mtimmer

Looking at award tickets Europe to the US. For J, the website shows one seat available for 80K and two seats available for 272K. Does this mean that for two seats the website is pricing the awards as 80K (first seat) and 192K (second seat)? Or to ask a different way, if I booked the first seat for 80K, is there a chance the second seat would price differently than 192K? Is calling in helpful here? Sorry if this is a basic question, but I've never booked with Flying Blue before...

fifty_two

If this apply to you , before transfering your MR points to your flying blue account (its not only about amex but US credit cards in general) i would suggest you to read this ( Air France/FB says my 317,000+ MR transfer is FRAUD! Help! ) Then book when you are 100% sure and accept the risks (in sense prices can go up by 2x , you cant book these seats anymore , etc .... ) and you have no problems with the fact that you can't revert the transfer back to your credit card

About your request for 1+1 , there should be a price breakdown somewhere in the process before clicking "validate purchase" , please go further than where you stopped but of course dont buy anything and let us know what you find

And for your second question , yes it is possible than second seat (i mean if booked separately) would be at different price , not necessarly 192k neither 80k , cause its dynamic so no way to know exactly

hhdl

It's more likely that there's 1 seat available at 80k and 2 seats available at 136k each and the requirement is that both seats have the same fare, though there's no guarantee that booking 1 at 80k won't cause the 136k availability to be withdrawn. If booking 1+1, note that there are various tail risks at play with respect to IROPS, equipment changes, etc. (e.g. flight gets canceled and you and your companion get rerouted differently, or there's an equipment change to a smaller J cabin resulting in one (likely the 80k booking) getting downgraded to PE).

mtimmer

Well, that was a rather terrifying thread to read and yes, this does apply to me (account opened a month ago and no flying activity). By the end of the thread it does sound like anecdotally freezing the miles transfer from Amex isn't happening as much? Also, according to a post on One Mile at a Time, this won't happen if you make a phone booking?
And the answer after going further into the booking is that the seats are pricing as 136K + 136K.

hddl: I appreciate your outline of the risks if I book two separate tickets. On one hand, not likely to happen, but also not 0%. At this point, I'm just perusing options, but based on how many "1 seat available" awards I've seen, I can also see this happening in the event that I find something I'd like to book.

offvoice

You can still call the company after booking to link the two PNR together so that in case of IROPS they are rescheduled together. Not 100% sure how that would impact cabin change but for sure you wouldn’t be routed into different flights.

carnarvon

There is no such thing as "linking" 2 PNR's.

Each booking will be treated individually by the system, so don't count on not being rerouted on different routes in case irrops.

They are in no obligation to reroute you as if you had made a booking for two.

The only thing it can do is that in case it happens and you speak with an agent, you can point out to the message in the booking and beg for understanding. This becomes a commercial negotiation where FF status helps.

Given the fact that the OP has no status and no miles (only point transfer), I would strongly advise against making two separate bookings.

fifty_two

Well , no idea as there is no "1 solution fits all" . But you should be aware of the risks , and if you accept them then go ahead and transfer those MR points . Based on what i can find on the web , 272k FB miles = 272k MR points = around $5000 / 4700€ / 4200 £ worth of spending

We've seen and we will see it again , from time to time too many people got stuck in same pattern = believe in amex lies of seamless experiences , buy groceries + candies with amex , create FB account just for awards , transfer MR points , try to book , sн*т happen , come to flyertalk asking for help, enjoy rollercoaster ride until problem fixed

I assume you live in the USA , right ? What if you have to go to a AFKL sales office but you live in wyoming or alaska ? There arent a lot of them in the US , usually to cities where one or both flies , so keep this in mind

My recommended action plan = start to convert some points from your hotel stays to flying blue , credit one or two skyteam flights there , wait a 2 weeks , make a small transfer (like 20k miles) then wait few days and try to book a continental / domestic flight

After that , If all goes well then you can unleash the beast and book your award tickets Europe to the US in J

FB think those cases are shenanigan cause this is a common pattern used by fraudsters , so to avoid it , you must make your account looks like alive and legit before your big transfer for this J award you dream of

Ok so i was right

If you book separately then keep in mind what carnarvon said

Xandrios

Aside from the whole transfering miles aspect (which always has its risks, though of course you could use any miles transferred for another itinerary at a later time), personally I'd book as two separate tickets.

When booking 2 pax on one PNR the requirement is that the route and the fare are the same. Hence you are seeing only availability at 136K for 2 pax. If you book 1+1 there is at least a reasonable chance (though not a guarantee) that you will be able to book at 80K+136K. It also has the added benefits that you could change the flights for one or the other pax independently. The downsides are that these won't be linked (so in case of irrops you may not fly together), and if you do want to make a change for both pax you'll pay double the change fees.

newflyer27

I believe the change fee would have been per person in any case, be it same PNR or different ones. That's my recent experience at least.

AwardRook21

That is correct, it is per person.

mtimmer

I appreciate the additional thoughts re my FB options. (And the Amex transfer concerns.) For now, I think it's a moot point as I ended up booking two award seats in J from CDG-MAD-LAX on IB. But I suspect I'll be re-visit this issue on a future trip. In the meantime, I'll try and activate my FB account. (Not that I needed to do that for Iberia...)

Xandrios

Oh really? I always thought this was per PNR/Flight change....and also, for me, pretty much ever the only reason to book multiple pax on the same PNR. Which is very rare anyway, and probably I've never had to change such itinerary. At least not on AFKL. Its good to know though, thanks!

f0zzyNUE

nope - change fees are paid per ticket not per PNR - and it's the same with revenue tickets. when there is only one seat left in the cheap fare bucket I tend to book one ticket from the cheap fare bucket and one from the more expensive fare bucket. however it gets risky when you need to rebook because you have to rebook the tickets individually.