epiding

Hi, I'm trying to book a special F seat on AF via Flying Blue. in our case, the # miles is not an issue / part of the equation, so lets forget about the mileage cost. landing the miles F ticket is the goal.

we are currently holding the last F seat as a revenue ticket (refundable). my question is -- if we cancel our current ticket -- will we be able to turn around and book that newly opened ticket as an F flex award ticket?

few issues:
1) AF doesnt oversell F i presume? hence any F cancelled seat will go back into inventory?

2) Are we sure that any last seat in F is redeemable as a flex F miles ticket?

3) how strict is Flying Blue in requiring elite status to book F seats? many people who arent elites have booked it, but many have been blocked too.

clarification welcome on all above points. THANKS!!!

irishguy28

You cannot guarantee that. If there really are no F seats left on your flight, I would expect that AF would prefer to keep the seat that you want to release available for purchase rather than making it available for redemption. Even if the seat remained unsold and they did eventually open up one redeemable seat closer to departure, you have absolutely no way of knowing if and when this might happen (it certainly will not be instantaneously after you cancel your revenue ticket!!!).

The fact that the flight is currently sold out (according to what you've written) makes me suspect that they will not even consider making your seat available for redemption should you release it - it's already a busy cabin, so they can probably hold out for a cash buyer, and not be upset if it doesn't sell. (It can always be offered as an upgrade offer to some lucky J customer just before departure, a more appealing prospect for AF than making it available for a miles redemption)

By the way, F seats are only ever available as Flex awards.

We have NEVER heard of anyone who was not FB Silver or above having booked redemption seats in La Première (with the exception of the one-off featuring of La Première in some of the PromoAward offers last June). If you have - please, provide the proof!

If you hold only Ivory FB status - then you can simply forget about booking a La Première award.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-f...on-status.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-f...mbers-non.html

KLflyerRalph

There ARE non Elites who have booked F awards. Check out One mile at a times TR on Air France La Premiere on Boardingarea.com.

epiding

yeah Lucky (Ben S.) at One Mile at a Time has successfully booked F miles tickets via calling the French Flying Blue line in France, rather than using the US call center.

http://boardingarea.com/onemileatati...t-class-award/

irishguy28

I did a search and found these two articles - are these the ones you meant? It looks like you have commented in the second one of them.

http://boardingarea.com/onemileatati...angeles-paris/
http://boardingarea.com/onemileatati...d-trip-report/

Nowhere is it stated whether the guy in question has FB Elite status or not.

I wouldn't take that as incontrivertible proof that an Ivory managed to book a La Première seat. The guy writing isn't the guy that travelled - and he doesn't know what status the traveller holds (or even if the traveller actually booked the ticket themself, it could have been booked by someone else who is an FB Elite).

The issue of whether Ivories can book La Première is one that pops up repeatedly here in the FB section of Flyer Talk, and in all the years I have been here not one person has reported being able to do so.

irishguy28

OK.

If Ivories are supposed to be able to book Flex F awards, then he should have been able to do this online using the FB tool.....

Can any Ivories reading this try a mock booking of an F itinerary using the FB booking tool? (Is it possible to search for a flight that you don't have enough miles for, though???)

I'm surprised that any of the agents would engage for so long with someone that doesn't have the required number of miles in their account (prior to the Amex MR transfer) and I'm even more surprised that such transfers went through immediately.

All agents in North America said that Ivories can't book, and at least one in France said that Ivories can't book.

I'm not saying this guy wasn't able to book it - but then, his name is apparently "lucky". We know that phone agents can book things that are not strictly allowed by the rules (see the RTW thread, and see earlier thread about booking a one-way on AR before this was allowed) so I am not entirely convinced yet that FB rules now allow Ivories to book La Première.

KLflyerRalph

Online, I am not able to so you'd have to try by phone.

dlinsider

AF La Premiere awards are FLEX and still only for FB elites or for miles coming from an FB elite account.

epiding

worst case, anyone with an AF FB elite account willing to let me borrow their account to book the F miles flight? (i'd transfer in the necessary AMEX MR points to your account). can add a tip too.

but my first problem is deciding whether to cancel the revenue ticket to reopen 1 seat.... and whether that seat can be redeemed as a FLEX miles ticket.... ummmmm?

ok986

Whether to cancel is something you have to decide. Whether that seat will be reopened - smart people above answered that there is no certainty about this, but in all likelihood, AF would not release it for a busy route.

Your call.

irishguy28

Are you even sure it's possible to transfer Amex MR points to a Flying Blue account other than your own? Your Amex MR account has to be linked with your FB account. I don't think you would be able to link to an account held in someone else's name.

epiding

AMEX MR is well known that it can transfer points to miles in anyone's name if done online. this is true for all programs that Amex transfers to from what i understand.

let me know if anyone can perhaps assist with letting me borrow their FB elite account. will compensate for your troubles.

orbitmic

While I can confirm the others' point about the elite rule, I would be even more negative on the f inventory: if the flight is as busy in premiere as you say releasing the seat will most likely only add inventory of one in P (full fare) not F (discounted and needed for the flex awards) so chances are that if you cancel it will only be available for revenue and even more expensive than your first ticket if you managed to get f inventory.

irishguy28

If by "borrow" you mean having someone give you their Flying Blue login details, then I think you are on to a non-starter. Sharing of login details is not allowed and never a good idea. You would have to be the one to take the risk (not the "volunteer") and hope that whoever you transferred your hundreds of thousands of Amex MR points to would book the ticket that you wanted in your name.

But this is all rather academic. Very few of us think that there will ever be a redemption F seat available again for this particular flight. If you cancel your revenue booking, you probably will not end up travelling at all on this flight (unless you later buy the same seat back at a much higher price).

orbitmic

Good summary! ^