SFOTurtle

Did your SWU exclude Z fares from eligible upgradeable fares?

SFflyer123

Yes, the new policy is that Z fares are not upgradagble with SWUs. I recently did it in 2011, and it worked. It'll be interesting to see what people say in 2012.

Shareholder

Which contradicts what you've been insisting would be the case when I try to use my MP voucher next week that clearly does not exclude the K-fare. You have always insisted that the changed rules would apply irrespective of what my September-issued SWU voucher says.

Why would the K fare upgrade be treated any differently than the Z fare one?

BTW it appears UA has changed the T&C on the vouchers several times this year to reflect the LH-demanded changes with all such changes appearing on vouchers with the new MP brand mark and UA/CO logo.

oliver2002

Looking forward to see your experiences... I said K is not a class upgradable with any M&M instrument, so it will not be possible for the agent to upgrade. Z is upgradable with M&M miles (albeit with a 15k surcharge) and M&M evouchers, so it can be processed if the paper SWU doesn't exclude it. Good luck!

chewy3

No it did not.

This seems to be correct. If the system won't allow it they can't override no matter what the voucher may say, but I hope I'm wrong.

oliver2002

Well, if the employee is ranked high enough (and subsequently has more authorisations in the DCS/Pictures) then they can upgrade anyone. BUT all upgrades are audited by a team of LH revenue hawks in DEL and the employee will have to justify why they did whatever they did at the time, or document it in the notes to make sure it doesn't backfire on them.

BarryB

Dear Luv2cthe world. I do feel better, but the bottom line is that I trusted UAL experts to make this happen. You are wrong when you said that if I was traveling another airline UA etc I would have benn in the same boat. Wrong. I went to AMS on UAL and enjoyed my upgrade to business.
You are aware that most times you pay a higher price for the base fare to get to the code that works for the upgrades. I am probably like most, in that I do not do have the time to examine or detail all the classes etc. Again I asked UAL to charge me whatever so I can use these seamlessly.
It bothered me that Lufthansa said this happens a lot. Then fix it! It bothered me that the UAL personnel sitting right beside her didnt step up, and she clearly felt the situation could eaqsily be handled. Especially since the plane flew with empty seats in BC.

crunchy

Ladies & gents, what do you think? Should I buy and M fare or an H?

If I get the H I'll save +/-$600 but I'm afraid my rank will be too low as a mere UA *G. The loads on my flights in question seem light. My AMEX agent insists that I have to use M but I know the cert doesn't exclude H.

This is for:This is not out of my pocket but the company is really pinching pennies right now.

SuperFlyBoy

When using a SWU, the COS really doesn't matter, as long as it applies as per the COS mentioned on the certificate.

Your theory only works when you wish to score an op-up.

LH is more than happy to take the SWU certs IME.

However, things are fluid right now, but in your case I it should not matter. The problem is now they wish to prevent upgraders and award redemptions into their F cabin, not into the C cabin.

Your flights look wide open at present and a perfect situation for the use of SWUs or (LH?) miles to upgrade.

No op-up possibilities appear to be evident from Y to C.

leinez

Just flew FRA-BLR on LH K class. Upon checking in, I asked for C class availability. When the agent informed me of available space, I pulled out two SWU certs (for my wife and me). As expected, he "noticed" that "this ticket" is not upgradeable with SWUs. I pointed out that K class was not mentioned on the certificate as an illegible class and that I made my booking based on the assumption that K was upgradeable. The usual "it's UA fault", etc was discussed briefly. He then went to the ticketing desk and, again as expected, told me the fare can't be upgraded.

I asked him to check with the flight supervisor - which he did but it was more of an information that two pax wanted to use SWU rather than asking the supervisor to authorize the upgrade. The agent said to try at the gate. Not giving up, I asked if there was a supervisor I could talk to. After insisting we walked for a few minutes and I was asked to wait outside an office. After a bit back and forth (I talked through the agent - apparently the supervisor did not want to face me) I ended up getting the upgrades. Total time - about 30min.

I insisted that the cert was issued recently (it had the new UA logo) and that I booked LH K class in Aug.

I guess we got lucky.

SuperFlyBoy

In the past they used to go by the T&Cs on the certificate verbatim.

However, it may be correct that LH cannot upgrade a K-fare - it's the absolutely last COS on the list of LH available buckets, much below V-class! You were indeed lucky.

The LH agent was going by his intrinsic knowledge of his fare buckets and was quite correct in refusing your upgrade request initially. It probably would have taken a major override of their system (Pictures) to enter it for an upgrade.

ikvliegveel

so i have 1 more swu that expires on 31 jan
i am on a K class fare AMS FRA SIN on 20JAN

my chances are 0% ?


Also since i only have 1,5 h connecting time in FRA
can i (start) ask(ing) for the upgrade in AMS or do i wait till i am in FRA and go straigh to the gate?

TravellingMan

Can someone please share what fare classes are applicable from Coach->Business for Lufthansa in 2012? United told me it was Y or B class fares, which sounds bogus to me.

SFOTurtle

I'm assuming you're asking about upgrades with paper SWUs. M and H are still eligible fares for upgrade from coach to business in addition to Y and B. Check the UA website (or earlier in this thread) for a list of fares that are not eligible.

SFflyer123

I am trying to find the website which states that Z fares are not eligible for SWU paper upgrades on LH. Do you have a link? I cannot seem to find it. THanks.

Never mind. I found it. The Z to F party on LH is over:

http://www.united.com/page/article/1,,53477,00.html

"The following Lufthansa tickets are not eligible for a Systemwide Upgrade:
�
Tickets in booking codes X, I, R, N, W, S, L, K, T, Z and E"

Now I have even one more reason to throw my SWU's into the garbage...