Paid access to P services for J pax on long-haul flights without a P cabin ex CDG
 

From the Air France French travel agent portal

- effective March 12th, 2012
- cost: EUR 800 or 57,000 miles per passenger
- maximum: 10 passengers per day
- for passengers ticketed in the J cabin (all fares) on long-haul flights without a P cabin, departing from CDG or connecting through CDG
- no guest allowed
- includes all ground services available to passengers flying in the P cabin

- 7 days before their flight, eligible passengers receive an offer by e-mail to register (fill a form) and give a timeframe when they can be called by phone (not applicable to PNRs with more than 2 passengers or with a UM)
- priority is based on the fare class, within a fare class, on the time the customer has filled the form; payment is made on the phone by credit card or with AF/KL FFP miles
- if the requests have exceeded the quota (10 per day), the customer receives an e-mail saying so
- the service is cancellable and refundable; when the date of travel is changed, one must re-initiate the process

- travel agents can also book the service from 15 days before the flight up to 5:00 PM (Paris time) the day before the flight

Nice Air France offer for this 9,999th post! :)

So, If I understand, this allows you to experience all facets of the ground portion of P including entry to the La Premier lounge, if you are on a flight with no P class.

Do you believe it's worthwhile ?

Thanks for the information and congratulations on post 10,000 (possible as the answer to this!)
(edit: Nevermind, I'm late! I see you surpassed it on the RER post. Cheers!)

I believe the price in miles is quite affordable and the offer is worthwhile. For the price in EUR, it is a bit overstated when compared with a meal at a great restaurant in Paris or elsewhere, IMHO. On the other hand, it does seem to be a fine experience, above what I enjoyed in CX's First Class lounges at HKG, except for the cabanas, or at the CCR with BA.

Congrats JOUY31!

Are you going to buy a round of drinks in Paris? ;)

Sometime around April 27th at the AF/ADP CDG Do :)

I join others in congratulating you on this nice milestone, especially when one looks at the quality of the posts and not just at their quantity! ^ This being said, I also join you in saying that I personally wouldn't pay €800 for this. I would not care about it when I travel on my own, and when I travel with a person I would want to share this with, I would indeed rather invest the €1600 in a luxury mini break or in a few great meals. Even the Louis XV's of this world wouldn't nearly need take you to that sort of total bill.

+1

Jesus...I really do need to sleep as I read "females" instead of "meals" O_o

Anyway, I think this offer is a rather good idea to let J pax having a taste at P services. Cost in Miles seems OK, 800EUR seems a bit costly though.

How much do FBEs pay for an upgrade to P? 100k miles? The 57k miles charge seems to me quite reasonable, but I would not fork out 800 euros for this. Though when you consider that P costs twice as much as J, then 800 euros makes sense.

The fact AF offers this only on long-haul routes without P is a reasonable restriction and may provide some hints as to whether there is a demand for P on some routes. Since the trend is to cut them, I see it rather as a way to extract revenue from whatever is left of premium passangers.

Congratulations to our dear moderator for his 10,000th post ^

Congratulations JOUY31.
The exchange rate 57,000 miles for €800, seems reasonable to me. It prices a classic J award to the US at some €1,500 (100,000 miles). Would I pay €800 (or 57,000 miles) for a one-time access to the P lounge and improved check-in? NEVER.

10,000 thanks for your great job!

Simply cannot see the interest of paying this service (not a big fan of limousine service at airport, P lounge is great but not worth the price of a night at Le Meurice or Mandarin Oriental!!)

:D Now you're really gonna get me in trouble!!!

Now here is my thinking bit by bit:

- I also agree it makes sense that AF only offers this on flights with no First Class but...

- Can we then say that AF is still offering to sell the 'ground' part of the Premiere ticket where it cannot offer the 'flight' part?

- If so, AF values that 'ground' part at €800 each way, i.e. €1600 on a return trip.

- By all accounts on this forum, the 'ground' part is supposed to be by far the better part of the P experience while the flight part is quasi-universally deemed disappointing

- Yet, all of us seem to agree we would not pay €800 for the 'ground upgrade' each way (or €1600 return) (some have said they would pay with miles, but my guess is it is not so much a question of 'exchange rate' as a question of 'available balance' - depending on travel patterns, many have more opportunities to accrue miles than to spend them, and ones your 'bank account' reaches a certain level, 57k can look like relatively little).

- The difference between a Z fare and a P fare on CDG-JFK is €8000. OK, people will tell me that Z has more restrictions so let us compare with the C fare. The difference between CDG-JFK in C and in P is €5000 with comparable flexibility.

- If €1600 is ascribed to ground services, then €3400 is ascribed to flight service differences only, i.e. €1700 each way. Or let us say €1500 each way to account for incidental benefits such as extra mileage etc.

- Would any of us accept to pay €1500 for an upgrade to a P seat (without the ground services) on CDG-JFK? I'd be ready to bet not.

- So even if offered a choice to pick 'only' the part of the P service (ground or flight) we care most about without any additional cost for debundling (as in you should normally pay more for 'part' over the 'bundle', i.e if A+B+C is sold for an extra €5000, commercially, the prices of A alone, B alone, and C alone sold separately should total significantly over €5000), none of us would accept to pay any such service.

Conclusion: as we keep repeating over and again, regardless of how you look at it, AF P is waaaaayyyyy overpriced...

TWO nights at Mandarin Oriental in HK.