HiBob

Hello, First I hope you'll pardon my complete naiveté here regarding how this works.

We'd like to book 2 La Premiere tickets LAX-CDG. Tentative travel date June 2024. Paying full price, of USD 31k.

Is a credit card deposit required? I don't have any single credit card with a limit that high. I imagine the reservation would be denied if the supplied card did not have a limit that would cover the full fare?

Again, I don't know how this works. Do I have to first request a limit increase with my credit card company before making our reservation? A moment ago I just reserved hotel accommodations for 14k with my my highest credit limit of 15k. Since exact dates of travel are TBD, and cancellations are stated not to at issue when are the deposit/fares actually deducted?

note: We have 8+ credit score and funds to cover, yet low credit card limits as we've not needed to charge these large sums.
thanks.

Goldorak

There is no "deposit" to do, you pay in full at the time the ticket is issued. You may either ask the bank to increase your spend limit temporarily or to pay by money transfer (i.e. make the booking, make the money transfer and the ticket will be issued when the money will be received by AF).

wuzziduzziman

If you've got 5 digit cc expenditures on a regular basis, you should go for Amex Platinum (or Centurion in the long run). Saves you the hazzle with limits.

brunos

You need to increase the credit limit on a couple of cards. !5k is a very low limit.
Then you can buy your 2 tickets on 2 separate credit cards.
If you just spent 14K on one card you can also immediately transfer that amount from your bank to the cc and that will reset the amount available.

miles4CDG

Not to mention the 5x points on airfare.

OP, before booking, make sure to price out your itinerary booking the seats separately v. together. Two tix purchased together will price into P if there's already one seat booked. Separately, you'd get one F and one P. You can use ExpertFlyer to see what seats are already taken on your desired flights, and ITA Matrix for fares.

Fabo.sk

Most credit cards I have used also allow for increasing useable credit by overpaying the statement in advance. However that will not remove daily usage limits or single transaction usage limits, so contacting the issuer in advance of such a large purchase is a good idea.

HiBob

miles4CDG I know you are providing a valuable note here. Yet, unfortunately for me it's written in code, of a language (terms) I'm not familiar with. :-)

• Okay I get there is a pricing benefit if I book them separately. "P" & "F" (are these fare codes?)
• Is "ExpertFlyer" a resource site? - ITA Matrix for fares?

Ah, I get it now:Since we are paying full price fare points are not an option. (only some unused points from a jetblue card) We'd prefer to guarantee the seats for this flight over taking any risks seeking a discount. ~ You bring up a concern we have with seating as well. We will somewhat unconventionally as opposed to seating together in the center, we will want to confirm one center and one window. Due to age, (stiff necks & hearing) it's physically uncomfortable communicating side by side vs. face to face. One center and one window will give us the opportunity to face each with a window seat for dining and communication. We confirmed with Air France that this seating option is fine pending availability.

All the expert feedback and recommendations is much appreciated!

Fabo.sk

You wouldn't be taking risks seeking a discount.

It's just that if you buy two seats separately, the first one might be available at a lower cost. If you purchase two at once, they will both be at full price. If you purchase separately, only the second one will be.

Nevertheless both of them will be confirmed tickets on the flight. In the unlikely event that between booking one and the next, the availability drops to 0, you can simply cancel the first one for full refund (24h cooldown applies)

Once you have purchased the tickets, you can get your seat assignments.

5x points mentioned is not for payment, but if you had an American Express, you get extra points for purchase of flight tickets.

miles4CDG

Yes ITA Matrix is useful to look up schedules/fares. And I use the free version of Expert Flyer to look at the seat map for the flights I'm interested in before booking. In your case, you'd want to make sure that the window/center combo is available on the flights you're considering.