Air France Frequence Plus - How to cross-reference two bookings (info for connecting flight)?

I have spent the total of 35 minutes on the phone with Air France trying to link two bookings. I'll be arriving at 2G and continue from 2E on an intercont flight. For reasons of "it is always good to have the connecting flight manager know that I'll be coming off another flight" I wanted them to make a note in both bookings, cross-referencing them. I do that with other airlines all the time. The completely incompetent and somewhat slow-in-grasping-things people I had on the phone didn't get what I wanted. :td:

So what can I do? In theory I have 1h55 connecting time, but things may go wrong, so I would really like to do the cross-referencing. How?

I have spent the total of 35 minutes on the phone with Air France trying to link two bookings. I'll be arriving at 2G and continue from 2E on an intercont flight. For reasons of "it is always good to have the connecting flight manager know that I'll be coming off another flight" I wanted them to make a note in both bookings, cross-referencing them. I do that with other airlines all the time. The completely incompetent and somewhat slow-in-grasping-things people I had on the phone didn't get what I wanted. :td:

So what can I do? In theory I have 1h55 connecting time, but things may go wrong, so I would really like to do the cross-referencing. How?

Cross referencing (which you correctly label as people often speak of 'linking' and expect miracles) is extremely easy to do. It's basically a notes system and any agent can do it in 10 seconds so if you got an incompetent one, I think the only thing to do is the usual 'hang up and call again' which I had to do a bit too much for comfort in recent days.

As you know though (and I mostly mention this for others who may be dragging this thread through a search), the cross referencing ('linkling') has absolutely no legal or practical effect beyond informing people managing each flight of the passenger(s)' itineraries. Cross-referencing informs flight's managers (if they bother to look) that passenger A is in fact coming from xxx, or that passengers B and C, while on two separate PNRs are in fact travelling together. However, this information does not result in any right: if the connection is missed, passengers are not protected, and if one passenger is entitled to something that the other is not entitled to (e.g. select seating or additional luggage, which would be extended to other pax in the case of a single PNR), then this other passenger is not entitled to it because of the cross-referencing. Again, I know you perfectly know all that but specify it in case other people bump into this thread later.

I did that hanging up thing three times (hence the accumulated 35 minutes on the phone). So what I am actually wondering what it is in Air France lingua that I need to ask them to put it in the booking.

Whilst I am aware that cross-referencing doesn't give me any entitlements (it is not a connection sold as such by the airline), I still do it for practical purposes - there may be cases where they close the flight just 5 minutes later when they see that a passenger is still on his way from another flight - and in this particular case I also do it for comfort reasons. My connection is in First, so I have some hopes that they'll pick me up from the incoming flight. I rarely connect in CDG (it is usually my origin or destination) so I don't have any experience with it. But I know that in FRA and MUC on Lufthansa flights I get the "services" associated to the connecting flight even when arriving on a different ticket. Not sure AF does that. That ominous Premiere service that supposedly calls people before their flight never calls me, which may have to do with the fact that the extremely few times I fly on AF in First the booking is done only 1-2 days before. I think they place those calls c. 4 days before, at least that is what I gather from reports here and from heresay.

Guess I'll see (and guess I'll be on a bus between 2G and 2E)

I did that hanging up thing three times (hence the accumulated 35 minutes on the phone). So what I am actually wondering what it is in Air France lingua that I need to ask them to put it in the booking.

I would suggest, if you haven't done so already, that you call the La Première line directly.

I did that hanging up thing three times (hence the accumulated 35 minutes on the phone). So what I am actually wondering what it is in Air France lingua that I need to ask them to put it in the booking.

Whilst I am aware that cross-referencing doesn't give me any entitlements (it is not a connection sold as such by the airline), I still do it for practical purposes - there may be cases where they close the flight just 5 minutes later when they see that a passenger is still on his way from another flight - and in this particular case I also do it for comfort reasons. My connection is in First, so I have some hopes that they'll pick me up from the incoming flight.

Indeed, perfectly sensible reasons to do it. And yes, sometimes, the GA will keep the flight open if they see you have landed and should be there any minute and the captain agrees. I think you were just plain unlucky with the people you spoke too (sadly, again, something which is not unusual) as I've done the cross-referencing in the past with AF without problem.

I did that hanging up thing three times (hence the accumulated 35 minutes on the phone). So what I am actually wondering what it is in Air France lingua that I need to ask them to put it in the booking.

I would suggest, if you haven't done so already, that you call the La Première line directly.

As I am not a regular customer of La Premiere (max 2 times per year) I in fact don't have their number. Happy to receive PMs from people who have it. Thanks

I would suggest, if you haven't done so already, that you call the La Première line directly.

That's exactly what I was about to suggest. I'm sure they will listen to your request and will pick you up at your incoming flight (which is for sure an AF flight as you are talking about 2G). I send you the number right now by PM.

Thank you for your PMs Jouy31, Goldorak and Richelieu^^ Helpful as ever.

I'll report back.

Cross referencing (aka PNR linking) is not useful at all at regarding short connections, as ground handling staff only look at the DCS record.

Any such note in your PNR may not even be noticed.

To fully protect your onward connection - you should book all travel on a single ticket.

Only now do I realize that my last post on this topic didn't go through (which explains why I was asked the question by PM how it went).

To explain. My ticket in P had in fact two segments, xxx-CDG, and two days later CDG-yyy. Arriving in Paris on the first flight I asked the PA pciking me up at the plane door to make a note that I'll be connecting from another incoming flight before continuing my trip in P to yyy. He said sure, he'd take care of the connection and would make a note in my PNR.

For some reason (call it "intuition based on prior experience") I didn't really have a lot of faith in this promise and so I called the Première line, thanks to the number provided by our three helpful co-posters here. There they said that no note was put into my booking but they then arranged for the transfer to happen. Thus, upon arriving at 2G I was indeed picked up by one of the lounge ladies with the limo and driven over to the Première lounge.

So all worked wll in the end.

Thanks again for the number ^