Anyone booked LH F awards recently?
Nov 29, 2011, 8:49 pm
#16
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: GRR, USA
Posts: 3,298
Has anyone been able to successfully book Lufthansa first class award tickets recently, using UA or CO points?
This thread mentions some problems people have had: they see LH F award seats come up on continental.com searches, but can't book them. Interestingly, the ANA tool does not show the F availability.
Using ua.com, I've been finding a fair amount of LH F in mid-December for US east coast to Germany (for instance, IAD-MUC, ORD-MUC, and BOS-MUC on 12/16), but not a single flight shows F availability on the ANA tool.
So, I'm wondering if anyone has had success in the last week or two with LH F award bookings with UA/CO points??
This thread mentions some problems people have had: they see LH F award seats come up on continental.com searches, but can't book them. Interestingly, the ANA tool does not show the F availability.
Using ua.com, I've been finding a fair amount of LH F in mid-December for US east coast to Germany (for instance, IAD-MUC, ORD-MUC, and BOS-MUC on 12/16), but not a single flight shows F availability on the ANA tool.
So, I'm wondering if anyone has had success in the last week or two with LH F award bookings with UA/CO points??
Nov 29, 2011, 9:01 pm
#17
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Scottsdale, Berlin, Wherever
Programs: Marriott titanium Elite, Hyatt Globalist, AS, UA, AA, TWA, PAN AM, PSA
Posts: 558
There's a bug in their system. I just returned from a trip flying from SEA to FRA and back in First using CO miles (booked a few months ago) but while trying to book my next trip I'm finding availability on both the CO and UA site but when I call in I'm told there's no seats in F. When I tried to make the reservation online I got to the last screen then received an error message saying one or more of the flights are no longer available. I've noticed this for over a week now.
Nov 29, 2011, 9:09 pm
#18
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Washington, D.C.
Programs: UA Premier 1K: PlAAtinum; DL SM, MM; Marriott Gold; CO Plat Emeritus; NW Plat Emeritus
Posts: 4,776
Maybe earlier than you're concerned about, but about four weeks ago I booked TLV-FRA-IAD, 744s, saverpass, no problem. (Outbound IAD-TLV is J). 83K confirmed. Happy camper, me.
Last edited by Alpha Golf; Nov 30, 2011 at 10:18 am Reason: saverpass, not easy. D'oh!
Nov 29, 2011, 9:26 pm
#19
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Houston
Programs: UA Plat, Marriott Gold
Posts: 12,691
Well, I'm sorry that you've not been able to book them. 
Personally, I have not had any problems booking (or flying) LH F on either the 747 or the A380 when using CO miles for SaverPass awards.
Hopefully your luck improves, because I'm certain you'll enjoy the
onboard experience on both services.
Best of luck!
Personally, I have not had any problems booking (or flying) LH F on either the 747 or the A380 when using CO miles for SaverPass awards.
Hopefully your luck improves, because I'm certain you'll enjoy the
onboard experience on both services.
Best of luck!
Nov 29, 2011, 9:35 pm
#20
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: HPN
Programs: not anymore! I'm FREE!
Posts: 3,459
Nov 29, 2011, 10:06 pm
#22
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Scottsdale, Berlin, Wherever
Programs: Marriott titanium Elite, Hyatt Globalist, AS, UA, AA, TWA, PAN AM, PSA
Posts: 558
I think the issue here isn't the difficulty of booking a flight. It's that both the CO and UA sites show false availability on certain Lufthansa flights. I've seen this for over a week now on a flight that I'm trying to book in F. Both sites show the flight is available for a saver award but if you try to make the reservation online you get an error at the last step. When you call and speak with an agent they show no availabilty. Makes it difficult to search for a flight when you get bad info on their web site.
Nov 30, 2011, 5:57 am
#23
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Portland, OR
Programs: United 1k (finally!), Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 655
Booked one on Thanksgiving, EWR-FRA (onward to LIS in C), on a A340, tons of availability came up, and had an excellent flight (trip report may come into being sooner or later).
Can produce PNR email if proof needed.
Can produce PNR email if proof needed.
Nov 30, 2011, 8:28 am
#24
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: HPN
Programs: not anymore! I'm FREE!
Posts: 3,459
It's good to know that you and tanlines were able to book recently. This suggests that the problem of "phantom" LH F award space is not due to a general block. At least some of the seats showing up on ua.com and co.com should be bookable.
I still wonder why many LH F seats still don't show up on the ANA tool, even though they show as available on ua/co.com.
Nov 30, 2011, 1:08 pm
#25
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Portland, OR
Programs: United 1k (finally!), Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 655
Of course proof isn't needed - this isn't the Inquisition!
It's good to know that you and tanlines were able to book recently. This suggests that the problem of "phantom" LH F award space is not due to a general block. At least some of the seats showing up on ua.com and co.com should be bookable.
I still wonder why many LH F seats still don't show up on the ANA tool, even though they show as available on ua/co.com.
It's good to know that you and tanlines were able to book recently. This suggests that the problem of "phantom" LH F award space is not due to a general block. At least some of the seats showing up on ua.com and co.com should be bookable.
I still wonder why many LH F seats still don't show up on the ANA tool, even though they show as available on ua/co.com.
From my limited understanding, my theory on what generally happens is award inventory is loaded into the GDS/StarNet, and that's accessible to all partners. CO's website probably shows the GDS data directly, but the inventory loaded into GDS and what's actually available doesn't match. When you try and buy the reservation, the LH system kicks it back because they don't have any inventory in the correct fair bucket.
I won't be suprised if this issue is also true across all M&M fully integrated partners, but I haven't seen any issues with anyone else beside LH on this.
Nov 30, 2011, 3:15 pm
#26
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 251
The only proof we need is A380 award booking, which no onepass member has yet provided, and of course we are talking about a non "aircraft change" or similar situation.
Dec 5, 2011, 10:13 pm
#28
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 834
I had booked on LH R/T from ORD to FRA for the last week of October 2011. This booking was made 3 weeks out and changed my return flight the night before the flight. I was able to get First both ways on the 747 with the beds in the upper deck. I was also able to get the flights with a saver award using only UA 137,000 miles! If you never had the bed on LH 747, you got to try it! I never slept so well on a flight! Oh I guess all that Johnny Walker Blue Label, in the lounge and the flight, had something to do with it! 
Dec 5, 2011, 10:49 pm
#29
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: IAH
Programs: Former UA1K transitioning to WFBF mentality
Posts: 779
Booked LH F FRA-IAH a few days ago when I saw it on the CO website. Called the agent, she saw the O availability, and it was done in 15 min.
Dec 6, 2011, 9:27 am
#30
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Washington, D.C.
Programs: UA Premier 1K: PlAAtinum; DL SM, MM; Marriott Gold; CO Plat Emeritus; NW Plat Emeritus
Posts: 4,776