Concerto

So in that case, round trips to Moscow from MIL, GVA or BSL at prices varying from EUR407 to EUR447 are really quite good. Moscow must be the most distant of all those destinations ... perhaps matched by IST. I was really feeling a bit daft booking for EUR429 when Economy could be had for much less. However, those cheap Eco fares arrive at 01h40, 01h55, 02h35, which is horrible. With the Business fare I booked, I can arrive at 15h20 (on an A319), although I have preferred to take the following flight arriving at 18h55 because it is on a slightly larger A320.

NickB

AZ still allows open-jaws of that kind, though (with the added bonus of getting "proper" miles even on comparatively cheap tickets). Their business class fares, however, are often more expensive than AF O-class fares.

They certainly are. That is roughly half of what you would pay for the cheapest business class fares from LON to NCE on KL, for instance (and about the same of what you would pay on that route for an AF business class ticket in O class, half of which would be in economy).

Concerto

I always have a slight hesitation and doubt about booking AZ too far out, because in theory they should have done an Air Berlin years ago. I sure hope they don't disappear, because a valuable source of cheap XPs will suddenly evaporate.

So I went ahead with booking the Air France fare to Moscow, which was about 4 Euros cheaper on Expedia than directly at Air France (not sure why). I used Expedia because you get more cashback there than by booking with Air France directly (shoop.de). Just a detail, but it all mounts up in the end (just for info, booking on Air France via shoop would have yielded a flat EUR1.00, the rate for European bookings, whereas Expedia yielded 1% which turned out to be EUR4.40 plus 100 Payback points. Now, that's good points collecting, isn't it!)

The Paris-Moscow sectors book into O-class, which I presume is an eligible class for XP and miles earning. The MXP-CDG sectors are in J-class.

NickB

Yes, it is.

Fabo.sk

On the other hand, a good number of J fares in Europe can be found at about twice the price of Y, which is great for experience gathering runs.

Concerto

Concerto

As this is part of an overall sometimes voluntary, sometimes involuntary, mileage run to achieving Platinum status, it is now time to comment on a couple of short Air France sectors which took place on either side of my trip to Dubai with Saudia.

AF1042 CDG-GVA (V) I managed to complete my visit to the festival office in Paris, have an excellent steak frites for lunch and make it back to Charles de Gaulle for a few glasses of Pouilly fumé in the very crowded Air France lounge at one of the piers in 2F, near gate F54. Nowhere similar to the intercontinental lounge in 2L (with its spa, showers and hot food) there was nevertheless a good choice of nibbles and tapas like dishes. The flight to Geneva itself was on time and arrived early, a world away from the nonsense of Eurowings. I was assigned an emergency exit middle seat and a member of the cabin crew moved me to an emergency exit aisle seat. A rather nice sandwich of goats cheese on bread with figs was served, along with drinks from the bar - not such great white wine this time.

AF1543 GVA-CDG (V) Allocated the emergency exit window seat with no neighbour in the middle seat the passenger in the aisle turned out to be an interesting British engineer living in Vevey. This was one of my nicest shorthaul Air France flights to date and we seemed to take a little longer than usual to reach Paris. A pain au crème, a bit like a pain au chocolat, was served and offered a second time (I refused!). The coffee on this morning flight was a step up from the usual airline fare, presumably still of the instant variety, and was quite palatable. Segafredo was the make, apparently. I do like older cabin crew members who seem to really enjoy their job!

I thought it was useful to give a few thoughts and feedback about the state of shorthaul economy class on Air France. In my opinion, the service offering is a good notch above the other airlines and seems to have got better in the last couple of years.

RabbitIYH

It looks like I'm going to need between 25 and 40 XP to requalify this year; any LYS- CDG- based J trip on AZ/ SU for sub 400 euros? This would purely be for XP reasons so the destination really doesn't matter and a short turnaround would actually be ideal.

Zarmakuizz

If you are LYS-based, you could easily get fine deals from GVA (reach by train), MUC/STR/FRA (many examples above - use Blablacar or LH flight to reach the area), or even DUS (direct LYS-DUS). Some posts above above suggest MUC-CDG-AMS-Norway Business itinaries at a nice price.

Or take a FB AMEX Gold card. With those online banks, like Boursorama or N26, you don't need much to open a bank account with a French IBAN nowadays.

glennhaak

If you are able to position to BRU you can have 60XP for around €300 https://goo.gl/flights/rpNgt You'll have a night in VLC and a night in FCO

It doesn't price up on AZ website, but findable through OTA

NickB

Once you have added the cost of accommodation in VLC, in FCO and possibly in BRU for the positioning, not to mention the positioning flights, the €308 will be a distant memory, I would have thought.

Concerto

The problem with FCO too is, that it can be quite dear getting to the hotels from the airport. That airport express is one of the more expensive airport public transit links and I recall checking round the airport and giving up, maybe because hotel shuttles were not available, or cost really quite a lot. It was the case with IHG, anyway. But I really like the routing and price, If, for example, you need a hotel night for some qualification purpose and you can make that work at FCO (unlike me), then it could definitely be worth the overnight. I sure hope Alitalia sticks around, because without them this whole XP business is going to be a lot harder.

f0zzyNUE

the Holiday Inn
Roma - Eur Parco Dei Medici is just three stops away from the airport on the local train (Muratella) and would be an option.

Fabo.sk

They've got a free shuttle also. Well anyway from the airport to the hotel at least it's free.

siw

This is just to get a general consensus from the FT FB community as there's many mileage runs talk about cents per mile.

What is generally considered to be a good £ per XP, or any other currency? The lowest I have from my flights so far was about £8.50 / XP but mostly I am getting about £20 / XP from my tickets. I also keep a check on my £ / Miles but that is not strictly a consistent comparison across my flights due to the two earning methods; AFKL revenue and other ST distance based.