uvasteph

Hi everyone. I booked award flights on Lufthansa (IAD - MUC) using United miles. Today I noticed that business class seats were now available so I called United to upgrade the tickets from coach to business class (I called because I was getting an error message when trying to make the change via United.com). After about an hour on the phone with a United rep, my itinerary on United.com now shows that we're booked in business class. I also checked my bookings on Lufthansa's web site and Amadeus shows that we are booked in business class (I was even able to select our business class seats).

The problem is that the additional miles have not been deducted from my account. I'm worried that because we haven't "paid" for the business class seats, we may get to the airport and find that our seats haven't actually been upgraded. Any suggestions on what to do? Call United? Call Lufthansa?

I wouldn't ordinarily care, but I had a bad experience the last time I booked a Lufthansa award with United miles. That time, United never transferred the miles to Lufthansa so the seats were never actually ticketed, even though I had a confirmation number from United.

Thanks for your help.

Kacee

This happened to me upgrading a TG flight from J to F. It took about two months for UA to deduct the extra miles. I didn't worry about it, because TG confirmed I was ticketed when I called to select a seat. So I'd suggest you call LH to confirm you've been ticketed in J. (This is generally a good idea even if you don't think there might be a problem.)

UrbaneGent

If you have been ticketed already. Go to Lufthansa's website, put your LH locater number/last name, etc. (different than your UA one, it will be in your res page on UA.com) and if you will see your reservation and can assign seats, you are all set.

If there's a mistake, you didn't know how many miles it was and figured everything was good. If in the odd chance they figure it out later, then they find out. Just go have a good trip. This happend to a colleague and life went on.

Travel safe.

George

MSPeconomist

Does the OP have a receipt with a ticket number for business class? Call LH and ask them whether there's a correct ticket associated with your reservation. To me, this sounds like UA might have changed your reservation but failed to reissue the ticket. If so, you will not be flying in business class.

GordonGordon

It happened to me also when my oneway award booking was changed to roundtrip. It was because the agent did not properly deduct the correct miles while changing the oneway booking to roundtrip. In your case, the agent should have refunded the mileage in economy class back to your mileage plus account and deduct again the mileage in business class, but I guess the agent messed up in the middle of the process, but your new ticketed reservation is good.

Just call and ask LH if they have the correct ticket number from UA (starts with 3 digits 016-), and also you have to make sure the new ticket number is different from the previous ticket number in economy class. If things are confirmed, you are go to go. You can treat it as a bonus trip from UA if they never find out

Boghopper

+1. I've had this experience a couple of times with TG, With Asiana, with LH, with ANA. It took a week to a couple of months to deduct.

RobOnLI

Always a good idea to call but I'll bet LH shows a ticket number (016 ticket stock) with the reservation because the OP was originally booked in coach. When UA upgraded to business class, whether they re-issued the ticket or not, there will still be a ticket number showing on the LH side.

The OP should have a print out of their UA reservation with the ticket number showing business class ("I") on the receipt as a back up.

I, too, think UA screwed this one up because the poster above me who said the OP should see a credit of the coach award miles and a separate debit of the business award miles is absolutely correct. If this doesn't show in the OP's account then there's potential issues. The only way to fix this is to call UA and ensure that the ticket correctly shows the right class of service. Nothing wrong with calling and asking that *without* saying, "Hey, the miles were never debited from my account. Would you mind checking?"

If UA says they are correctly booked in Business class then say thanks and hang up the phone and you're done.

-RM

uvasteph

Thanks for all of the responses. I just called Lufthansa and they confirmed that both tickets have been reissued in business class.

This experience has been really strange. I the customer service agent I spoke to when I upgraded the tickets seemed to have great difficulty making the change and the phone call took over an hour. So far my credit card has been charged $150 to change the tickets. However, the additional miles haven't been deducted from my account. What's even more strange is that the updated receipt that United emailed me the day of the upgrade says the cost of the trip is 120,000 miles (not the 200,000 miles it should be for a RT in business class). I'm not sure what to make of that.

Kacee

I would never rely on what UA says about a partner booking. There are many, many reports of UA assuring pax they were ticketed, only to have LX/TK/SQ say (on day of travel, at the airport) "sorry we have no record of that ticket ever having been issued."

Often1

More likely this gets picked up between now and the date of OP's flight. Either there will be an add/collect (miles) due at time of check-in or OP will simply have been rebooked into steerage.

GordonGordon

The most important thing is, you have to make sure LH has your correct reissued e-ticket number from UA. Let's say originally you had LH economy class with UA ticket number 016-1234567, after UA rebooked you to LH business class, UA would reissue the ticket with a new e-ticket number 016-4567890. If LH has your new e-ticket number 016-4567890 in business class, then you will have nothing to worry about.

uvasteph

Lufthansa says that they have tickets issued in business class and I am able to select business class seats on the Lufthansa website.

Unfortunately, I have misplaced the original eticket from United, so I can't compare the original eticket with the one that's affiliated with my business class itinerary. Any thoughts on what I should do next, if anything?

I certainly don't mind calling United as I assume United will deduct the additional miles at some point. My main concern is making sure that my husband and I have business class seats for our trip. I'm not sure who to call to confirm that everything is as it should be.

Kacee

LH has confirmed you're ticketed. Print copies from the LH website. It's most likely that UA will ultimately deduct the proper miles. If you are totally paranoid then yes, you could call UA and alert them to the issue. But there's always the chance that alerting UA will result in the agent doing something that messes up your ticketed reservation.

DVX

You may get lucky and they may never deduct the additional miles. I wouldn't PLAN on this happening, but it is possible. I know, because it happened to me. Changed an Asiana Airlines award from business to first. United was supposed to deduct 10,000 additional miles from my account, but they never did.

GordonGordon

Oh that's easy. UA should have your original e-ticket number in Y and a new e-ticket number in business. Just call and ask for both e-ticket numbers and hang up the phone, and you don't have to mention anything about the amount of mileage being deducted. Call LH to confirm if they have your new e-ticket number associated with the business class booking.