hegira

I do not have many good things to say about AF or Flying Blue these days.

BUT, I did have a very good experience with the North American helpdesk of Flying Blue on Friday. I spoke to a very competent woman who was actually helpful in arranging "free" travel (it still cost 700 CAD with taxes and fuel surcharges) for my sister and brother in law from the US to Morocco, via Paris with a stopover, all in business class.

This is a HUGE improvement over my previous experiences with FB in France and in N America. In December, I actually spoke to a guy who told me that FB is not a travel agency and cannot look up availability for more than 2 flights on any given call (and this to a PE !!).

Just thought I'd share a positive experience. Maybe there is hope afterall.

beaubo

...same positive experiences as OP

TrayflowInUK

C$700 for two tickets

Falco Peregrinus

There is something awkward with these taxes (700 C$ = 500 €, i.e. 250 € per PAX). I've made various pricing attempts (SFO, LAX, NYC, ATL to CDG) with the award booking engine for USA-CDG flights and they all end up with 250 €+ "taxes", with the following breakdown:Actually taxes only account for 64% of the 255 €. On the US website, a paid ATL-CDG R/T is charged with 86 USD (71 €) taxes only and that's it.

Could the 92 € unexplained "montant" be a fuel surcharge? I don't think so. For a CDG-HKG award (a long-haul flight too) a same kind of unexplained "montant" exists as well but is limited to 4 € ! (CDG-HKG award taxes all in: 140 €, CDG-HKG taxes on paid tickets: 136 €).

Clear as mud...

To the OP: considering the USA-CDG taxes (250 € +) on award tickets, you're basically getting entirely free CDG-Marocco segments...

beaubo

If you tell Canada HD that you will pickup your ticket at an AF/KL US gateway city instead of via eticketfrom Canada, you'll save about $100 USD in taxes. Only catch is that you have to pick up the ticket the SAME day that the HD processes the ticket, or have a friend who is close to a US airport or AF CTO (which I doubt there are any except msybe NYC).

cfischer

anyone know if you can pick up award tix in BOS? Saving $100 would be a reason for a trip out to Logan.

WearyBizTrvlr

Qantas is kind enough to provide an overview of taxes by country (scroll down on the page), so you should be able to work out for yourself how much the taxes should be. 700 CAD sounds pretty extreme.

hegira

Thanks. Well AF is a far cry from Qantas.

I must admit to being confused. Here are the fees per ticket from FB :

Tarif/Fare : NO FARE
Taxes : CAD 16.93QX 122.00YQ 114.32XT
Montant total pour ce passager/Total paid by this passenger: CAD381.25

Funny thing, is I booked a "free" oneway from LAX-CDG in business a week ago and paid :

Tarif/Fare : NO FARE
Taxes : CAD 42.00YQ 16.84US 2.90AY

Perhaps the XT, which I assumed is a fuel surcharge, only applies for roundtrips ??

cfischer

usually ow is more than 1/2 rt, if you really paid CAD 60 you were VERY lucky.

hegira

FB is sort of like playing the lottery...

ABG

YQ is your fuel charge.... XT is misc taxes, usually airport fees / security fees.