North American Lufthansa First Class Award Availability

In my eyes, Lufthansa First Class is the world’s best First Class product. No other airline offers such an incredible and consistent flying experience – both in the air and on the ground. However, Lufthansa has been unfortunately reducing the First Class cabin from many of their aircraft – their Airbus A340-300s no longer feature a First Class cabin and only some of their Airbus A330-300s feature First Class. All Airbus A340-600s, A380-800s, and Boeing 747-8s feature First Class; none of their Boeing 747-400s feature the cabin.

 

Lufthansa First Class is incredible and everyone should fly it at least once – it is an experience you will never forget. From the delicious dining options at the First Class Terminal to the Porsche Transfer to the actual onboard experience – Lufthansa First Class is completely different than just regular “flying”. If you are interested in previewing the experience, here are a few of my trip reports about the fantastic product:

• Airbus A330-300
• Airbus A340-600
• Airbus A380-800
• Boeing 747-8

Award Availability

With rapidly declining Lufthansa First Class seats, it is important to understand what your chances are of booking the product using miles and which routes currently feature First Class. Keep in mind that Lufthansa releases First Class award availability to partner airlines 14 days before departure at most – meaning that you will have to plan last minute if you wish to fly the product.

However, if you have Lufthansa Miles & More miles, you are able to book Lufthansa First Class whenever you would like and are not subject to the 14-day restriction that other airlines are. Keep in mind, that there of course must be award availability. You can earn Miles & More miles through the Barclaycard Miles & More^® World Elite Mastercard^® credit card or you can transfer SPG points to Miles & More (it takes a few days).

North American Flights

Frankfurt is Lufthansa’s main hub and base, and features the most First Class flights to North America:

• Boston
• Chicago
• Houston
• Los Angeles
• Mexico City
• Miami
• New York (JFK and EWR)
• San Francisco
• Washington

Munich is also Lufthansa’s hub, featuring much less First Class flights to North America:

• Chicago
• Los Angeles
• Mexico City
• San Francisco
• New York (JFK and EWR)

The above destinations from Frankfurt and Munich currently feature a First Class cabin. These are subject to change as Lufthansa loves to swap aircraft to different destinations.

I’ve color-coded the destinations:

• Green: easy to book using miles (lots of availability)
• Orange: medium-difficulty to book using miles
• Red: difficult to book using miles (not a lot of availability)

Generally, for the “green” routes, First Class award availability should open up 10-14 days before departure and most often than not, there should be 1-2 seats released initially – there may be more released as departure approaches. These routes are the easiest to book using miles.

For the “orange” routes, award availability should be released within a week of departure, sometimes earlier, sometimes later – it all depends on the number of First Class seats left for sale. These routes are not impossible to book, however, there will likely only be one seat available.

For the “red” routes, these are incredibly hard to book using miles and will likely only open up with one seat available a few days before departure – or even same day only. For example, San Francisco and Los Angeles to Frankfurt and Munich usually open up with one seat for mileage redemption 2-3 days before departure if there are at least 2-3 seats left for sale.

Booking Lufthansa First Class

 

The easiest way to check Lufthansa First Class award availability is to use United.com and then confirm with Aeroplan.com. Once you have located that there is award availability, you can book the flight using any Star Alliance miles. Keep in mind that AMEX, Chase, SPG, and Citi points transfer to a variety of airlines and therefore it is important to check first which frequent flyer program charges the least amount of miles.

The best value of booking LH First Class from America to Europe is through Asiana Airlines. You will want to transfer 40k SPG Points to Asiana Airlines Asiana Club, and you will end up with 50k Asiana Club miles. A round-trip award between USA/Canada and Europe in First Class costs 100k miles; 50k miles one-way or just 40k Starpoints (when factoring in the SPG transfer bonus).

In Conclusion

Booking Lufthansa First Class is all about knowing which routes have the best award availability and when that availability will open up. The above information is accurate in most cases, however, it is possible that there are days with zero award availability even if the cabin is empty.