carnarvon

On the contrary, it is.

Everyone does that in order to get to the Premiere lounge when using a train connection at CDG.

Using a throw away F ticket to get access to the lounge is the only way to get around the lack of facility for upper class passengers at the train station.

Goldorak

Indeed. And the toilet facilities are so much nicer in the P lounge than at the train station

ishihara

Everything is correct up to the part of ORY....

After my visit in the lounge, I was escorted by a very nice AF rep to a taxi stand and spent a couple days in the city. After that, I took a train to Zurich. I returned to the US via LH F out of Munich.

concorde02 - I booked this via an agent at WF rewards travel desk.

carnarvon

So you got into the lounge saying you had a change of plans and were now flying to LHR instead of LCY.

Then you got out of the lounge saying you had had another change of plans and were after all NOT flying to LHR but going to Paris.

You were escorted the the taxi stand where you could catch your state coach to the city, where you have been numerous times and had said previously that you had no interest in going to.

You obviously had only hand luggage but spent a few days strolling the streets of the city of lights, buying clothes accompanied by a concierge at Le Printemps and Le Bon Marché, before you took off to Zurich by train,

You then slid down the slope between Zurich and Munich on a sleigh equipped with cattepilar tracks because there was no snow.

The LH F concierge escorted you from the sleigh station located south of Munich to the F lounge in MUC airport.

Your F ticket was MUC/NYC/OHR//LAX/FRA/LEJ, but you threw away the NYC/OHR//LAX/FRA/LEJ portion of the ticket. You nevertheless got the F ground service because you did not tell them you were in fact flying to BHM until the last moment.

For this purpose, you bought a NYC/BHM/ATL ticket (hidden city) thanks to having hand luggage only.

What a trip!

Tell us the truth. Your real name is J. K. Rowling, correct?

San Gottardo

I know you. There is a movie about you: . You are my idol. I watched your movie during my 96 hour stay in the Premiere lounge on my recent Lille-Starsbourg trip.


(Before I get funny questions here how I managed to be in the lounge for 96 hours. Pretty simple. I got up at the wee hours at my home in Knokke-leZoute to take a coach to Lille. There I spent a little time in the SNCF lounge, after all it's included in the price. On then to the TGV towards Paris, and I got off at CDG, where I arrived around 7.30am. Perfect for my objective to maximise time in the lounge. My flight to Buenos Aires - which in any case I had intended not to take, it was a throwaway ticket - was only leaving at 11pm. I really maxed out the time in the lounge. You cannot imagine all the great things that can keep you busy when you have several hours in the lounge. I counted the number of screws in the window frames, made a statistical model how many plates servers can carry at one time when cleaning tables so that by the evening I had enough data to predict that they would take used cutlery at the same time as used plates, and I even managed to see the paint fade a little on one of the walls in the lounge areas. When time came for departure to Buenos Aires, I was escorted to my car. To my shock, there was another passenger. I asked whether I could have a car to myself so that the driver could take me all the way to the Fedex terminal so that I can shoot some photos. Indeed, they looked a bit puzzled, but I got my car and instead of driving directly to the plane we passed by the Fedex terminal. Told them that after all I didn't have a camera and that I wanted to be the first to board the EZE flight. So we rushed back across the airport, so I really maxed out on the car experience.

Once in the jetway to the plane I explained to them that I had already been to Buenos Aires more than twice and that seeing the Copacabana again would bore me. No problem, they took me back in the car. For a moment I was thinking to ask for another sightseeing trip to the Fedex terminal but I thought they could start thinking that I was trying to max out on my Premiere experience. Since the lounge was closing for the night the car escorted me to a taxi stand. Since I had already been to Paris several times as well I asked the taxi driver to circle around the N104/A104 for a couple of hours. Also, during that taxi ride I rebooked my Paris-Buenos Aires to a departure the following evening.

The next morning, after 4 tours of the N104/A104 rocade I arrived at the Premiere desk at 2E just when it opened. Presented my ticket to Buenos Aires and was escorted to the lounge. The staff there remembered me and was overjoyed to see me again and for being such a loyal client of Premiere. Did the same thing again, i.e. Spent the day in the lounge and went out to my EZE flight in the evening, except that this time I visited the Cargo terminals to the South (La Poste and the General Cargo terminal). Again turned back in the jetway, and was again escorted to the taxi, did the A104/N104 again. But this time in the other direction. Gotta have some inspiration in this life.

On the next morning I arrived at the Premiere desk again, this time with my Bamako-Strasbourg ticket. I had a printout of my request to book access to the Premiere lounge as an arrival from Bamako, which doesn't have Premiere but so qualifies for paid lounge access. I also had a printout of 180 pages of flyertalk forum pages explaining that when arriving in Paris and continuing on a train I could get access to the Premiere lounge. They explained me that they never confirmed my booking request for paid access and that I could not use the lounge. So I looked at them, looked at me Bamako ticket again, and fainted a moment of surprise "Oh I am so sorry, I mixed up Bamako and Buenos Aires. I actually have a ticket to Buenos Aires in Premiere". They checked the booking, one agent told me that tonight's flight didn't have Premiere because of a sub to a J-only plane, but then made a couple of phone calls and it turned out that after all the plane had P. So they changed my booking to tonight and off I was to the P lounge again. This time though, to not miss my train to Strasbourg I didn't wait until the boarding time of the EZE flight but went up to the staff and explained to them that I had changed travel plans and actually had to be in Lisbon and if I could be let out again. They escorted me out of the lounge to Terminal 2F, where I then explained to them that to go to Lisbon I would rather take the train because I have a fear of flying and so would appreciate if they dropped me at the train station so that I could take the train to Strasbourg, which is on the way to Lisbon. I was a little sneaky then, took the RER to Gare du Nord, and the direct bus from there back to Knokke-LeZoute.

All in all I have enjoyed my time in the lounge, really took in everything I could. And there are things that I didn't even try. For instance, during the entire three day lounge experience I didn't get to use the showers. But there were some moments of disappointment. For instance the slight hesitation I felt when I asked for a detour by the Fedex terminal, or when they actually let me all on my own to figure out the way from 2F to the railway station.

But other than that it's a real experience, a trip really worthwhile and I am surprised why it isn't being picked up yet by the trendy travel guides like Wallpaper or Guide du Routard.)


Bon dimanche à tous.

brunos

Guide du Routard would be the perfect media

orbitmic

I think that the more you explain what you wanted to do and did, the more confused I am: you had to fly to LCY but did not, you did not want to go to Paris because you have been 20 times, but ended up spending a couple of days there anyway, and you ended up throwing 1) a CDG-LHR, 2) a ORY-LCY, and 3) a TLV-somewhere in the USA for good measure whilst you could have just bought USA-CDG-ZRH and return, either all P or with the return in a different booking class, and with or without a stopover in Paris depending on whether you wanted to spend those two days there after all or not, which would have taken care of your entire trip needs?

Would it be indiscrete to ask how much you paid for all those tickets and what the fare conditions were, because it must have been a more stunning deal (and with much more restrictive conditions than AF P tickets usually are) than I can imagine to make it worth going through such a complex series of throw away purchases.

ishihara

OMG -- Thank you! I literally LMAO reading your reply. Sorry it's so confusing. The whole trip was quite complex. And I think you had a couple misunderstandings. Let me see if I can clear some of them up.

(So you got into the lounge saying you had a change of plans and were now flying to LHR instead of LCY.) -- Yes that's correct.

(Then you got out of the lounge saying you had had another change of plans and were after all NOT flying to LHR but going to Paris. ) -- More or less. I told them I was feeling ill and decided to stay in Paris. I was honestly not feeling well after arriving there -- but yes it was a lame excuse.

(You obviously had only hand luggage but spent a few days strolling the streets of the city of lights, buying clothes accompanied by a concierge at Le Printemps and Le Bon Marché, before you took off to Zurich by train,) - Yes, only hand luggage since I knew I couldn't check anything. And no to the concierge at Le Printemps and/or Le Bon Marché. lol

As for the rest of your questions After taking the train to Zurich, I spent a couple days there before joining the MegaDo (https://megado.com/). The MegaDo ended in ATH. I few A3 to FRA. Walked over to the F terminal. Spend a couple hours there (AF P lounge was much nicer!). Then took a flight to MUC. Had an overnight layover there. Then flew LH F to CLT. Then took an AA flight (different PNR of course) and flew to BHM.

Yes, I threw away the OLY-LCY, TLV-JFK and CDG to LHR flights.

orbitmic: I purchased this with WF points in which I had the bump in redemption rates on my account. With the bump, I paid the equivalent of about $1800 for the AF F flight (that's what I could have got if I cashed out the points). I paid for the MegaDO event/charter. And my CDG-LHR flight was like, (I forget the exact amt) $40ish?.

Hope I didn't just make all of this even more confusing lol

San Gottardo

So why did you buy a TLV-JFK?

I "get" (well...) the part that you throw away CDG-LHR because that is what got you into the Premiere lounge. But why even get a TLV-JFK? People often buy return fares because they are less expensive than oneways. But since you bought with points, what was the point? (And excuse my ignorance, what the f@@ are WF points?)

And since you went to neither LHR nor LCY, why even get a ticket to London? Why not obtain a ticket from the US to Zurich via CDG, go to the lounge in Paris, fake your flu, rebook your onward connection to ZRH for another day?

And then you went to FCT in Frankfurt before flying to MUC, where you had an *overnight* stop, and your onward flight in LH F was only the next day.

So how did you get into the FCT? Access to the FCT is granted if you are departing or arriving *that same day* in Lufthansa or Swiss First Class. But your flight was only the following day. Some special deal thanks to the Mega Do?

stimpy

Not that I care, as this is more like reading a comic book than reality. But...

I once got the F experience arriving at FRA on LH the day before an F flight. I flew in at night from somewhere in Europe and was met out on the tarmac with the usual car/VIP treatment. I think they said I could go to the lounge for a shower if I wanted to, but I instead asked them to drive me as close to the Sheraton as possible. I spent the night there and then took the precarious walk to the FCT the next morning for my long haul flight. I know you are quoting the rules, but maybe they bend them sometimes?

brunos

Com'on Friend. You understand that the OP is having as much fun as you in incredible stories.

yrp

Love it!

Your mistake was using SNCF trains. RENFE AVE trains offer a meal in preferente, saving any risk of suffering pangs of hunger enroute to the CDG lounge. A few positioning flights here and there would have made that work..

A couple of people commented on my post that San's previous story was not "credible". My post was intended ironically, as San's post was obviously satire.

ishihara

What's also funny about this whole thing is that I've posted more in this thread in the 7 years I've been on FT than anywhere else. lol

I picked all of those cities LCY, TLV, etc because that's what priced out the cheapest. WF=Wells Fargo. If I changed any of these cities, it would have greatly increased what I had to pay.

As for LH F lounge in FRA, I believe you are correct on the rules there. However, I had verified with a friend that I'd be able to get into the F terminal in FRA even though I was flying out the next day. And sure enough, he was right. I think they just looked at my tickets and saw I had an F flight and didn't pay that much attention to the date. *shrug* They were all very nice and didn't even think twice about letting me in.

FrenchCaliFlyer

This thread is very entertaining thank you!

i stepped on it through a search on sharing my upcoming cdg P lounge access

Anyways.. I wanted to say I do personally go out of my way to experience airlines and lounges product and so I understand doing so to experience not “another lounge” but what I think is the best transit experience and lounge I know of

Goldorak