with the new MP devaluation. Fortunately, SAS, Swiss and LH have options in the 60-70k range.

Also - How was your colleague using his GPU on his award travel?

Boraxo

He didn't - it was a revenue ticket.