nickal320

I have just booked a KLM flight (WAW-AMS-EDI) on the AF website. It was €10 cheaper than on klm.com. I’ve noticed this quite a lot: KL flights are €10 cheaper on AirFrance.com than klm.com.

Why is that? And does booking a KL flight on AF put me at some sort of disadvantage?

Fabo.sk

isn't it just that on AF the booking fee is not included and on KL it is?

nickal320

Honestly, I had no idea about this. Why doesn’t AF include a booking fee?

irishguy28

Booking fees vary per country...some have it, some don't.

That's why most regular AF/KL travellers will switch countries on the KL/AF websites before purchasing, to avoid the booking fee.

fifty_two

in addition to what irishguy28 said , its not unusual to see same flights (same route , same currency and same POS) quoted at different prices by KL and AF , so double check both and also check if it makes sense to pay in your currency or the POS currecny

KLflyerRalph

Did you compare both on the Polish websites?

Fabo.sk

No, I haven't gotten that deep into booking fee arbitration. Particularly as lately KL has not been good for my private travel.

irishguy28

Neither AF nor KL apply a booking fee/service charge on their Polish websites, and neither do they quote different price for the same flights (any difference would be denominated in złoty anyway, and unlikely to come to an exact Euro amount even after conversion)

atflyer

I had the same. Seems indeed the booking fee. Am Dutch, based in Paris for a year, and booked Paris-Tunis return. KLM site: 200 Euro. AF site: 190. Did AF of course. Difference was indeed the booking fee. An OTA even offered it for 180 Euro (they sometimes can play with currency exchange rates or credit card cashbacks) but decided for 10 Euro it is not worth the hassle if there is a flight change - I now can deal directly with AF/KL. I book relatively often via the travel agent of my employer, and interesting is that there I get usually the price without KLM booking fee, plus the 5 Euro booking fee of the travel agent....

As one of the posters suggested, always check out both the KL and AF sites at least (and maybe an OTA via e.g. KAYAK, and decide if any difference is worth it).