Frequence Plus Miles What For ?
 

To organize my vacation in India and Nepal I tried to book Paris-Delhi-Kathmandu with my F+ miles.

Not a single Economy seat available in Mini-Miles on Delhi-Paris during the entire month of April. No worry, I'll use my Lufthansa M&M for that !!

Delhi-Kathmandu is flown by Indian Airlines, which AF advertises as its partner with no apparent restriction. When trying to book a seat, the answer comes that awards cannot be issued on this particular route. The reason stated by F+ staff ? "Air France and/or its Partners reserve the right to make changes to the conditions governing the granting of any Reward, in particular the number of Miles required, and to cancel any Reward offer without notice and with immediate effect." (General Terms and Conditions # IV-1-3) !!!!

Why should I continue spending my company's money on such an unpredictable airline ?

Jerome,

As for Mini-Miles, they are rare as long-haul occupancy rate is close to 80%.
You may be more lucky with biz class than with economy.
As for Delhi-Kathmandu, I think Indian Airlines suspended the route after the hijack in dec. 99.
Just double check! Good luck!

Hi Jerome,

Booking an award flight with "mini miles" is like booking a low fare (discounted)economy flight.

There are usually a limited number of seats available for this booking class. This is true for all carriers. The equivalent of "Mini miles" by Lufthansa is "FlySmart".

A good way to check the availability is to book (for test purposes only) a discounted flight using for instance www.flights.com .

If you have to book a long haul flight with Mini-miles, you should make the reservation many monthes in advance, or be very flexible with the dates.

Another problem with AF is that the SkyTeam alliance is too small to provide enough partner choice (Star alliance has 14 members and maybe 30-40 other airline partners, while SkyTeam have only 4 members ).
And what for members !! Korean Air is not really a global player...

Dear Jerome:

bienvenu sur ce site!

Mini-miles are indeed hard to get and the seats most likely to be sold 100% through bucket shops (deeply discounted tickets). Hence, you should consider booking a "higher" class of ticket. I found AF to be very co-operative and flexible in redeeming. It is one of the few airlines where you can pay with miles for tickets for third parties - I tell you, that's a real treat. Their rules on non-expiry of miles are also very beneficial and their redemption rates not unreasonable. In any event, you should always aim to book "holiday routes" at least three to four months in advance.