Lefleur

Apologies if I somehow missed a thread on this (I searched, I promise).

I purchased a ticket on United that includes flights codeshared (and operated by) Lufthansa, including US to/from Frankfurt legs (and some other flights in this itinerary).

Lufthansa will not let me pay for an upgrade to premium economy or business class because they said my ticket was purchased in the "basic economy" fare. Lufthansa does not allowed paid upgrades, etc., on "basic economy." I am using quotes here because that is the precise language/terminology Lufthansa used to me for this flight/fare.

When I purchased the ticket on United.com, United's website in the "details" functionality (and my receipt email) showed this flight as a S-class fare (which I know is "discounted economy" but not, to my knowledge, BASIC economy), regular EQM, and regular EQD. Another leg is booked into W and showed the same thing. This is a $2000 fare, btw.

Has anyone else encountered this with a United codeshare operated by Lufthansa? Is this a language issue ("basic economy" in the Lufthansa sense does not equal "basic economy" in the United sense?)?

Miles Ahead

It's "Economy Light" in Lufthansa-speak.

It is quite confusing. Light gets you miles but not changability for a fee or checked bags. S class originating from the US is supposed to have these restrictions, or at least the possibility of these restrictions. If you have a point of origin in the US, the W basis is not supposed to have baggage restrictions. However, I had a W and it did. I needed to upfare to a V.

jsloan

Neither UA nor LH offer a "Basic Economy" product on trans-Atlantic flights. They do offer "Light" fares. If you made your purchase on United.com you'd have gotten a pop-up message telling you about the conditions of a light fare, which include no upgrades, no changes, and a charge for the first bag unless you have status or a qualifying credit card.

However, I don't think you have a Light fare, because Light fares are not offered on the W fare class between the US and Europe. (They are offered on W fares between Canada and Europe, though, so if your return flight includes Canada that could still be the case).

It's more likely that they ran into one of several other problems trying to upgrade you, including the fact that codeshare flights can't usually be upgraded. The board search you want is about upgrading codeshare flights, not "basic economy."

What was your itinerary? UA was very clear that they weren't going to offer Light W fares ex-US. I'll be really disappointed if they've changed their mind so quickly.

And, yes, it's "the possibility of these restrictions." Each S-Light fare should be paired with an S-Regular fare. Of course, judging by the problems they had when they rolled out Basic Economy, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they'd messed up the mapping somewhere.

cfischer

Sounds like LH used the wrong terminology here. The problem is that you are on codeshare flights and upgrading on LH requires to be on native LH flight numbers. You should still be able to purchase an upgrade if available at the check-in counter, but otherwise you might be out of luck here.

Kacee

With LH, the fare class does not determine the type of ticket you have. LH offers three types, "light," "classic," and "flex." You can absolutely buy an LH S or W fare that is also a "light" fare. (Although the "light" W may not be available TATL, as others have noted.)

Miles Ahead

To be clear, they are not offered US-to-Europe but are offered Europe-to-US. If your point of origin is the US, the documentation says you're fine. As you know from my other thread, what is on the websites is not always 100% consistent.

jsloan

So they are. I don't recall seeing that in the announcement, but it's certainly possible I missed it.

Miles Ahead

My itinerary was ORD-FRA-GVA-FRA-ORD. Initially booked as W/W/W/W, which triggered a bag fee. I called and confirmed I got "lit", at least as far as bag fees were concerned. I upfared to V/V/V/V and it's still showing bag fees, but called and United confirmed that this was a mistake.

There is a tremendous amount of confusion between "point of origin", which is the language used in the rollout and "departure city". My understanding is that on the return flight, my departure city is GVA but my point of origin is ORD. As such, a W should have been fine. I don't think it's truly a Light fare, as my upgrades waitlisted fine.

I am also wondering if the web display is not coded correctly and it's just looking at the first letter of the fare basis and running with it.

jsloan

I can confirm that there are no UA or LH W-Light fares filed in the ORD-GVA market; there are W-Light fares filed GVA-ORD. However, as you suggest, the GVA-ORD fares should only be used for travel originating in Europe, and even if there were a set of discount one-way fares for these markets (there aren't), you shouldn't be able to combine a non-Light outbound with a Light return.

They can't/shouldn't just use the first letter of the fare basis to make a determination, because there are non-Light versions of these same fares.

I suspect you would have gotten a free checked bag on the W fare.

Miles Ahead

I'll go with "shouldn't".

The fare difference between W and V was sufficiently small that it was worth it to avoid any arguing at check in. The GVA-ORD checkin is with LH (actually, the agents are LX) and if their information is wrong too. arguing would be futile.