andyhiggs

Had you at the title, right? I know, it's a little unusual but here's the story. I have managed to accumulate 138,000 FF miles with US Airlines which are to be used on a Star Alliance airline. Out of the blue I'm invited to a wedding in El Salvador on 21 April. The dream is to fly the Lufthansa A380 in business/first from FRA to SFO and then connect to SAL. But as most people who try this find out there is zero availability. Does anyone know if this is likely to improve nearer the date or am I best giving up that idea and trying a different airline/route? In which case, which? I would love to have a really special trip as I worked hard for the miles and have never flown anything but economy before. Can anyone give me some tips and ideas on how to go forward? I have access to the ANA tool for checking availability.

Thanks,
Andy

qwovadis

Not the most touristic of areas to be charitable
do check consular advisories and insuremytrip.com

taca.com has their hub in San Sal might check there
will be tough to get there with the others perhaps
Lacsa or copaair.com but different hubs.

Another thought might be to fly into Tegus(Tegucigalpa)
or Managua(MGA) pick up ticabus.com cheaply to El Sal
Little farther out SJO LIR Costa Rica and GUA(Guatemala)
thebusschedule.com for cheap connexion in.

Good luck!

qwovadis

Most frequent flights to CA will be MIA NYC LAX HOU

Gardyloo

Which airline are your miles with? By "US Airlines" do you mean US Air<i>ways</i>?

I'd be concerned that an indirect route like FRA-SFO-IAH-SAL (Houston is basically your only gateway using *A carriers from Europe) would require two awards, FRA-SFO and SFO-SAL. But I'd phone your mileage plan airline to confirm that route would be kosher.

rkkwan

You cannot be that greedy with award tickets. You should be happy enough if you can find get business class tickets from where you are to where you want to go, on or near the dates you wish. That's good enough. Anything else - airline, route, and aircraft - are bonuses.

So, step back and just call USAirways and see what options (if any) you actually have, first. Then, IF you have choices, then pick the one that satisfies you most.

Anyways, LH is switching it's IAH flight to the A380 from August for 5x a week. But won't be in April.

andyhiggs

Hi people, thanks for the input. Sorry of course I meant US Airways. And of course I know I'm being overly optimistic, though 'greedy' was a little harsh. If you accumulate an award, there should be a realistic chance of using it the way you really want to, no? Of course I'll be happy with getting there, I just wanted to know how I could maximise my chances of getting what I dreamed of.

mrwunrfl

You could use the ANA tool but even if it shows availability for what you want there then that does not mean it will be available using your DM. IIRC, the ANA tool allows you to specify a connecting city. Otherwise, or in addition to that, you would search for FRA-SFO only - which I assume you have already done.

But I would not assume that no availability via the ANA tool necessarily means that USAirways has no availability. That was good advice to call US. And keep calling.

You could find what you want for FRA-SFO but then might not find a connection available to SAL. I dont know the DM rules but you probably are allowed to make a connection with up to 24 hour layover for the connection, so if you didnt find a connection on the day of arrival in SFO you could look for the next day and spend the night at SFO. IF (big if) DM allows you to make a stopover at SFO then you could stop there for a couple or more days. That would give your more dates to search for that FRA-SFO flight. But I think that SFO and SAL might be in the same region and the stopover not allowed, I just dont know. Or buy a one-way (or roundtrip) SFO-SAL and get an open-jaw award. But this all depends on getting FRA-SFO which you know is not likely.

Maybe seats on FRA-SFO will be available close to your departure date, but not likely -. And if you wait then the other options that are available now, if any, will probably be gone. Even if someone told you that yes, close in to the date, seat(s) become available then that doesnt mean that you will be the one to get it. So you risk not making it to the wedding.

If I definitely did not want to miss the wedding then I would book what is available then keep searching and calling to try to find availability for what I wanted. Then be willing to pay the change fee.

Do the same for SAL-FRA.