by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 21, 2015 | Featured, United |
Just a reminder amid all of this strike talk…..
United’s MileagePlus sale ends on Monday, March 23. This sale discounts mile purchases by up to 50% which is a fairly attractive deal especially if you want to redeem ‘MP’ miles for travel on Lufthansa, SWISS, Brussels or Austrian!
With last year’s devaluation it now take more miles to redeem for travel on LH group airlines but a sale like this is a great equalizer. In fact, I loaded up during this sale because my MileagePlus account qualified for a 50% discount.
Apparently the amount of the discount can vary between 25 and 50% but most offers that I’ve seen for others that I’ve helped during this sale have yielded a 40 or 50% discount. You are allowed to buy up to 150,000 miles. Also, please be aware that these are ‘Award Miles’ and do not count towards status or spending levels.
Remember, the sale ends in 2 days. If you are short a few miles for an award redemption a deal like this is about as good as you’ll find so take advantage while you can and enjoy your LH group flights 🙂 !
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 10, 2015 | Airlines, Featured |
United is running a short promo for the purchase of miles until February 16.
Depending on the amount of miles you purchase for your Mileage Plus account, you can save up to 40% when compared to their normal prices.
At 40%, it is about as good as a deal as we’ve seen from United in quite some time when it comes to purchasing award miles. The best part of the deal? You can use the miles for travel on Lufthansa and take the sting out of the devaluation that took place recently that impacted the amount of miles that would be needed to redeem for Lufthansa operated flights.
The offer is not fantastic as far as using this to buy the bulk of the miles towards a Business Class or First Class ticket, but if you are within a few thousand miles this promo can certainly make a difference!
The specifics of the deal are as follows:
Miles must be purchased by February 16, 2015
Purchases of 15,000 to 39,000 will receive a 25% discount (approximately 2.8 cents per mile including taxes).
Purchases of 40,000 miles or more will receive a 40% discount (approximately 2.3 cents per mile including taxes).
Purchased miles DO NOT count towards Status Levels.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Dec 10, 2014 | Featured, Lufthansa, Star Alliance, United, Voucher |
After several promises and false starts, United has finally launched the electronic platform that will allow Mileage Plus 1K members to redeem their Global Premier Upgrades (GPU) electronically for flights operated by Lufthansa. Up until this point, passengers had to request a paper coupon weeks in advance and present it to Lufthansa on the day of travel and hope that a seat would be available.
The new system reverses the previous one.
Passengers now can request the upgrade at the time of booking their upgrade eligible ticket (up to 331 days prior to departure). If a seat is available, it will clear immediately. If a seat is not available, the request will be put on an automatic wait list. Once Lufthansa opens an eligible seat, the upgrade will clear the waitlist and be processed.
The new system is a major improvement over the ‘analog’ process which required a coupon however there are a few minor changes that are less than positive. One of the biggest differences with the new system is the upgrade window. With the old system, you had to wait until the day of travel to find out if a seat was available.
With the new program, the deadline to clear is 10 hours prior to departure. In other words if your upgrade is waitlisted, the request will be cancelled 10 hours prior to departure if no award seat is available. This means that if a seat opens up right before a flight due to a missed connection, cancelled ticket or other issue that removed a passenger from the aircraft, that seat would not be made available to the person trying to upgrade with their GPU. With a paper voucher, a seat could have been awarded at the gate minutes before departure. Minor difference, but one to take note of and one that can have a bit of a negative impact.
Also, there is a restriction on the Lufthansa fare classes that are eligible for upgrades using GPUs. Fares booked in L, T, X, I, R, N, S, W, Z, P, K, O, ID, AD, IP and V are not eligible for upgrades.
Additionally, Lufthansa’s Premium Economy class is not considered a ‘cabin class’ for this process so if you are going to upgrade with a GPU from Economy Class, you would be upgraded to Business Class, not Premium Economy. Eligible Business Class fares remain upgradeable to First Class.
One more thing: If your flight number is a Lufthansa flight number (i.e. LH431) you can process the request online, however if you are ticketed on a UA code share flight number you’ll need to call the Mileage Plus service center to process the upgrade request.
What happens from here?
United as of today has stopped issuing paper vouchers for Lufthansa flights. All upgrade requests must take place online through United.com or by calling the MP customer service center. Effective February 1, 2015 Lufthansa will stop accepting the paper vouchers so if you have already redeemed a voucher for travel beyond February 1, please return your voucher to United for recrediting and apply for the upgrade electronically.
There have already been several instances where LH has stopped accepting the vouchers due to a reservation systems upgrade, so if your travel is more than 7-10 days away, you may want to return your voucher and use the electronic system otherwise your paper voucher may not be accepted. If you have enough GPUs, you could still hold on to your paper cert and try using the electronic system at the same time. If you clear electronically, just return your paper cert to United.
If you booked your ticket through Lufthansa.com, simply look up your reservation on UA’s website and you can process your GPU request.
In my opinion, this move really does help Lufthansa take better care of their Miles & MOre Senators and HONs. LH typically provides SENs and HONs with enhanced inventory and with the window closing at 10 hours prior to departure, it gives LH’s elite level members much better opportunities to score last minute upgrades using the Miles & More voucher system and eliminates the competition coming at the last moment from Mileage Plus members.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 18, 2014 | Featured, Lufthansa, Star Alliance |
At the risk of becoming the ‘Purveyor of Misinformation’, I wanted to provide the latest update from United as far as electronic processing of upgrades on Lufthansa is concerned.
A couple of weeks ago I stated that based upon my conversations with United’s Mileage Plus and Star Alliance Award teams, United and Lufthansa were moving to an electronic process for applying Global Premier Upgrades to qualifying Lufthansa flights. The information that they confirmed for me was that the launch date was set to be September 3 for the new process that allowed passengers to request the upgrade electronically (Click here for more details on how the process will ultimately work).
Well, September 3 has come and gone and we still do not have the electronic process in place. I had called UA a few times in that time span as I have been helping readers with their LH reservations/upgrades. Each time that I asked, the reply was that no new date has been announced.
Today, I called UA Mileage Plus to specifically ask about the program and Premier 1K line agent was nice enough to arrange a conversation with a Service Director who could provide more answers.
After a pleasant conversation that did not include any sugar coating, here is the latest information that has been provided by those directly dealing with the issue (loosely paraphrased from the United Service Director’s comments):
The problem apparently involves compatibility between United’s and Lufthansa’s ticketing systems. The original plan called for the airlines to use the existing upgrade platform designed for those upgrading with their United miles for travel on other Star Alliance partners. This was thought to be the path of least resistance and efficient since it’s already in place. However, the technology incompatibility comes with the software/server/platform not being able to recognize the GPU (Global Premier Upgrades) on credit to a given Mileage Plus account. The thought was that the platform could debit the GPU in the same manner as it would debit miles. This is the major bottleneck in the process as it stands now since they can’t seem to figure out how to using existing tools for the new process.
All of the Mileage Plus customer service reps have already received training and are ready to go. Unfortunately, all of us are just waiting on the IT departments to sort out their issues and flip the switch on this fantastic enhancement for LH passengers who utilize Mileage Plus.
As more info becomes available, I’ll pass it along. At this point there is no current target date for the process to be available.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Aug 29, 2014 | Airlines, Featured, Lufthansa |
This post is an important one for all of you United 1K and GS members who use or will use GPUs on Lufthansa!!!!!
Beginning on or about September 3, United will allow for the processing of GPUs electronically via their website. This was supposed to take effect August 1 but tech issues delayed the roll out.
How GPUs process will be DRAMATICALLY different from the current process. Currently, you would need to request a paper certificate that would be issued and mailed to you by United. You then present it to the LH check-in or gate agent and hope that they clear it for you on the day of your departure.
NOW FOR THE MAJOR CHANGE:
Effective September 3 (or thereabout), GPU based upgrades need to be requested electronically, and you will know if you clear within 90 seconds of submitting the request. If you are declined, you can request the upgrade again later, either the same day or the next day, etc. THERE WILL BE NO WAIT-LISTING. If you do not clear, you need to resubmit again, until the upgrade clears.
HERE IS THE KEY PIECE:
IF YOUR UPGRADE REQUEST DOES NOT CLEAR PRIOR TO 10 HOURS AHEAD OF YOUR DEPARTURE, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE THE GPU TO UPGRADE FOR THE FLIGHT.
In other words, you will not be able to upgrade within 10 hours of your flight, which means no clearing potential at the gate. You will know if you cleared 10 hours before your flight, and have 0 chance to clear after that point.
If you have multiple segments that are GPU eligible on LH, you will have to do this for each segment individually and the 10 hour rule applies to each segment, not the start time of your itinerary.
This will apply to tickets booked either through United.com or Lufthansa.com.
It is recommended by United that if your travels are not happening in the next 2-4 weeks, to wait and process your GPU electronically instead of requesting a paper certificate.
This information came from a very friendly and knowledgable United Supervisor who answered my call at the United Star Alliance Award Desk this evening.
UNITED Mileage Plus members will be receiving an email detailing this new program on September 1 or 2.
