teCh0010

Previously when I've flown AF I've booked directly into PV / PE, but my new employer requires me to book the lowest logical fare. If I book an economy ticket is it possible for my to call in and pay the fare difference to PE? Would they waive the change fee since I am upgrading a class of service.

brunos

I assume that you are talking longhaul. No more PE on AF shorthaul.

Unfortunately, the ticket will have been issued by your employer (loosely speaking) and AF cannot touch it. One solution is to hope to receive an offer to upgrade for cash. Or you could negotiate with your new employer to issue the ticket in your desired class and pay the difference, but that means a lot of paperwork and is frowned upon in big companies.

orbitmic

This is definitely what I would do. It is not unusual (I do it for instance) and avoids unnecessary change fees, etc.

teCh0010

Unfortunately I work for a very large company with an outsourced travel management group. Exceptions don't really happen, they won't book PE and let me pay the difference. They have an option to become eligible to fly business, but you need 100k BIS miles with no segment minimums and I fly a lot of short segments around the SE USA and then have a few trips to the EU. I'll probably only end the year with 70k - 80k of actual BIS miles.

Henry III

It seems odd to me that airlines don't have a mechanism for handling this situation. These days, there are many companies that insist staff travel on cheapest available economy tickets, and many of these - like the OP's - will have approved TAs, departments or outsourced contracts to handle travel arrangements ... with the inevitable Book-of-Rules-that-Cannot-be-Broken.

For me, although it's not official policy (we have an 'approved' on-site travel agent), I can still book my own tickets and then claim the expenses afterwards, so I would look for an understanding High-Street TA, get them to issue the cheapest ticket (to get me the receipt), on the understanding that they would immediately cancel and rebook the same trip in the higher class (and, yes, TAs can do this, even on so-called no-cancellation buckets). In fact (but for a different reason), I had to call KLM CS once to cancel a non-refundable - immediately after booking (within minutes) - due an error on my part (wrong dates); the operator told me to go ahead and book the 'correct' ticket and the first would then be wiped out before even reaching the CC company's books. And I've thought about calling KLM/AF to arrange such a 'deal' to do just what the OP desires.

I really don't see anything shady or dishonest in this, but maybe I'm sufficiently naïve to not understand that it could introduce possible avenues for fraudsters.

Ultimately, the traveller's company is not being robbed or fiddled, the traveller gets what he/she wants (at their own extra expense), and the airline makes more money ... seems like a no-brainer to me! (So long as, of course, the itineraries and traveller names match.)

-- Henry

JOUY31

If the fare purchased by your company is a public fare, you can go to the ticket office at the airport and pay the fare difference. A ticket office at the airport usually has more flexibility than a call center or a city office.
Unlikely at this stage.

Goldorak

This is indeed correct, until the day of travel when the carrier has full control of the flight. And for the return flight, AF can touch the ticket as soon as the 1st leg is flown.

A global rule in this industry is that the entity you used to book a ticket (airline, OTA, classical travel agency, etc) is your contact point for any change, refund, complaint, etc.). Companies are always afraid that they will loose control of the travel policy compliance if anyone is able to make any change by contacting the airline directly instead of using the company self-booking tool or travel agency appointed by the company. Sad but true...

This is indeed the only way to do it.

I agree.