Anyone booked LH F awards recently?
Aug 11, 2013, 6:50 am
#1426
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Dubai / NYC
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Good point and many would agree. Although my (now thoroughly spoiled) wife has undergone an amazing transformation over the past couple of years. Her feeling now is "the longer the better". I believe she was referring to flight length. 
She prefers 8 hours of sleep a night, loves the seat and bed on the 744, and complaints that the 9 hour flight from DEN-FRA is just "too short". IHO, SFO-HKG at 15 hours in CX First is the perfect length. And even though she has become pretty jaded about TATL/TPAC F travel, she was actually excited when I told her that I had booked us on EK's new LAX-DXB A380 flight next February and that it was 16 hours. All this from the woman that only a few years ago proclaimed "I'd rather fly nonstop Economy than make a connection in First".
She prefers 8 hours of sleep a night, loves the seat and bed on the 744, and complaints that the 9 hour flight from DEN-FRA is just "too short". IHO, SFO-HKG at 15 hours in CX First is the perfect length. And even though she has become pretty jaded about TATL/TPAC F travel, she was actually excited when I told her that I had booked us on EK's new LAX-DXB A380 flight next February and that it was 16 hours. All this from the woman that only a few years ago proclaimed "I'd rather fly nonstop Economy than make a connection in First".
......But I would say it depends on the route. Going Trans Pac to HKG, for me a non stop from the US is always best, especially from the West Coast (although East Coast flights are not really THAT much longer....But on flights like NY-SIN or VV I would NEVER take the SQ non stop (even if they had F on it) That 2 hour stop in FRA is a nice way to stretch your legs, grab a cigarette (although in my experience, SQ is one of the 3-4 airlines in the world what will 9/10 tiems find a place for an F class passenger to smoke (that could be a whole different thread)Whatever, does not matter.....You and your wife are going to have a GREAT flight in EK F on the 380. Just my 2 cents now, they don't have "double suites" like SQ does - there is a little wall (that can turn into a full wall) separating you so when I fly the 380 with my GF we prefer windows one in front of the other - buy YMMV - have a good flight whatever you do
Aug 11, 2013, 6:51 am
#1427
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Although all five of the old F 744s are scheduled to be retired in October. Most of the replacement 748s have already been delivered. Hopefully DEN will keep the 744 and not get the 748 or worse, go back to the 346.
FWIW, today's DEN-FRA is new First, as the scheduled old F was subbed.
Thanks, looking forward to it. We've never done a long EK flight, only BKK-HKG and DXB-LHR. Yeah, I wanted the windows but she preferred the middle so "we can be together". So the middle it is. Happy wife, happy life. 
FWIW, today's DEN-FRA is new First, as the scheduled old F was subbed.
Whatever, does not matter.....You and your wife are going to have a GREAT flight in EK F on the 380. Just my 2 cents now, they don't have "double suites" like SQ does - there is a little wall (that can turn into a full wall) separating you so when I fly the 380 with my GF we prefer windows one in front of the other - buy YMMV - have a good flight whatever you do
Last edited by iluv2fly; Aug 11, 2013 at 11:54 am Reason: merge
Aug 11, 2013, 6:54 am
#1428
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: LAX IAH AMS
Programs: UA GS 1MM
Posts: 1,268
Aug 12, 2013, 5:40 pm
#1429
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 14
I was able to book a SFO-MUC F award ticket today with a little work via the website.
I was originally trying to book MRY-SFO-MUC on the website but I kept getting the error. Two different agents both said MRY-SFO was open, it was the LH SFO-MUC leg that had no availability. I checked the ANA tool to confirm and sure enough there was nothing available. I then tried the website one last time using just SFO-MUC. The saver award was there, I clicked, and boom, booked! Not sure what happened but it just goes to show sometimes even the ANA tool isn't right. The flight is 8 days out.
I was originally trying to book MRY-SFO-MUC on the website but I kept getting the error. Two different agents both said MRY-SFO was open, it was the LH SFO-MUC leg that had no availability. I checked the ANA tool to confirm and sure enough there was nothing available. I then tried the website one last time using just SFO-MUC. The saver award was there, I clicked, and boom, booked! Not sure what happened but it just goes to show sometimes even the ANA tool isn't right. The flight is 8 days out.
Aug 12, 2013, 6:47 pm
#1430
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: SFO
Programs: AS MVP, FB Silver (former UA 1K)
Posts: 161
Does anyone know what time of the day the LH inventory gets loaded? While there is a reasonable expectation of how many days in advance, to optimize one's chances of snagging a single available F saver award it would be useful to hit the inventory when its fresh. Thanks in advance.
Aug 12, 2013, 7:30 pm
#1431
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: LAX IAH AMS
Programs: UA GS 1MM
Posts: 1,268
Does anyone know what time of the day the LH inventory gets loaded? While there is a reasonable expectation of how many days in advance, to optimize one's chances of snagging a single available F saver award it would be useful to hit the inventory when its fresh. Thanks in advance.
Aug 12, 2013, 9:46 pm
#1432
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Join Date: Apr 2013
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I was able to book a SFO-MUC F award ticket today with a little work via the website.
I was originally trying to book MRY-SFO-MUC on the website but I kept getting the error. Two different agents both said MRY-SFO was open, it was the LH SFO-MUC leg that had no availability. I checked the ANA tool to confirm and sure enough there was nothing available. I then tried the website one last time using just SFO-MUC. The saver award was there, I clicked, and boom, booked! Not sure what happened but it just goes to show sometimes even the ANA tool isn't right. The flight is 8 days out.
I was originally trying to book MRY-SFO-MUC on the website but I kept getting the error. Two different agents both said MRY-SFO was open, it was the LH SFO-MUC leg that had no availability. I checked the ANA tool to confirm and sure enough there was nothing available. I then tried the website one last time using just SFO-MUC. The saver award was there, I clicked, and boom, booked! Not sure what happened but it just goes to show sometimes even the ANA tool isn't right. The flight is 8 days out.
Aug 12, 2013, 11:24 pm
#1434
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Chicago USA
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Posts: 1,762
Aug 13, 2013, 12:28 am
#1435
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Although all five of the old F 744s are scheduled to be retired in October. Most of the replacement 748s have already been delivered. Hopefully DEN will keep the 744 and not get the 748 or worse, go back to the 346.
FWIW, today's DEN-FRA is new First, as the scheduled old F was subbed.
FWIW, today's DEN-FRA is new First, as the scheduled old F was subbed.
Hold on a sec - just to confirm, from what I am reading, LH is getting rid of all the 744s by October and replacing them with 748s!? I have never been in C (or Y) on LH (except C within Europe/Russia) and after experiencing years ago the cramped 16 F seats upstairs I vowed I would never travel with them on the 744 again. I've now flown the new F on the 744 a handful of times and I think they got one of the best F class products, better than F on their A380 or A340, of which I have also flown, the latter many o'times and I prefer it than the closed suites. I'll be sad to see all those 744s taken out of service - besides what a beautiful plane.
Do I have that right?
Aug 13, 2013, 5:39 am
#1436
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Location: Denver • DEN-APA
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Hold on, indeed. I'm a bit confused as well. But if I interpret SFO777's post correctly, not all of the 744s are being taken out of service by October - rather, only the "old F" ones that have the old 2x2 seating upstairs (though LH has blocked one of the seats on each side to be used as a bed). So there will still be the "new F" 744s in service that are 1X1 upstairs, with an actual bed replacing the second seat on each side.
Do I have that right?
Do I have that right?
Agree with UrbaneGent, that the 744 new First is one of the best, if not the best, F products on the market.
Aug 13, 2013, 10:03 am
#1437
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 386
Just learned of phantom availability when I called to make over US-FRA booking for next week. Frustrating!
Any reports of ua.com NOT showing F availability when it's actually available? IE. false negatives?
Any reports of ua.com NOT showing F availability when it's actually available? IE. false negatives?
Aug 13, 2013, 3:59 pm
#1438
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 386
It really stinks that expertflyer has the same problems as united does and sends out saver award alerts for LH F when they are not actually available.
Aug 13, 2013, 5:35 pm
#1439
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 716
Yes, 14 and 15 (after 6pm) days out. As far as I can tell, UA has a rule that restricts any LH F inventory from displaying unless it's within 13 calendar days to limit the number of phantom bookings people try to make. Well intentioned...but someone screwed up making it <14 rather than <16.
Aug 15, 2013, 7:07 am
#1440
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: AA Exec Plat, Marriott Titanium, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 140
I don't know if anyone is interested but it looks like there are 4 award seats in LH old F available from DFW-FRA on 8/20.