LH FCT for LH family first class travel only.
Only F tickets get in F lounges.
Difference between BF and F I can't comment on :/ The BF service with lie-flats on the CO 752 and 772 is very good from what I understand. Some of the best TATL C service.

Hey, I say good for him!

OP, as said FCT/FCL in FRA is for LH/Swiss metal only. If you can find any way to do it (I got a base award last Dec with then-CO miles) do it! It's incredible, as is the inflight product -- specially if you get the new F on the 744.

Yeah, I'm definitely not your average fifteen year old. But don't worry, I'm sorted in the zits and summer job department. Working in a Hyatt Restaurant currently while I'm on spring break. It's the fact that I experienced F as a child and can't remember anything except for comfortable seats, that makes me want it even more therefore I'm going to look to make it the best experience I possibly can. Had a taste of TATL business on Austrian a couple of year ago but thats all my experience in premium cabins which is pretty low considering I've already been to over 25 countries and it seems miles I would have used for this experience again were used to buy award tickets without my knowledge
@wcalvert
Do you know if there is a difference in food served, one of my really surprising things when I flew Austrian C was the quality of food, I can't stand econ food so actually eating proper food on an airplane for me is an experience

Better than 77? I'm sure A380 beats it out, but tell you the truth, I've tried to avoid double decker's since my first flight on one. BA pilot had a mild tailstrike and it scared the .... out of me, it seems than the bigger the plane- the bigger chance of tailstrike.

Do you know if any A380s fly to NYC from FRA?

Would I be able to go to any of the other F lounges, I hear they're basically the same but I would have loved the experience of driving in a Mercedes on the tarmac to the plane. I'm sure there's no one who would mind it

SQ does...JFK-FRA...

Hi fellow London based traveler :-)

How hard would it be for you to stretch to 50k miles flown?

Getting to *Gold (vs silver) is a big deal if you mostly fly in economy, because it means you can use the lounges. (A great benefit at IST ^) Gold also gets treated very well on TK and AC (first boarding group, with business, plus use of the business class check in) and much better than silver on UA.

If you can get to 50k then you can get Gold on United. If you can't then look into Miles&Smiles (TK) and Agean (A3).

Check fare codes carefully. United is actually pretty good and even cheap tickets (at least G and above on Turkish and all United fares) credit at 100% which may not be the case for A3's and TK's mileage programs.

I would also read about redemption on the specific airline's forums. I know it's a pain for Miles&Smiles and may involve trips to Heathrow.

Finally - cross-alliance upgrades are hard to do. You need an expensive ticket (Y or B) plus 10K miles to upgrade. There is one loophole here - if you buy a TK Comfort Class ticket, and any segments aren't available as Comfort Class (e.g. LHR-IST) it books into full Y so you can upgrade that segment of the trip to business for 10k miles.

On the rare occasions they have to do it then it usually goes:

Airline's elites.
*A elites.
Everyone else.

I have been OpUped internationally three times in 400k miles of flying so I wouldn't worry about it when picking a FFP. (2 on CO (CO Silver, CO Gold), 1 on AC (CO Plat/*Gold).)

UA is good for straight up redemptions, not upgrades. If you want to upgrade then go look at BA's WT+ to CW upgrade chart which has some fantastic loopholes in it (calculate the net miles required UK-USA as a BA Silver card holder for example).

Also consider that upgrading any flight ex-UK will cost you an extra �75 in APD.

after reading the OPs 1st post I kinda felt no way is this this person 15, once I read their 2nd post Id say I highly doubt the poster is 15 or anywhere that age

Makes two of us.

Here are some of the benefits of switching from Miles & More to Mileage Plus:
1. No fuel surcharges on redemptions.
2. Free upgrades on domestic flights on UA (as an earlier poster indicated, this includes flights from the US to the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, etc.)
3. Lower cost redemptions in terms of miles.
4. SWUs if you can fly 100,000 miles.
5. E+ free at booking for 1P (50,000 mile elite level or above).

Positives for LH/M&M include:
1. 25% bonus miles for being elite are also EQMs.
2. 200% earned for paid business class (this will go down to 150% for Z after September 1).
3. lounge access at their hubs for Silver elite.

No airline gives away their premium classes on long haul routes (i.e. transatlantic). And you certainly can't count on operational upgrades. I have been LH Silver for six years and I have been operationally upgraded exactly once and that was on a short haul intra-European flight. A one-way one segment upgrade from econ to biz on LH is 50,000 transatlantic for the lower fare classes and 35,000 for Y & B (only on LH/LX/OS metal). But the plus is that you can do it at check-in. And there is no co-pay.

If you just want Star Gold status, as other posters have stated (for lounge access, better luggage allowance, priority boarding) consider Aegean, Turkish or Asiana. Those programs have worse rates for spending miles but better deals for earning status. For example, Asiana allows you two years accumulate 40,000 miles in order to earn *G status and your status is good for the balance of those two years PLUS two additional years. But the rates for free tickets or upgrades are really high (plus they have fuel surcharges).

For your dad, it won't matter if he flies in paid biz because he'll get all those benefits anyway.

Trust me dude, 15, I'm just a very mature writer for my age, and not to be modest or anything but I just have a very matured manner about me because I'm a very late (read mistake) child, so I always hung out with my brother who is 14 years older than me and sister who is 16 years older than me and their friends. I have the mentality of a 25 year old, which I wouldn't say is a good thing, I'd rather be an insane teenager but its just not me

Now back to the point:
First of all, hello to you too, but technically I'm Cambridge based Absolutely hate the 2 hour trip to LHR :P

I can try to stretch it to 50K but that really would be hard is TK a 35K Gold? I know about AC but on AC you need to fly AC 10K a year, and according to rumors its going Sky next year, and also you need to fly 10K on AC itself which is kind of out of my way. TK might work, but again, I don't think they have redemption which is as good, and tell you the truth, the reason I'm so badly in search of a FF program is because I definitely want to be on a Million Miler track. Although I have 80K on DL already, I feel United might be better.

Speaking of flight classes being credited badly, thats basically what started this whole thing. I flew LHR-IST and got 125 miles for the 4.5 hour flight. I almost punched my computer when I saw it because I didn't consider IST part of Europe so I thought I would get full milage traveled

I'm not a big fan of anything non-*A because it would be a lot harder to get to DYU with good milage claim, so it seems I'll have to live with no milage upgrades but I'll always keep my fingers crossed for an opup from heaven

According to a couple of my brothers friends who are UA GS they get upgraded pretty often purely because of GS status, and I'm talking TATL's
I dont see myself hitting GS for a while though, but it will be a hope to one day get that invite. Maybe after college when I can work for a company that can shell out for full fare C and F.

Wow, cheers for that. The Asiana thing is insane, I status for 2 years is nice, but tell you the truth, even though I like lounge access, I think I have a possibility of hitting 50 if I seriously try and if it doesn't happen then I'll keep trying year by year (I'm bound to fly that much at some point, I'm sure there will be the occasional family trip or something)
And also, United is nice for the fact that I'll have a chance of getting inter-US upgraded
Can you explain the united EQM system because I thought they counted on to the status. That definitely sets my dad back a bit because he's pretty focused on his "executive upgrade" for having status, but Im not sure whether he wanted it for the award miles or status.
Another Q about EQMs is do they roll over if you go over status like they do on DL? That would be very beneficial for hitting Gold, I dont know if you know but for example if you hit 45K on DL thats 20K over DL Silver, so you start off with those 20K the next year. That would be money for UA if they had that/added it

Zoui21, you are totally getting roasted because you use proper spelling and grammar haha.

I kind of had a feeling it was that too :P
Trust me though, there are 30 year olds who write like they're ten. There must be others similar to me then too

It takes me two hours to get to LHR too, and I live in central London!

40k miles to qualify, valid for two years. Details here: http://www.turkishairlines.com/en-uk...art_elite.aspx

(25k miles in your first year to re-qualify, or 37.5k in total over two years.)

With *A you can use the benefits of one FFP whilst crediting the miles to another.

*Gold makes such a big difference I would seriously consider getting to *G on TK and then crediting miles to UA once you have status.

You can make good use of your orphan TK miles for upgrades on TK metal, and in the grand scheme of things 40k miles (4%) missing from your MM total isn't going to make much difference.

Hey, 15 is totally cool, ignore the snippy comments.

Answering on LH -- the best FC product is the new one on the 74s (not all of them have it yet). It's better than on the A380 -- you get a full proper bed AND a great seat. And the Upper Deck is awesome. Plus there are only eight seats so you should get really nice personal service.

FCLs have the same rules as the FCT -- LH or LX metal only, and either booked in F on the same day or being a LH Hon (their top level). You can use the FCLs (but not the FCT) on arrival as well. It might be a Porsche instead of a Mercedes.

Cambridge -- I spent one of the best years of my life there. The best.

So my best option for pure experience would seem to be LHR-FRA-NYC(possibly with a stopover through ORD, makes the flight an hour or two longer)
I was looking through the UA awards and it does seem like it's really hard to find a 1st class ticket on the 74s. Is there any news on when they're all going to be fitted with the new interior, by what date, because I'm planning on doing this end of 2012 and I want to try to make sure that the chances are really high of me getting the right product.

As for the Asiana and Turkish thing, I would definitely see getting *G as a benefit, but the problem is that I usually fly economy or discounted economy and it seems that that is a hassle for Asiana because I think that they dont count miles for a lot of the deeply discounted fares on other *A airlines. How is TK in that department (TK also gives me 24mo to hit 40K correct?)

[QUOTE=Zoui21;18336210]I was looking through the UA awards and it does seem like it's really hard to find a 1st class ticket on the 74s. Is there any news on when they're all going to be fitted with the new interior, by what date, because I'm planning on doing this end of 2012 and I want to try to make sure that the chances are really high of me getting the right product.QUOTE] For the refit program, follow this thread.

I think the general consensus is that more seats become available close-in, presumably after they conclude they won't sell them.

Consider LX F as well. I haven't done it, but people really like it. And if you can arrange FRA-ZRH-US, you'll be able to access FCT for your FRA-ZRH leg.