Gigantor

I will be flying CDG-EZE and would like to know if AF allows upgrade at gate against miles.

Thanks

Gig

KLouis

A couple of years ago I was trying to get an upgrade on miles from Vancouver to CDG for two months and none was available, even at check-in. Then, right before boarding, they called me to the gate and they gave me an operational upgrade without charging a single mile! ^ But I doubt very much that at the gate, literally speaking, they can use your miles for upgrading. As far as I know, this was previously not even possible at the check-in desk. Mind you, I've stopped flying AF almost two years ago, so I don't really know whether they still don't!

PS Stupid: I just noticed the number of my postings; 8 is considered by many a lucky number...

Goldorak

not at the gate but at ticketing counter or by calling FB the day before your flight. Remember that you need a full fare Y ticket to be eligible to upgrade it to J with miles. Discounted tickets are not eligible.

carnarvon

Never heard of upgrade against miles at the gate. what is possible at the airport is to go to the service desk and ask for upgrade possibility. If your fare allows upgrade, they will tell you how many miles are needed. If your fare does not allow, then you will basked for money + miles. Depending on their mood, they might ask you for money to move your fare up for both legs or for one leg only.

AF quite never upgrades long haul at check in, so allowing upgrade at the gate would give you the chance to wait till the last moment, hoping for "free" upgrade at the gate. AF does not want to give you this chance! AF hates upgrading its passengers for "free"

Gigantor

Hmmm... Swiss allows upgrade at gate, payable with miles.

carnarvon

this is an AF forum. I meant at the gate with AF...

carnarvon

B fare is also eligible for upgrade. If the ticketing people are nice enough, they will accept to make you pay of B only on the leg you want to upgrade, even though B fare is not supposed to be mixable with discounted fare for the other leg....

orbitmic

Note that you also need availability in the award business class bucket (I believe 'O') to be able to upgrade even at the ticket desk. Depending on when you are flying, CDG-EZE is one of the routes where business class is often full and business award seats quite rarely available.

ixs

Mhm. So I just did exactly that. I upgraded an economy flight from AMS to TXL. The original booking class was B.
The upgrade process was as described. I went to the KLM ticketing counter in AMS departure 2, which is located at the left side of the hall. Pull a ticket (Plat and Gold have priority), get instantly directed to a counter and tell the Lady you would like an upgrade. Did cost 10k miles which is a bad deal but who cares, I'll have them earned the end of the month anyway.

There was a slight problem with the process and the agent had to call the backend to have that fixed. After that was done, I recieved an Europe Select boarding pass with 1D as a seat.

The on-board product was actually decent. The nice thing was not so much the warm bread, the nice breakfast, the fresh orange juice or the real milk. No, it was the cabin chief who served each and everyone, greeted them by name and chatted a little bit in their local language. I overheard Dutch, German, French and English. Quite impressive.

If the value proposition were actually better (read, the biz fee not so outrageously high), I'd book that more often...

carnarvon

It is my understanding, that they would be quite easy going in releasing C class seats at the last moment for paid upgrades, since they would have no hope to sell them anyhow.

Unless of course friends & family are on the flight holding friends & family tickets so the business class seats will be kept free for them.

Indeed, such PAX are so much more valuable to AF than paying passengers.

orbitmic

You're absolutely right: for paid upgrades, definitely no problem, but I was talking about miles upgrades, and that is more dependent upon who you deal with. Some ticket staff seem very helpful (and skilled) others can't be bothered. In general, your chances decline especially if the station is not manned by AF main staff.

carnarvon

I meant upgrade which miles which is the same as money (or money to go to B fare + miles). Miles=money. Otherwise it is called a "free" upgrade (which AF hates to do). Paid upgrades with money is just buying a c class ticket at full fare.

I fully agree with you. It is very dependent on staff you deal with. Some will apply the rule one way, the other another way. Some will call control, some won't. We are the peons in this business and they are the rulers, dependent on their "bon vouloir"

brunos

The OP questions about upgrade on CDG-EZE so let's stick with upgrades on longhaul AF.
As Orbitmic points out, this is subject to availability of award seats. My experience is that FB will often not open O seats even if there are very many biz seats available the day before flight or at checkin. Their logic for opening award seats is a bit unclear, but they are clearly quite selective (may be just in case family/friend/staff show up, as Carnarvon points out). And you can agitate as much as you want at CDG AF ticket office, it will not change if the agent does not see that booking class opened by FB. of course, they might go the long route to call FB to open some seats, but... Unless I am mistaken, the opening of O seats comes from a different system that cannot be easily overriden. I tried a couple of times to upgrade from J to F at the airport (before April's fool), knowing that F was almost empty, to no avail despite calling many VIPs. I tried once to obtain a last-minute O award on a semi-empty flight departing HKG with no success (I was ticketed on another airline and flew that airline). Not because the airport AF agent (manager) could not process the award request in a few minutes, but simply because no O seats were available.

bodory

AFAIK, FB has to call RM to release award on demand.

brunos

You mean that RM has to call some authority at FB to ask for manual release? That's what I guessed. Not convenient with evening departures or different time zones. And this exceptional proczdure could only be justified by some "commercial" reasons.
My experience with CX is that the airport would do it routinely if there are seats available when the flight closes. A request for miles upgrade is entered in the system and automatically cleared if there is any seat available. Upgrade with miles takes priority over other (non-paid) upgrades. Clearly AF system is quite different. But then it is so costly to upgrade with miles that few try to do it.