alesfo

Hi all,

hope you are doing well in these difficult times. In late August I am supposed to go for a long trip to California, with return in November. For such long trips, I prefer to fly La Premiere when possible and reasonable (I pay the ticket out of my own pocket). In the past I was lucky as AF offered discounted fares (around 4.5K~5K EUR) from MIL with no cancellation fee, which I found a good deal for the quality of the product and the flexibility (the difference with a flexible J ticket was quite small!).

It seems that now the only discounted P fares are quite a bit more expensive (5.8K EUR) and have a cancellation fee of 400 EUR. On the other hand, Delta is selling AF-operated flights for 5.3K EUR, and while the cancellation conditions of the ticket are the same, it seems to me that Delta also offers the possibility of a voucher in case of voluntary cancellation.

If I book through Delta, should I expect any difference in terms of service (eg access to the P lounge in CDG) or mileage earning?

By the way, BA, AA, LH and LX are all offering cheaper tickets than AF in discounted P (around 4.4K EUR). Any thoughts on those products?

Thanks!

gkl

I flew ARN-CDG-SFO on a DL-ticket in AF P, and in terms of service, there was no difference at all. P Lounge access and no difference on board.
Mileage will be different depending on your program. For Flying Blue: A DL issued ticket gives distance based miles as opposed to spend-based miles for AF tickets. Further, your don't get UXP. The number of XP will be the same.

Zembla

You’d be surprised how big the price difference can be between DL or AF issued ticket for the same flight in the same cabin. I never noticed any difference in service and status recognition. I can also confirm the earned miles can be different, and no UXP on DL issued tickets. Often worth it because of the price difference.

Rambol

The mileage and UXP earning do not differ between DL and AF tickets as mentioned above. These earnings are both determined by the marketing carrier (i.e. flight number), not ticket stock (who you bought the ticket from). If the flights have a DL flight number you won't earn UXP and you will earn miles according to the DL mileage earning table. If AF flight number you will earn 4 miles per EUR spend (+elite bonus) and full UXP.

Goldorak

There are some confusions here between XP and UXP. The 1st sentence above is wrong.
For a FB member (ultimate or not), a DL- or AF-coded ticket will give the same number of XP.
For a FB Ultimate member, a DL-coded ticket will not give any UXP. UXP are earned solely on AFKL-coded tickets.

Rambol

That is exactly what I am saying, so I don't see how the first sentence is wrong. But at least we agree on how it works

I think there is some misunderstanding about the definition of ticket I used. When I mention DL or AF ticket I mean the ticket stock (i.e. who issues the ticket). This is irrelevant for flyingblue mileage and possible UXP earning, only the marketing carrier is relevant in this case.

San Gottardo

What you are saying: to earn UXP it has to be AF flight number, on any ticket stock, including DL (006) ticket stock
What Goldorak is saying: to earn UXP it has to AF flight number, only on AF (057) or KL (074) ticket stock

From the bit I know and based on a past experience I am afraid Goldorak is right.

Rambol

Ah, if that is your experience it is probably true. However, this does not align with the information on the flying blue site, where only the AF/KLM marketed flight requirement is mentioned:

'You’ve already started gaining UXP so you’re on your way, you just need to keep flying. UXP are the Ultimate Experience Points you gain when travelling on Air France or KLM marketed flights.
The more UXP you gain the closer you are to accessing the Flying Blue Ultimate service. Concretely, that means you need to gain 1,800 UXP within two (2) calendar years to be eligible. Once you’ve gained sufficient UXP your Flying Blue Ultimate privileges will start on April 1st of the following year and last for two (2) years.'

I guess the information on the flying blue page not being 100% correct shouldn't come as a surprise though.

ijgordon

LX and LH are probably a half step below AF; AF is certainly not worth a ~€1k premium.
BA and AA are several notches below. I would still probably save the 1k and take BA/AA if LX/LH wasn't a reasonable option, but assuming they are, LX/LH is a no-brainer.

Goldorak

Ha Ha Ha
so here is the final answer : ticket stock doesn't matter for Ultimate. Only AFKLflight number is important