hikouki

What are the advantages of booking a Lufthansa flight on the UA web site as opposed to directly at LH.com?

I have been eyeing flying on the 747-400 for one last trip and I can apparently book a business class JFK-FRA vv one either airline's web sites.

I am planning on opening a MileagePlus account and I see how booking on the UA web site gives the flights more credit for PQPs/PQFs on MileagePlus. Apart from this, is there any other advantage?

I don't have any status on Star Alliance. I am a SkyMiles refugee. And over at DL, I usually have been booking KE flights on the DL web site because I get more baggage allowance and also am allowed more flexibility with rescheduling/ cancelation (DL vs KE policy).

cfischer

You might earn more or less miles as you noted. Bag policies are very much aligned between UA and LH, but yes, if you have a UA-coded LH-op flight then UA rules will be on the ticket. UA will have the more generous change policies relative to LH; UA will also be easier to work with in case of schedule changes. LH flights you might be able to get at a discount through consolidators or Amex IAP, that is not the case for UA, but UA you might be able to use 'break from business' (if eligible).

mahasamatman

If it's a non-refundable ticket and you have to cancel, you get full credit as FFC if you book on united.com. You get nothing if you book on lh.com.

daKav

I do this often. Mostly because its so much easier to change/reschedule and even in the case when I had to cancel, its easier for me to use United travel credit than Lufthansa's credit (is there one?)

Kacee

Yeah, the calculus has changed. Advice used to be book with the operating carrier, but UA's change policies are so much more generous, and UA IT is so much better, it generally makes sense now to book with UA.

ExplorerWannabe

Personally, I will be very careful before ever doing this again. Last summer, I booked tickets from the US to Africa via UA, flying on UA metal to FRA then LH metal between FRA and Africa. I was waitlisted for upgrade to J on the redeye between FRA and WDH and didn't get it. No problems, that's why it's a waitlist. LH let me use PP to upgrade the redeye flight from CPT to FRA so I was happy with that until I tried checking in the night before my return flight only to find that LH wouldn't let me check in.
When I dug in, LH had lost my reservation for the segment going from CPT to FRA but somehow still expected me on the FRA-DEN flight. LH was blaming UA for not following through on something, UA didn't know what LH was talking about but went about trying to help me get home. It took the UA MPC 2 hours to straighten things out and restore my original booking (LH had taken it over when they took my PP upgrade) but of course I now no longer had an upgrade on that flight since it was now sold out up front.

Kacee

How does that having anything to do with booking UA vs. booking LH? LH is at least as likely as UA to make a ticketing error. The difference is, UA was able to fix the problem (regardless who caused it) and you didn't miss any flights.

I will add that in my experience one of the interesting cultural differences between UA and LH is that an LH agent will never admit that LH made an error, even when it's quite obvious they did.

ExplorerWannabe

The issue appeared to stem from the communication between airlines so if OP wants to fly on LH, I'd book with LH rather than UA. I don't think the reservation on LH would have been lost if I'd booked through LH -- and conversely (and sort of to your second point), UA does a better job IMO of recovering when an error has been made so if the roles had been reversed, I think UA would have been more helpful and successful in fixing it before my day of departure.

jpezaris

We still aren't quite to a point where even allianced airlines have IT systems that talk to each other reliably. I'm just back from a trip where the LH/EW part of my reservation had my first/last names in the reversed fields, according to the helpful agent at the LH Senator Lounge in DUS. Empirically, there was clearly something wrong with that record because I had hiccoughs that required minor manual intervention at every step of the trip, despite the fact that I've flown similar itineraries without issue that were also booked on UA's web site.

So, book LH on UA with some caution. Not everything will work as smoothly as if you book on LH directly. You may, for example, lose the ability to select your seating, or do on-line check-in. Or maybe not. The uncertainty is evidence that robust coordination is a moving target for these two IT teams.

ty97

The problem appears to be related to the upgrade and ticket reissue which, yes, can definitely get messed up when two airlines are involved unfortunately.

I have flown many all-LH metal itineraries booked through United (where I was not using upgrades) and everything has gone 100% smoothly.

Kacee

Some things may not work as smoothly, but the benefits in terms of no change fees, better UA IT, and more helpful UA cs, more than make up for it IMO. I'll add that the assumption that everything will be just fine so long as you book with LH is simply not accurate. They are perfectly capable of screwing up their own tickets, too.

hikouki

I'll be booking a 100% paid business class ticket, and I don't have any status on Star Alliance.

Originally, I was thinking of flying from JFK because it is the cheapest station with the 744. But factoring in the flight from SEA to EWR, with the overnight stays, that itinerary will use up more days and use up more money for the car transfers (between EWR and JFK), plus the hotels.

I can drive to YVR but the price flying out of Canada is just crazy.

So, I think will try and fly out from IAH. And the seats are widely available still, it seems.

My follow up question is, how likely would LH be in displacing me from my chosen seat, given that I don't have status, and I am booking through the UA web site, albeit I am a paying passenger (not paying with miles)?

(KE has done this to me twice. I booked KE metal on DL web site with DL flight no.)