My parents flew AF a few months ago on a reward ticket. I can't remember if I called and got rejected, or I was too lazy to call, but the front rows in coach were not available at time of booking. At OLCI more rows were opened up and I actually got them 2nd row in coach for one of the flights.

A little more detail here:

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showpost....1&postcount=23

BTW, cheap AF fares only earn 50% EQM on CO. For that reason, we never buy coach tickets on AF. Instead, we use KLM (but make sure it's not V fare).

co.com always get lousy pricing when there's a partner flight in the itinerary. But you may actually get a better fare if you put the CO portion IAH-CDG on hold and then call co.com support to add the other partner flights.