kybackpacker

New member here who has lurked these forums for ages. I have an odd situation that I can't seem to wrap my head around. I have just arrived (Nov 17 6:15AM Paris time) at CDG from a JNB flight in La Premiere and on departing from the plane there was confusion and I wasn't for sure whom to follow since I had a connection in a few hours. I went to an Air France desk in 2E and was told that I did not have access to the La Premiere lounge since I was on a "Delta Ticket". How is this possible? How can I come off a 10+ hour flight in La Premiere and not have access to the arrivals lounge? That is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. I have spoken with at least 4 other Air France reps and have been told the same thing over and over.

Thanks!
Jake

orbitmic

It would help to have more details. Chiefly, were you originally booked in la premiere (buckets P or F) or were you upgraded from a ticket in business for instance? what was your full itinerary, was it on one ticket or several and was it AF flight numbers?

It just seems odd and very unusual nobody came to meet you at the plane as apparently the premiere service is usually flawless in this respect from everything reported so far hence my questions.

kybackpacker

I was booked on a F ticket in La Premiere and not upgraded. On my ticket is an AF number and my flight continues on to NY on Delta Business Elite. There was one person waiting when we deplaned and she quickly took 2 F passengers down a set of stairs off the jet bridge. The remainder of the F passengers continued up the jet bridge to connections which is why I assumed I should as well.

I just find it odd that I kept getting the run around from Air France staff and them telling me I was not allowed in the La Premiere lounge. Very strange.

orbitmic

With your flight booked in F originally, you were, indeed, allowed into the P lounge. I would write and complain.

Out of pure curiosity, would you not have preferred to get a continuing AF flight to JFK to be in P all the way? Presumably your fare base was F so it would not have costed any more, and while DL J is nice on the new plane I would still say AF F seems quite a bit nicer. Again, it has no relevance at all to your question I realise, it's just me being curious...

agehall

Welcome to France. This is one of the reasons why I try to avoid AF and CDG.

ulxima

From Air France website:"Please note: if your flight is operated by one of our partner airlines, certain Air France services may not be available onboard or at the airport."
http://www.airfrance.co.uk/GB/en/com...e_aeroport.htm


Therefore you are no longer a "First" customer.

Ciao
Ulxima

agehall

No, the OP arrived on an AF operated flight in F and would thus be an arriving AF F customer. He should therefore have access to the arrival lounge.

I think the problem was that he went with the wrong crowd when stepping off the aircraft and then the staff he encountered didn't care that he just got of an AF F flight. I'm not surprised at all.

ulxima

Which is located in the landside area of Terminal 2C, it is not a First Class lounge and surely Premiere passengers may have access on arrival (like many others).
Now let's consider the case of our friend here who is in transit.

So are you telling me that a car will take him to Terminal 2C, clear immigration () and enjoy access to the arrival lounge. He freshen up and the Premier Service ends there.
Now he is a business passengers, he must go from 2C to 2E (by himself, no more cars), clear security, clear immigration again and then join the lounge where hopefully he will have some time to shower again given the sweating behind this nonsense.

Just for what? For the ironing service?
Oh Dear...

Ulxima

Goldorak

Knowing that :
- the OP arrived in P on an AF flight,
- he was connecting to the US with a DL ticket,
- AF and DL are in JV for transatlantic route, are sharing revenues on those routes and are very close partners,
I find quite shocking that he was refused access to the P lounge during the connection. He would have been under AF code to the US, he would have had access to the lounge and services and AF would have earned the same money (JV arrangements).

So I would definitely write a complaint letter to AF to explain this situation, that is totally abnormal IMO.

ulxima

Goldorak, with all due respect.
I just made a simulation (20-27 December).
Return ticket with four legs (JNB-CDG-JFK-CDG-JNB)
A full First AF return ticket from JNB to JFK is priced €11,782.
First Leg Outbound P, Second Leg Outboung J, Return P (JFK-CDG-JNB) is €10,203
First Leg Outbound P, then all remaining in J (CDG-JFK-CDG-JNB) is €6,890.
Now you are telling me that you pay €6,980 and I pay €11,782 and we are entitled to the same service while transferring at CDG?
C'mon...

Ulxima

bankops

Am I confused or is this a simple question:

1. Are arriving F passengers granted Premiere Lounge access?

No, they do not get Premiere Lounge access. They are given access to the 2C Arrivals lounge.


2. Are departing C passengers granted access to the Premiere Lounge?

No. They have access to the normal lounge


Being in transit has nothing to do with anything in this story. OP tried to scam access to Premiere lounge from what I can see was handled appropriately by AF staff.

Goldorak

Hello Ulxima
no problem. I don't know everything so I might be wrong and so you are very welcome to challenge me
You seems to be obviously correct. But, it is important to mention that P is not available on the single DL flight CDG-JFK, so if the OP would have been booked on the same flight but under AF flight number (code-share), he would have been entitled to P ground services during his transit at CDG. So, knowing the JV and metal neutral of all AF/DL transatlantic operations, that's why I found "shocking" the lack of P services provided to the OP. Of course, you will likely challenge me saying that AF006 (with P service) is leaving 5 minutes apart from the DL flight and so the OP could had booked P all the way to JFK with the same arrival time in JFK.

Yes they have P lounge access if the are connecting :
- to an AF flight in P
- to an AF flight in which P is not proposed

ulxima

Which is obviously not the case for flights to JFK.
Bankops got it right. Simple case rightly handled by ground staff at CDG.

Ulxima


PS. Goldorak my apologies for non having bolded your nick in my previous answer

brunos

I would side with Bankops and ulxima on that one.
Assuming that the ticket is issued with an AF code on JNB-CDG and a DL code on CDG-JFK, The Première lounge is not a available as transit lounge according to AF policy. Yes, DL is a JV partner, yes it is member of ST, but it is a different airline with different bottom line and there is no mention in AF policy that connecting to another airline grants Premiere lounge access. If the ticket had an AF code on the CDG-JFK, access should have been granted.

bankops

??? You're going to have to give a reference for that one. Sounds like a general lounge access statement to me. Not specific to La Premiere.

Arriving P passengers who are connecting on a flight where P [or C] is not offered have lounge access, but not La Premiere access. IF they are connecting to a P service flight, then they get La Premiere.