LufthansaFlyer

Yes, I've done it several times. Just call the MP reservations line and they'll help you. On one of my trips I had it changed 30 minutes before boarding started.

Hokiethang

No, it's not on ANA's site, so i'm certain it's there. I thought that UA made a big deal about fixing phantom availability, and thought it had been fixed fully but it's good to know t's still around. Thanks for the information Hartmann and LufthansaFlyer.

bigmarley4

Hello, I am heading off to my honeymoon to Germany on Sep 30. Currently booked on UA using miles, BF saver award SFO-MUC via LHR. Was hoping to get a seats on LH 459 SFO-MUC direct in business. Is there a better method than signing up for Expert Flyer and setting an alert for the star alliance rewards availability in business for those flights? I've used ANA to spot check in the past, but I want the best chance of getting this flight if possible. I have never used EF before this trip, so trying to make sure I have it set up right.

Here are my alerts:
LH-MUC Sep 30
09/30/13 9:05 PM
SFO to MUC on LH 459
At least 2 in Business - Award/Upgrade (I)

SFO Muc Sep 30 1st
09/30/13 9:05 PM
SFO to MUC on LH 459
At least 2 in First - Award/Upgrade (O)

Thanks in advance for your help! Best,

bigM

Madone59

The LH SFO flights are hard to score, especially two seats on - think of some back up plants with connections if LH F is your goal. LAX, YVR (even DEN) are small hops from SFO - look at those too.

SFO777

Unfortunately, there is virtually no chance you will find F seats on that flight.
It is currently F3 A0. Business looks better but it may take another week.
Your best bet is to just keep checking UA.com and ANA a couple of times a day.
Checking now I see two First (O) seats SFO-SEA-FRA on 9/30.

bigmarley4

Cool, thanks. I'm actually looking for business SFO-MUC since that's what we booked originally. Right now our routing is fine and I like our seats, so we'll probably just keep our original SFO-LHR-MUC trip.

villox

So I've been looking for 2 seats in business class TXL-ORD for awhile now. The calendar on United.com finally showed some availability yesterday for two seats via FRA.

When I tried to book however, I got the phantom error "one of your flights is no longer available" or whatever.

I tried several times to no avail. I noticed however that each of my attempts had resulted in a PNR in my account, both a UA one and an LH one. Both segments showed up, and they were listed as "Waitlisted". I had never seen this before. I could even look it up on LH's website and it showed waitlisted there (but could not select seats).

Before going to bed, I canceled all of them but one. Woke up in the middle of the night, continued my bad habit of checking my phone, and noticed that now the waitlisted indicator was missing and it said something to the effect of "your reservation is confirmed and in process". I had never actually completed the purchase, so I did so and got the confirmation email from United. At this point, prior to ticketing, I was able to select seats on LH.

It took about 5 hours, but I finally got the ticketed email.

This is a long thread that I have read much of, but has anyone seen this behavior? Booking a flight listed that was phantom, having it as waitlisted and then having it clear?

SFore

How rare are 2F awards FRA-BKK or FRA-SIN?

ironmanjt

Just scored 2 seats ORD-FRA exactly 14 days out...was F6 A6 when they released them.

Aspirant

Good for you. I've been looking for that myself. What date is your travel?

SFO777

Well... T-14 would seem to indicate October 4.

Aspirant

Unless of course it was booked yesterday or the day before. "Just" can be a bit vague.

nichojo

Screwed by phantom award <14 days out multiple times this week. Currently in C IAD-MUC LH415 on 9/28 and trying to get F. Right now Flisea.com, experflyer and United.com all show it as available but I am unable to book it. SO FRUSTRATING!

SFO777

Unless you are a stalker, does it really matter what his travel date is?
The relevant data points are 2 seats, ORD-FRA at T-14 into an F6 cabin.

villox

I'm going to try to make this short, but I'm super excited about what happened today so I thought I'd share the experience:

- As I mentioned earlier, I had waitlisted TXL-FRA-ORD earlier today, and when I woke up they were confirmed, so I was able to complete my purchase, for myself and a companion, in Business all on LH.

- I started getting greedy thinking I'd try to upgrade one of us to First Class if a seat became available. I tried doing a split online to make this easier later, which of course ended in a disaster. I had to call UA who used the MP service center to quickly redeposit the miles (I had verified that there was still availability to rebook). My only option was to cancel the whole thing and rebook us on two separate PNRs.

- UA could no longer find availability, even though just earlier ALL of the flights were easily confirmable. I even changed out TXL-FRA flights a couple times online with no issue

- I managed to find availability TXL-DUS-FRA, because the FRA-ORD leg was still open, so the agent confirmed us. United.com was still showing phantom availability on all the TXL-FRA flights even though both LH and UA said they weren't there.

- Thinking I'd still mess with us, I tried CHANGING the reservation online once again to put us on the TXL-FRA direct, WHICH WORKED. I don't know why, but it did, and both LH and UA said I was confirmed. I could pick seats too.

- I came to this thread and saw the post about 6pm having F open up (flight is about a week and a half away), so I checked on ANA and saw one open.

- Called UA and they quickly confirmed one of us into First!