How to book LH F awards? when available? issues?
 

Having a similar issue in which LH F Award availability seems not to be made available to UA; however, it is widely available within the usual 2-weeks to departure time frame for other *A Partners including AC, SQ, and ANA. Initially thought that LH was perhaps not allowing UA to ticket in their premium cabins at the moment, yet this doesn't seem to be the case. Further digging indicated that UA mileageplus members CAN book LH F on LH routes that don't overlap with routes where UA has a competing flight. What is going on here? Is United blocking the availability? Is Lufthansa? Are there shenanigans at play? Has anyone else had this issue in the past few weeks when trying to book LH F awards? Please see a detailed example below.

Let's take LH 431 from ORD - FRA on JUL13 as an example. When looking on ExpertFlyer or United's search, there is no availability in F for this flight.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...505c7bb72d.jpg

When looking on *A partner, Air Canada Aeroplan search, however, there are F award seats available:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f2b6dc6bfd.jpg
Upon further investigation, it seems that this is happening specifically on North America - Europe routes, but not on routes From South America, Africa, Asia to Germany and vice versa. I easily found F availability on typically tough to secure routes like JNB/GRU - FRA using the UA mobile app.

F award tickets are booked into O fares, with the screenshot you provide it shows "NO" next to the O fare bucket. I don't know why AC is showing seats but I would be careful of phantom availability if one partner shows a ticket and another doesn't because they both pull from the same buckets (especially if you are transferring points from a CC), I remember the old Aeroplan having massive phantom availability and I always called to confirm it was there before transferring points if I didn't see it on UA.

I just had a look on ExpertFlyer and there was O availability on FRA-ORD on 7/3 and the UA app easily showed that available (AC showed it as well).

Has anyone been able to get LH F using UA miles recently? I'm looking at first two weeks of Nov and can't find anything... My goal of getting 2 F out of the east coast seems to be hard to achieve.

Not exactly east coast but I see 2 F available on ORD-FRA on 11/1:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...dfc16cabaa.png

I saw MIA-FRA on UA.com a few weeks ago but did not book. SFO and ORD seem to have the most availability, then EWR.

You are looking too early for 'first 2 weeks of November'. 11/1 for example has ORD-FRA 2 seats. Keep checking in the next couple of days.

Don't LH F open up 2 weeks in advance? Or has that changed now to more last-minute than that?

Do I still get LH F terminal experience if I am flying F and then J on USA-FRA-EU flight?

10 days to 11/1 ;) you have poor coverage for 'first 2 weeks of November'. Check every day what gets added.

You do get FCT access when arriving in F TATL connecting to EU J (assuming LH, LX, SN or OS flights). Make sure you understand how to walk to the FCT and you will have to enter Germany to do so.

Got expertflyer alerts set up. Just waiting to wake up to one of the emails :D

I intra-EU leg is on Air Dolomiti. I guess no FCT for me. Actually can I use any lounges in FRA in this case?

You should have access to the FCT.

”First Class Terminal at Frankfurt Airport open
We are pleased to welcome our First Class guests and HON Circle members booked on flights from Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss, Air Dolomiti and Brussels Airlines to the Lufthansa First Class Terminal. Our extensive range of services - including limousine service and exclusive security and passport controls - is available to you daily from 5:30 am to 10:00 pm”

https://www.lufthansa.com/gb/en/lounges

I read online that you get access to the FCT if you fly Lufthansa first class from the United States to Frankfurt, and connect same day on any Lufthansa, SWISS, or Austrian flight; however, you wouldn’t get access if you connect on other airlines, like Brussels, Eurowings, United, etc.

That's what OMAAT wrote.
Recent information in the LH forum says differently.

Do you trust a blogger or Lufthansa? :p
Yes to Brussels but not Eurowings or United. You can access a First Class Lounge if you arrive on Lufthansa first whether you have a connection or not.

https://www.lufthansa.com/gb/en/lounges

Agreed, but there are cases where LH rules are ambiguous. For example whether you get access to the FCT on separate tickets where rules and reality don't always match. Definitely only access when departing on 'LH group' flights.

trying to snag a Lufthansa first class award
 

I am trying to snag a Lufthansa first class seat with united miles, ord-fra on may 17th. I go to search on united and I dont even see a row for first class being sold, I then look on air Canada and same thing. I look on google flights and Lufthansa is still selling 3 first class seats, why is united showing no first class for sale even rev on the route?