Last updated on January 19th, 2017 at 03:05 am
Last night I was one of many to take advantage of the Lufthansa first class award availability from Toronto (YYZ) to Munich (MUC). This morning I woke up and learned that I could add a flight to Asia on my itinerary in first class for only 5,000 extra United Miles. Gary mentioned that this would be a good opportunity to fly Thai Airways in first class because of their availability. After reading reviews from other bloggers, Thai Airways was definitely an airline I was looking forward to flying, and at that price it was a no-brainer to take advantage of the deal. So I set about adding a roundtrip to Bangkok to my itinerary.
First, I checked to see if there were any flights available from Munich to Bangkok in first class. United was showing this flight as being available, so I figured it would be something that could be booked online in addition to the Toronto to Munich segment. I was surprised to see that this flight was 80,000 miles each way in first class. That is more expensive than the North America to Europe flight, even though the flight is 3 hours longer.
Somehow the price is actually cheaper when you book from North America to Asia on United, even if the flights take significantly more time to complete. In this case, it would only cost 5,000 more miles to fly in Thai first class, saving 155,000 miles over the regular award price if booked separately (not that I would ever spend that many miles, it’s just an interesting disparity to me).
Next, I looked into making a fresh booking on United with a flight between Toronto and Munich and then Munich to Bangkok. No matter what combination of dates I tried, I could not get the itinerary to work, so I eventually gave up that pursuit.
Understanding that United is known to be very good at allowing flight changes, I tried another route by clicking on the “Change Flights” button for the itinerary I booked last night. This brought me to a screen where I could elect to change either flight.
I chose to change the flight from Toronto to Munich and replace it with a multiple destination itinerary that included the original flight booked plus a round trip flight to Bangkok for 2 nights.
Miraculously, this method worked and I was able to select new segments in first class. Each time I clicked on an additional segment I was amazed that the incremental cost was only 5,000 miles and $52.60!
I continued the process and ended up securing a round trip flight to Thailand for that amazing price. All in first class on a 747-400 aircraft.
The combined itinerary looked like a thing of beauty, so I transferred 5,000 Ultimate Rewards points into my account to pay the incremental balance.
And sure enough, I soon had a confirmation for my itinerary change, which cost me 5,000 miles and $52.60 to get to Bangkok in Thai Airways first class.
More Changes Will Likely Happen
Now that I know how easy it is to make changes to this itinerary, I am already looking at making more changes to get the most out of the experience. This Flyertalk thread shows that many people are actually flying Munich to Frankfurt to Bangkok in order to visit the Lufthansa first class terminal in Frankfurt. This is something I am considering, as well as flying through a different city in Asia. So many options, so much flexibility. How could I ever doubt you United?
Cover Photo Credit: Stuck in Customs via Compfight cc
I’ve spent over an hour simply trying to get the TOR-MUN flights and I cannot find any dates in July, August, or September. Is this used up and gone?
According to the flyer talk thread it’s hit or miss for people. It sounds like there are more seats open in oktober potentially. Also, the return flight from muc-yyz has availability . You could always look into a one way and then booking another award to get there.
why do you spell October with a K. ?
That’s the traditional German spelling of the festival.
You can’t fly YYZ – MUC – FRA – CDG and access the FCT. You can access it on the way back. You’ll have access to the F lounge though if you’re leaving the same day to BKK. I would have added another segment (e.g., HKT, USM, SIN, etc..) so you can get picked up at the Gate by a TG rep, one that’ll you to do the Royal Silk lounge for your massage.
There’s still time – thanks for the tips!
Hi! When you say you ‘learned’ you could add a trip to asia for 5k each way.. where and how did you find this out? And why is this, is this a glitch? Is it only Munich to Asia? Or is the 5k applicable from anywhere in Europe on Lufthansa?
Thanks!
It’s based on the award chart, which is 70K for F US-Asia and 67.5K to Europe. US-Asia allows routing through Europe, so this basically becomes a US-Asia instead of US-EU ticket.
Hi Ben – I learned this in the post I linked to at the top of the article from View From the Wing. In that article Gary mentions how it’s only 5k more miles to add a segment to Asia on the same ticket.
It’s definitely not a glitch, just how United’s award chart works. US to Europe in first class is 135k miles while us to Asia is 140k miles and the Asia trip allows a stopover in a connecting city (in this case munich) for free. So I changed munich from being my destination to just being a stop along the way.
Hope that helps.
Ah yes of course. Thank you!
Depending on the 747 config you get MUC/BKK, you may be wishing you saved those 5K miles and $52. And you can only get access to FCT if you are departing in LH F, not arriving in F and connecting to another airline (in any cabin).
Yup – only LH F senator lounge IF you are leaving the same day; otherwise, you’re stuck in the J senator lounge.
If you arrive same day on LH F and are continuing onward you get access to FCL, but not FCT
Good to know. It sounds like I could still potentially change to LH first class if it becomes available near time of travel, right? My concern is that this would be after the 2/1/14 devaluation and would require more miles. As you can see, I’m new to United and learning the ropes as I go. Appreciate your help.
You could change, but it would reprice, and I don’t think there is anyone who values LH F at the 70K miles or whatever extra it is compared to right now.
Agree 100%.
Many of us have known this “secret” for years now and never book a premium award to Europe without tacking on a further jump to somewhere in Asia, even if it’s just for a couple of days. IF this has only just been discovered, I can only wonder where you’ve been all these years!
Stuck in a Delta hub.
LOL – I scratched my head, wondering the same thing. Also, I don’t know why he’d book MUC-BKK unless he really has a distaste for adding the MUC-FRA segment. That route has the old TG seats. Gross.
Still learning the ropes with United and appreciate the feedback. Never underestimate the effects of Delta Stockholm syndrome.
It is scheduled to have the new F, but equip changes happen and it will be a hellish flight if it ends up being old F. And I just switched segment AMS-BKK in BR J to MUC-BKK in TG F, so fingers crossed.