sigbjod

Do you mean February? If I'm not mistaken, the offer starts February 6th.

delanotre

On PAR-NCE for €138 (best "classic" price after feb 6th for a return same day) you have free luggage, cacahuetes with a drink, seat choice, 250 EQM and 2 qualifying flights if you are "abonné".
(For a FF run it values Platinum card to around €4500 a.i.)

JOUY31

What type of search are you using? When I use the moving 3-week calendar on the U2 web site from January to March for ORY-NCE, the lowest price never goes below EUR 30, to which you need to add the EUR 11 service charge, so a minimum of EUR 41, rather than an average of EUR 44. I am probably doing something wrong, but I am not sure what it is exactly.

For the price of the checked baggage on U2, you should note that if you want to go from 20kg to 23kg, the allowance on Air France for the classic service, you need to add EUR 27 for the additional 3kg.

orbitmic

And since nobody has pointed it out yet (apologies if I merely phrase something that everyone might be thinking goes without saying - still...), I guess that I should point out that there is a 'cerise sur le gateau' (icing on the cake). AF use the same buckets for their mini and classic fares (as it is indeed based on the same availability), so you have an 'R' mini and an 'R' classic, an 'N' mini and an 'N' classic, etc.

Which means that while you can't accrue Flying Blue miles with your mini fare, your neighbour flying on the same mini fare is currently earning full level miles and segments towards their elite qualification for Delta Skymiles, AZ Millemiglia or .

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, unless DL is as silly as AF and choose to punish their own members which they have absolutely no reason to do, 60 'mini' segments will get you nothing on Flying Blue but a shiny Delta Skymiles Gold Medallion Card complete with access to 'all AF lounges' which you, little FBer, will lose at the end of the year, and 140 'mini' segments will get you nothing on Flying Blue but a top of the range beautiful DL Skymiles Diamond card which will also enable you to get no fewer than 6 complimentary upgrades on AF transatlantic flights which of course, you will not get even as an FB Platinum member.

Amateurs...

delanotre

Wait and see for this particular point. (but €20 is not so much..)

olivedel

That is really unfair indeed, and I do not believe that DL would differentiate R classes from Mini to Classic.
I do credit my AF flights on DL, so I will keep you guys posted if my mini segments do not credit.

JOUY31

I sincerely doubt that there are many frequent flyers using other FFPs than AF/KL's who will fly 60 or 140 mini AF segments a year. These apparent inconsistencies between various FFPs are just the result of different policies adapted to different regional markets. So I think you will always find these loopholes between the various FFPs, but I believe their impact to be marginal at best, or should I say in the worst case scenario.

orbitmic

I agree with you that such loopholes do always exist. EXCEPT that airlines being aware of them typically ensure that they are organised in such a way as to favour their own FF members using their own 'mother airline' services. From a business point of view, this is what makes sense and indeed, this is what you get on most OW or *A programmes (e.g. some booking classes on LH earn miles on LH but not on partner programmes, on BA EC you earn 100% miles or more on all BA flights but can start as low as 25% on many partner airlines, etc). Only FB has a nasty tendency to always make the said 'loophole' always punish their supposed "best customers" as compared to the members of other FFPs (and it will now again be better to fly partner airlines than AF on a number of routes!). I just find it absurd, all the more so that I would bet that the people who created the new system didn't even have the presence of mind of even thinking about it and I'm pretty sure that if we mention it to them they will look like 4 year old kids to whom you have just said that Santa Claus is a big fraud invented by Cocal Cola. Surprised and shocked

They don't like us

delanotre

I agree.

ranskis

Since now there is an option with or without miles, why not give 100% miles for those who pay the 20 EUR extra?

It seems that for PAR NCE, the mini fares are loaded only for R N and E classes, with advanced purchase of 35 days for N and 30 days for E. Then it goes to H at 110 EUR+taxes one way, no advanced purchase. R class has no advanced purchase requirement.

This means that if R is not available within 30 days before departure (and it is rarely available in this time frame), minimum fare possible for PAR NCE will be 140 EUR including taxes one way, classic scheme. Compared to U2...

orbitmic

Note that some agents will get you service fees on U2 tickets that are cheaper than the €10 (€11 if you pay by credit card) charged by U2. Our corporate travel agent is about €5 cheaper (they don't like booking U2 but...). Also if you have a debit card, you can sometimes shave a few euros off the easyjet.fr price by connecting through another country.

Mokshu

I understand your point but the target of the "MiNi" offer is clearly people who are not Elite. I would not be surprised if Elite advantages are removed for tickets issued in the "MiNi" fare booking classes.

@orbitmic
Thanks for correcting my mistake regarding baggage allowance for 13EUR per leg.

orbitmic

Sadly I agree. I think that AF is currently in a 'transition' process having just launched the new offer on some routes and as a rather 'crude' alternative. Within weeks or months, they will generalise their low cost offer to most or all short and medium haul routes, they will also undoubtedly try to sell back what used to be free so undoubtedly the way they offer you to pay for a bag separately, they will offer you to pay a bit more to select your seat and who knows, they may offer you to get qualifying miles for an extra €5 or make the ticket changeable for the €70 fee for an extra 10, etc. I have no idea but something along those lines seems pretty obvious to me. And conversely, they will, if they think it helps their purposes, withdraw some of the current elite advantages. For example, if they find that too many elites take the mini offer and check one bag, they may perfectly decide in 6 months or 1 year that the extra free piece of luggage is not offered on mini fares or the same about lounge access if it takes their fancy. I basically see no reason to trust that AF will necessarily want to sweeten the deal for FB elite members in the long term; it may be the case but may equally be only a transitory arrangement. Chances are that they could not know this any more than we do because whenever someone has 'a good idea' () someone else can further improve (re- ) it at a further date...

JOUY31

Well, I would not be so sure. At least, AF has not taken the GermanWings approach, with GermanWings not being part of *Alliance, with LH FTLs being denied access to existing lounges when they are flying GermanWings, whereas in the past they would have been welcome. As long as the routes are operated by Air France, they remain part of the SkyTeam network and are subject to alliance-wide rules that define benefits for status passengers.

So, I would definitely be disappointed if AF were to remove the status benefits from this new MINI offer. But, as they haven't done so at this time, I warmly approve their choice.

On a side note, with respect to GermanWings, I am not thrilled at all at the prospect of losing the opportunity to fly in C between CDG and TXL at an affordable price. So it will be back to 2F for me on that route.

NickB

Is that what we are reduced to? Way hey: Let us rejoice! At least the burglars did not kill you when they wiped your house clean of all its valuables. Stop moaning and consider yourself lucky to be alive and applaud the burglar.

OK, not quite the same, I admit, but you get my drift...