BoyenScout

I have done more bookings than I can count on united.com and then added them to my LH profile if I needed to add luggage, upgrade or purchase seats. Your FF# will not change unless you choose to do this yourself.

Aussienarelle

Thank you BoyenScout. This is why I love FT. I learn new things all the time.

PSPAirliner

I could have booked my LH stand alone intra-EU flights on united.com, but the fare was about $1200 in Business LHR-MUC-FCO-LHR.

Went to LH site and paid about 421GBP total for the same flights but alas not PQD. Fare only 148gbp with 273 as taxes/surcharges/fees

smxflyer

They need to do like DL and AA and allow PQD on non-016 tickets. It's frustrating.

Kacee

For an empty middle seat and a plate of cold food?

PSPAirliner

Yes. Compare Economy fare with C. Plus lounge access and I have a 6 hour layover at LHR.

Talk about a kill-joy

startupflyer

Trying to book two separate trips in Europe - UK to Germany and UK to Switzerland, which I've done via the UA website in the past with no issues. It is now only showing up Y and J fare classes - and full J for a two hour flight is not justifiable in anyway (circa £1600 return in one of the cases on UA).

Anyone else seeing these issues? Going to Lufthansa or Swiss directly shows availability across a variety of fare classes, which is what I will probably end up booking. The 016 tickets were the main reason for doing it via United.

PsiFighter37

I think there was another thread here that mentioned the LH Group was going to stop selling tickets that had flights on only their metal, on 016 stock, starting a few months back. This would probably be an indicator of that (i.e. only selling full-fare tickets on 016 stock).

startupflyer

Ah I'd missed that, thank you. Confusion cleared up.

emcampbe

I think, IIRC, this is actually more widespread than LH, as, IIRC, IATA recently began discouraging (or is highlighting existing guidance) to plating tickets on a carrier that doesn't have a flight in the itinerary.

Kacee

No this is an LH Group specific restriction.

It was implemented to protect LH Group's new booking fees, which could be avoided by having the tickets issued by another carrier.

nerdbirdsjc

Plating restrictions exist across a number of airlines. Within Star, I'm seeing ever-increasing numbers of fares offered by LOT Polish, TAP Portugal, Singapore Airlines, SAS, South African Airways, EVA AIR, Thai Airways, Copa Airlines, and Avianca with similar plating restrictions as the Lufthansa Group carriers.

To encampbe's point, the industry is intensifying prohibitions against off-plating, for a number of reasons. The booking fees are but a sideshow compared to the fees airlines pay each other for settling interline bookings, the costs and difficulties of servicing wholly OAL bookings, and the fact the plating carrier keeps all ticket revenue until the flights are flown (depriving the operating carrier of use of the funds pre-departure).

Sykes

It's a bit of both. Most LH group fares require plating on LH group stock, but in addition to that some GDSes (or at least Sabre) now technically restrict ticketing on UA stock when there are no UA segments. The Sabre restrictions wouldn't affect bookings on united.com, but in general it's a fairly recent development (within the last couple months) that shows significant movement towards enforcing the IATA plating guidelines.

bbriscoe34

I searched the United site for a flight from FRA-BCN, and it returned several LH operated nonstops for $850 to over $1000.

Then I searched the LH site, and they listed the same flights starting at 87 Euro?

What gives? UA doesn't need a price factor of 10X to cover the cost of their MP miles.

WineCountryUA

LH changed the rules recently and will only allow other partners (non LH-group) to book full fare tickets for solely intra-european itins. More plating restrictions.

Check the fare classes -- they will likely be very different.