Anyone booked LH F awards recently?

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Sep 29, 2013, 2:03 pm

#1591

747FC

Join Date: Jan 2013

Location: Hawai'i Nei

Programs: Au: UA, Marriott, Hilton; GE

Posts: 7,145

Quote:

Originally Posted by 747FC

OK, I know people on this forum aspire to LH F because it is such a great product, but would you really take that option, or the UA alternative:

LH:

HNL-YVR AC J Leave 8:30 PM Arrive 5:00 AM Next Day
YVR-FRA LH F Leave 4:15 PM Arrive 11:10 AM Next Day
FRA-IST LH J Leave 1:00 PM Arrive 4:50 PM

UA:

HNL-SFO UA J Leave 6:15 AM Arrive 2:27 PM
SFO-FRA UA F Leave 7:20 PM Arrive 3:00 PM Next Day
FRA-MUC LH J Leave 5:00 PM Arrive 6:00 PM
FRA-IST LH J Leave 7:15 PM Arrive 10:50 PM

LH Option Pluses:

Not getting up at 3 AM to make first flight
Only two connections
LH F product
Earlier arrival in IST

UA Option Pluses:

Only one overnighter
Less total travel time
-----

Your considered wisdom would be appreciated!

I thank everyone who provided their wisdom and advice! Based upon one of your responses, I did check and the LH seat is the older version and not a suite. If you were mainly interested in sleeping on the flight, would you still choose the LH flat-seat product over the UA new suite? Thanks.

Sep 29, 2013, 2:04 pm

#1592

747FC

Join Date: Jan 2013

Location: Hawai'i Nei

Programs: Au: UA, Marriott, Hilton; GE

Posts: 7,145

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kacee

Actually, the 6:15 a.m. HNL-SFO is on the 764 with lie-flats.

The AC is supposed to be a lie-flat product as well.

Sep 29, 2013, 5:52 pm

#1593

LM225

Join Date: Apr 2008

Posts: 1,151

Apologies if this has been answered, but I couldn't find it in this thread:

I want to book an LH F award to PRG/CDG (with UA miles) in December (outbound Dec 13-15, inbound Dec 26-27). I'm very flexible with my US departure city as long as it has new F, so I won't mind taking the availability wherever it opens up.

Two questions:

1) Would you recommend booking a placeholder award in C so that I can secure the intra-european flights, or just waiting until two weeks out? I'm aware that there would be a change fee to upgrade later, but I'm willing to pay it.

2) Am I okay to assume I'm safe keeping the faith on the TATL's?

Thanks!

Last edited by LM225; Sep 29, 2013 at 6:05 pm

Sep 29, 2013, 6:16 pm

#1594

Jorgen

Join Date: Jun 2011

Location: MEL

Programs: VAG

Posts: 1,865

Quote:

Originally Posted by rufflesinc

Wouldn't that have been TG going the extra mile since they were the sole carrier?

Actually I left extraneous details out of my original story, but my actual original itinerary was DBV-FRA-MUC-BKK-SYD. It was LH who cancelled the FRA-MUC flight so it was the nice LH fräulein at FRA who rebooked me.

Sep 29, 2013, 7:59 pm

#1595

dsquared37

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Mar 2008

Location: body: A stone's throw from SFO, mind: SE Asia

Programs: Some of this 'n some of that

Posts: 17,263

Persistence and knowledge pays off.

Slowly made ways on an itin which finally morphed into BKK-NRT-ICN-FRA-IAH-xxx where everything other than the final segment is in F. The only reason I'm masking the final coupon is because we're still trying to figure out where to go!

My wife was not happy I woke up every day at 5AM to look at availabilty but that annoyance has dissipated.

Sep 29, 2013, 10:15 pm

#1596

5khours

Join Date: Sep 2009

Programs: UA GS>1K>Nothing; DL DM 2MM; AS 75K>Nothing>MVP

Posts: 9,341

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsquared37

Try ExpertFlyer if you're just waiting on a just one or two segments. It will save you the 5am wake up. (Doesn't help much though putting together a more complex trip. I had to piece together an xxx>ORD>MUC>HKG>SGN itinerary recently.... phone agent insisted I should just give her the origin and destination and she could find the itin. Didn't show up on her system so she was surprised I had found it.)

Sep 30, 2013, 12:20 pm

#1597

FlyIgglesFly

Join Date: Nov 2009

Location: Trenton, NJ (PHL, EWR)

Programs: A3 Gold, BA Bronze

Posts: 1,633

Just booked at T-2 an EWR-MUC-FRA-KWI award in F on LH. Original routing had been EWR-IAD-KWI. I've been watching each day from T-14, finally opened even though 5 seats were open on the KWI route.

Oct 1, 2013, 9:11 am

#1598

sammybk

Join Date: Sep 2008

Location: LAX, MMH

Programs: MMH MVP Charter Member, UA 1K MM

Posts: 418

This is starting to frustrate me. I know I can book the phantom space if I change an existing reservation online. I just tested this by making a new reservation in economy (with non-phantom space) and then changing it to first class. I verified I was showing with seats on Lufthansa in first on the flight I wanted!

BUT - my reservation is too complicated to change online, and when I cancelled the new reservation the seats went back into phantom status - the agent couldn't see them, but I could. Gah.

Oct 1, 2013, 9:38 am

#1599

kluever

Join Date: Dec 2012

Location: EWR

Programs: Free agent flyer, Hyatt Globalist

Posts: 365

Phantom award space in LH F?

Hi all,

I'm trying to swap a UA 763 BusinessFirst segment for a LH 744 F segment that just popped up, but United can't see the award space when I call in. I confirmed that 2 award seats in O space is available both on United.com and ExpertFlyer:
LH 405
JFK 10/14/13 9:55 PM
FRA 10/15/13 11:35 AM
F7 A1 J9 C9 D9 Z0 Y9 B9 M9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T9 L9 K9

Is this really phantom space or do I need to convince United that this space does actually exist some how?

Thanks,

Oct 1, 2013, 9:48 am

#1600

snic

Original Poster

Join Date: Aug 2005

Location: HPN

Programs: not anymore! I'm FREE!

Posts: 3,459

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-recently.html

Oct 1, 2013, 11:07 am

#1601

Gunner14

Join Date: Jun 2013

Location: RDU

Posts: 735

I never realized how prevalent the phantom availability was until checking the UA search against the ANA search. United shows 2 LH F seats available at least 4 days out of the next 14. ANA shows no days with 2 seats available.

Oct 1, 2013, 12:03 pm

#1602

rufflesinc

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: May 2006

Location: DTW, but drive to/from YYZ/ORD

Programs: Chase Ultimate Rewards 2MM, Diner Club points

Posts: 31,920

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gunner14

If united.com lets you put the 2 seats on hold, do that. You will have them grabbed if they open up later, before anyone else.

Oct 1, 2013, 12:24 pm

#1603

cheltzel

Join Date: Apr 2010

Location: ORD

Programs: AA, UA, GE

Posts: 5,123

Quote:

Originally Posted by rufflesinc

If united.com lets you put the 2 seats on hold, do that. You will have them grabbed if they open up later, before anyone else.

Can you put the seats on hold with a throw away award reservation and then merge the seats into an already booked award?

Oct 1, 2013, 12:32 pm

#1604

rufflesinc

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: May 2006

Location: DTW, but drive to/from YYZ/ORD

Programs: Chase Ultimate Rewards 2MM, Diner Club points

Posts: 31,920

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheltzel

Can you put the seats on hold with a throw away award reservation and then merge the seats into an already booked award?

Yes and no. Once I got the seats on hold, phone agent said I had to cancel it. I got lucky and they went right back into inventory.

Oct 1, 2013, 1:35 pm

#1605

sammybk

Join Date: Sep 2008

Location: LAX, MMH

Programs: MMH MVP Charter Member, UA 1K MM

Posts: 418

Quote:

Originally Posted by rufflesinc

Yes and no. Once I got the seats on hold, phone agent said I had to cancel it. I got lucky and they went right back into inventory.

Did you let it waitlist on hold and clear the waitlist, or did you cheat and book the phantom inventory directly? When I cheated and booked directly, it DID NOT go back into 'real' O inventory when I cancelled the confirmed seats. It went back as phantom.