Aspirant

Ha...you're right. Got me. Couldn't possibly be any other reason. Thanks for your help. Please continue taking surreptitious photographs of unaware women around the world.

SFore

Congrats! I'm bummed though, I am trying to find 2 seats ex-NA(probably on the same day you found) as well, but useless unless I can get to SE Asia.

Tracer_SEA

Similar situation here. The F seat I want came open on United.com and EF yesterday. Called twice, agents swore it wasn't there. Dug out my ANA tool login and sure enough it was not showing as available.

Too bad EF can't do alerts based on ANA tool availability...

nichojo

Got more EF alerts today and tried to book online... once again unsuccessful.

And I thought Delta was bad.

legallyblond

scored F ORD-FRA LH 433 on 9/27 last night, finally!

rufflesinc

I had that happen to me. I reserved the LH legs by themselves on united.com and they were reserved for me in about a day. Then I canceled them while on the phone with agent and they grabbed them for me for my existing reservation.

Tracer_SEA

Wow, well done. I played the waiting game -- and the "log into ANA every two hours" game -- and the seat finally came open there about 48 hours after it first showed as phantom on UA and EF.

Phone agent grabbed it for me, and now I'm done worrying about EF alerts and get to focus on looking forward to my trip (and the FCT, and the TG F Lounge and Spa in BKK )

MtRoot

Yesterday I booked ORD-FRA (744) / FRA-SIN (388) for tomorrow. I had to make a last minute change to my existing award booking because I had to push the departure for a few hours, and just came across these flights. Even more luckily they weren't phantom! I was also surprised to find out that the flights are quite full: F2A2 (4 seats open) and F2A0 (2 seats open) as of now.

SFO777

Good for you. Just a point of clarification: F2 A2 is only 2 seats... 2 F seats both of which can be sold as A.

MtRoot

I know; there are actually four open seats according to the seatmap, so I guess two pax haven't chosen their seats.

ksingh0311

This is incredibly lucky for you. I've been in a situation where seats were F5A5 (FRA-BOS) and O inventory never opened..

nemme99

I'm watching an F8A8 flight for next week. Maybe they hope to keep the section closed.

I'm still playing the waiting game on a flight, so much so that my feeders are mostly gone if it does open up. One award has been up on EF/M&M for three days and nothing yet except phantom space. Maybe I should try the online hold to make it work.

TOMFORD

Is it possible to book F on UA on the same route/time and then switch to F LH, or do you have to book economy on LH and then switch to F when it opens up?

mre5765

What I do is book F or J on UA on same route and time, and when I see F on LH open up, book on LH, wait for it to ticket, confirm on LH.com that the flights are ticketed, and then cancel the UA flights online. I don't wait very long (i.e. I wait minutes) to cancel the UA itin because IME UA notices when the same pax is on two different flghts at overlapping times or even non-overlapping times (UA seems unaware that one can take over carriers to get from B to A, when one has two flights A to B booked on 016 tix or UA metal, 24 hours apart). Also if you have a lot of miles, I am not particularly picky as to which gateway cities between North America and Europe I end up on: one way flights on low cost carriers in North America are loose change, and one way flights in Europe don't cost much, and worst case there is always a first class cabin in a train.

For example Mrs. mre is going to FRA next month, but for now she is landing in LHR on UA F, and in the worst case, I will buy her a one way revenue ticket on LH, GermanWings, or some other carrier to get her to FRA if nothing opens up. When I went to TXL last month, I started off on UA lie flat to TXL, got DEN to FRA locked in, and bought an LH FRA to TXL flight. Then FRA to Detroit opened up, so I scored that, and bought a WN Detroit to DEN flight and an AB TXL to FRA flight. Then FRA/IAD/DEN opened up, so I scored that, and canceled the WN flight, leaving me with a credit to use up (no change fees, no guilt).

It works best to book two one ways rather than a round trip so that one can exploit inventory on the outbound at exactly T-14. Obviously if you are subject to miles deposit fees or don't have extra miles to play with, this doesn't work.

criostal

LH #419 opened up in F for me at T minus 6 days. Nothing open yet on the return (as expected), which is still 15 days out.