Update: While I could get to the booking page earlier, it appears as if the first class space on this route is now “phantom” space, so may not be bookable.
Lufthansa recently announced two new daily flights to Tokyo Haneda’s airport, out of their hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. The service on both routes will commence on March 30, 2014, and schedule looks as follows:
LH716 Frankfurt to Haneda departing 6:20PM arriving 12:15PM (+1 day)
LH717 Haneda to Frankfurt departing 2:05PM arriving 6:45PMLH714 Munich to Haneda departing 3:45PM arriving 10:05AM (+1 day)
LH715 Haneda to Munich departing 11:50AM arriving 4:55PM
The Frankfurt flight will be operated by a Boeing 747-400, while the Munich flight will be operated by an Airbus A340-600 — both should feature their new first class cabins, though I’d expect business class to be the old product.
This service is coming at the expense of some of their Tokyo Narita service, as they’re discontinuing the Munich > Tokyo Narita flight, and the Frankfurt > Tokyo Narita flight will now stop in Osaka.
Lufthansa A340-600 first class
Lufthansa 747-400 first class
So why should you care?
Well, that’s happening again on the Frankfurt > Tokyo Haneda route.
Both the Frankfurt and Munich to Tokyo Haneda flights have very good business class award space, with two seats available just about every day:
On top of that — and most importantly — the Frankfurt > Tokyo Haneda flight has two first class award seats available every day.
As most of you probably know, typically Star Alliance carriers only have access to Lufthansa first class award space at most 15 days out, so having access this far out is awesome. It’s even more valuable in light of the upcoming United MileagePlus devaluation, as you won’t be able to change routings or flights after February 1 and keep the old award rates.
It’s worth noting that this award space will show up on the Aeroplan, United, or Lifemiles websites, though won’t show up through the ANA website.
Aeroplan, United, and US Airways all allow routings from the US to Asia via Europe. The catch with US Airways is that they block Lufthansa first class award space, and the catch with Aeroplan is that they impose fuel surcharges on Lufthansa redemptions. So ideally I’d recommend redeeming United miles, as they charge just 67,500 miles one-way for first class from the US to Japan via Europe.
I’d recommend booking quickly, as I don’t expect this to last!
(Tip of the hat to SMK77)
@ E -- Doubt it, not that many people booked under this offer.
Will this likely make the fra-kix F space harder to grab now in the future?
Will the new fra-nrt flight still be a single flight number when it changes to fra-kix-nrt? Trying to lock in fra-nrt and wondering if that will affect it.
Update: I was originally going to do hnd-fra-jfk so I called the ua desk to reserve it but they didn't see it. However, I was able to reserve just that leg so maybe if you reserve the hnd-fra leg first and call to change the reservation to add on other legs you could take advantage of this opportunity.
the ua agent didnt see it on his screen so i couldnt book it but seeing first seats hnd-fra on nh223 later in 2014. saw most weekdays in october.
Just tried to book business class on MUC-HND for a date in July via US Airways award ticket. Agent said it's blocked! Thought I'd share that update.
I was successful in confirming O-Class space.
i don't see any F anymore, but i see J wide open for both FRA and MUC all the way to 9/14
I got my seat and booked over the phone with United. Looks like LH corrected their award inventory though.
Gone now
@ FTflyer -- The person that brought this to my attention was SMK77, so I tipped the hat to him. Didn't see armagebedar's post about it.
what a great post for phantom space
Lucky, when booking Aeroplan LAX-EUROPE-NRT-LAX, do you have to find flights and then call them to spoon-feed them FLT NO? or can this be bookable online at aeroplan.com with multi-destination?
This was first posted on FT by armagebedar -- no credit to him?
defending lucky here. I managed to get both an outbound and return booked from FRA-TYO, so it was available at one point.
I booked and ticketed FRA-HND and NRT-FRA legs last night pacific time, through UA, when I first saw these routes open up.
Wanted HND-FRA on the return (instead of ex-NRT) and UA.com was showing availability, but no one on the phone could ever actually see an O seat on that flight.
So this seemed to work for some for a bit and now it is all phantom space? Did UA see the increase in bookings and kill it or was someone still around at LH who saw inventory disappearing?
I tried checking this inventory last night, but it was only showing C inventory and somehow today F became available or at least as phantom space.
Y'all have been "Lucky-ed."
So has anyone been able to book and got ticketed? This will pretty amazing for me if it works.
phantom space often let's you get to the purchase page. you only know that it's not phantom space once you receive the ticket itself from UA.
@lucky, I got to the purchase page too about two hours ago, but it wouldn't allow my purchase to go through. I guess either they caught it really fast or it was phantom in the first place.
@ unlucky -- When I posted it was still letting me get to the purchase page.
What's up with these poorly researched posts?
Darn, phantom space!
@ Chris -- You can route from the US to Asia via Europe, but not from the US to Europe via Asia.
Lucky, can you go West Coast US -> Tokyo Haneda -> Frankfurt? I'm not sure if that's valid.
Anyway, it seems like these flights all show availability on United's site but you can't actually book them--I keep getting errors and when you call the agents don't see any availability. ANA doesn't even have the flight loaded into its system yet!
lucky its all phantom space man.
United website showing FRA to HND for 80,000 miles one-way ? How can I bring it down to 67,500 miles ?
I transferred 110,000 UR points into United to make the booking too. Went from super pumped to super frustrated. bleh
So I just called United and they made me call the star alliance desk to book MIA-IAH-FRA-HND. online it shows wide open first but the star alliance desk said that it is all phantom award space and that there are no seats in first FRA-HND in all of August 2014. I didn't ask about other months.
While the website shows availability, I can't book it. I've tried twice with phone CSA and no 1st available for all of May. May have to keep looking for FRA LH FCT experience :-)
@ Matt -- Are you still trying to book first class from Frankfurt to Asia? If so, you won't save any miles for booking business class as far as Europe, since you're charged for the highest cabin you're flying on the itinerary.
@ DBest -- That would require the ticket to be reissued, and I suspect would trigger a reprice.
@ Neil -- You should be able to fly business class from the US to Europe and first class from Europe to Asia for the US to Asia first class price. Sometimes the computers have a hard time calculating the cost of such a ticket, but it should be possible.
I want to book NYC-FRA in business class to save some miles but there isn't any (only Econ/First). If I try to select Econ then LH-F won't show only Economy. Is there any workaround for this?
I need FRA to ANYWHERE in the US in 1st on Lufthansa in Nov next year :(... HND is the wrong direction! (can't incorporate into DFW-PHX-LAX-TPE-SGN, CNX-BKK-CDG... DFW trip i'm trying to finish up. Biz on outgoing, 1st on return.
@ Jason -- That would require the ticket to be reissued, and based on my understanding of the new rules would trigger the ticket to be repriced at the post-February 1 levels, unfortunately.
Couldn't you theoretically book USA-FRA in LH biz (with FRA-HND in LH F) and then just switch to F when it becomes available 14 days out? I'm not sure if UA has made clear whether this would be ok post Feb 1 though.
I do see plenty of LH 1st availability.
If you wanted to go Japan to USA via Frankfurt or Munich (or vice versa) and book LH first, doesn't United require you to also find 1st class saver space across the Atlantic in order to get the 67,500 price? They previously told me that I can't combine a saver business flight across the Atlantic with a first class flight from Europe to Asia without paying more....
I do see plenty of LH 1st availability.
If you wanted to go Japan to USA via Frankfurt or Munich (or vice versa) and book LH first, doesn't United require you to also find 1st class saver space across the Atlantic in order to get the 67,500 price? They previously told me that I can't combine a saver business flight across the Atlantic with a first class flight from Europe to Asia without paying more. That is, you can't "downgrade" yourself on the Atlantic flight to save miles. Does that sound right?
@Lantean
I have to agree with @Ken Y. UA GlobalFirst is not anything more than a nicer seat. The soft product and FAs are international business-class level at best. Not a bad way to travel, but is it worth the extra miles/$'s? Even the ORD GF lounge is nicer than the regular lounge, but not as nice as other airlines F lounges.
@Ken Y.
what was wrong with it? I have only flown businessfirst EWR-MUC on United. It was OK. not memorable but adequate for business class. i always wondered what GlobalFirst is like.
If I book for 67K UAL:
JFK-FRA Buiness
FRA-HND F
Can I later call UA to see if JFK-FRA F opens up with in 14 days of departure?
Given that the only choice in F at this time for US-FRA is on United, I'll have to pass. Having flown once on United's "GlobalFirst" was more than enough.
Getting the error message once it looks for the LH segment
@lucky, but can I book it on the phone?
@ David -- Yep, they haven't displayed most LOT award space for quite a while now unfortunately.
Has UA stopped displaying LO flights? I can see award seats available on ANA but not on UA.
Lucky, thanks for posting this useful information to the frequent traveler community. LH F is an awesome product.
@Joey
sadly, yes. i have three trips to New Zealand, Slovakia and Vietnam all planned out. no more vacation days left. :(
@ K -- You could indeed make Taipei your destination if you'd like. It would cost 70,000 miles one-way instead of 67,500 miles, but is still a very good deal.
I see the availability, but even when I have tried to book a single seat FRA-NRT nonstop I get the error. Tried different dates...
@ David -- Yep, that's absolutely valid.
@ JustSaying -- That would be the best option. You're allowed a stopover on a roundtrip.
Is it possible to book LAX-FRA (Connection) - HND via United award? I tried to search but it always give me error messages. Should I call?
My ideal is LAX-FRA-HND-TPE-LAX so can have stopover in Japan or TPE. Is this allowed?
@ Jason -- You'd have to book another airline, like United. That's the only Star Alliance airline with saver first class award space available to partners in advance.
Are you allowed to fly from usa to MUC and then to FRA to go to HND and still have a valid USA-->Japan via Europe?
@ E -- You could potentially return on Asiana, Air China, ANA, or Thai to Europe and then United back to the US. All options that are at least sometimes available.
So you are recommending booking SFO-FRA on UA and then picking up the LH flight? Returning same way? Stopover at FRA allowed I would assume?
@ Cliburn @ Matt -- Hmmm, was able to price it earlier. Let me play with it a bit.
Great to know! @Lantean, 2014 hasn't even started yet and you don't have vacation days anymore?!?
How do you get USA-FRA on F? continue to HND
Getting an error each time trying to search for the full one-way:
We were not able to find any available flights for award travel meeting your requirements.
Thanks. What do you recommend for a full rt itinerary with stops in F. The only thing I can think of for that far out with this is us-europe(ua)-asia-(lh)-us(ua/ca)?
aweesome find, too bad i have no vacation left in 2014!
One or more flights are no longer available for this request. Please begin your search again.
I see this message for everything I have tried to book.
@ E -- The rest of Asia is 70K miles one-way, but Japan is just 67.5K miles (same cost as going to Europe). Yep, United is the only airline that releases first class that far out to partner airlines to Europe.
70k right? And is UA the only possible F that far or for US to Europe?