LH doesn't hold back any seats, if it says F4, there are 4 seats to sell. F is not oversold as a rule, only on some routes they do it if they have sold A fares.

The voucher is good for any flight, the important thing is to have your name and some LH flight number on the voucher.

This is covered in the wiki:

Ok, dumb question: I can get added to the grading list at checkin, but when is the actual paper certificate collected? If an agents asked for it as checkin, should I give it to them?

The last time I used one it was stapled to my boarding pass upon checkin and collected at the gate right before boarding.

The cert iis collected when the grading is performed, so if they issue you a fresh BP they will collect it or staple it to the BP.

They collect it when it clears, so if it clears when you request it they will take the cert then. If they waitlist you they will staple it to your boarding pass and they take the whole thing and give you a new boarding pass if/when you clear.

Depends on airport. I happened to be in ORD the night before my LH flight to FRA and tried to apply my GPU cert. the LH agent said to wait until next day when checking in. It cleared fine as C was pretty empty on that flight.

A couple of times in FRA I had an overnight connection. The night before my flight I went to the LH service desk to check in early apply my cert; one time they put me on the list and the upgrade cleared before I got to the gate the next morning, and once I was cleared that night.

LHflyer reports the following:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...l#post23441010

It seems they are moving to electronic and its no longer standby but confirmed ^

Confirmed if they deign to open up space. If not you get a "no", no waitlist. And no requests within ten hours of departure. Have fun with the upgrade lottery.

Precisely.

If the upgrades are processed as LH does with their own members - good luck! :p

Well, from my experience with the LH M&M evoucher use, revenue management opens up upgrade inventory at about T-48 or 72h to wean miles and evouchers out of their members at checkin*. M&M members could not redeem awards at that point because of adv purchase restrictions on awards. So I'm pretty optimistic about this.

* look at the system they use at checkin:
https://www.lhsystems.com/solutions-...form/desk.html
(open the 'GroundSolutions/Desk' pdf on the right, and read the 'proactive grading' bit on page 2)

Interesting. Thanks.

Direct link: https://www.lhsystems.com/fileadmin/...tions_desk.pdf

Anyone have an idea on how this affects those of us currently holding paper certs for an upcoming flight?

I'm scheduled to fly ORD-FRA-MAA on 9/12 via LH and have certs in hand for both legs of that flight.

If the comment about not being able to upgrade 10 hours in is correct, it would appear as if I have to "float" two more upgrades to pre-clear and subsequently send back the paper certs.

Not to mention this LH flight isn't showing up on my United account as it's issued on LH ticket stock.

Very negative change
 

Fully agree - looks like a very very very negative move as upgrade space might never appear..
Using a GPU on a route where the F cabin was never full, you had the guarantee to be upgraded to F as long as one F seat was not sold whenever you checked in and presented your voucher at the desk...
Now, if few F seats are not sold up to T-10 hours, this does not mean at all that you will be upgraded, as the upgrade space might never open.

Earlier this year, I wanted to spare a GPU and tried to upgrade with some leftover M&M miles (also tried to upgrade with UA miles at the same time) ..
Upgrade availability never appeared (on both M&M and UA) while F availability on EF was fluctuating between F2 and F4... I finally used a GPU and 3 out of 8 seats were indeed not occupied..

I'll miss for sure the paper GPU...

IME, the primary determinant for an U/G to LH F wasn't whether there were available seats, but available meals. On a few occasions, I was flat out told by the agent that he had to make sure they had loaded enough meals. I once told an agent that I would to OK with getting a C meal, but he said absolutely not.