flyphilrun

Upgraded once in the last 7 years. Eco to C on a flight from Cincinatti to CDG. Also downgraded once during the same timescale. On a flight from ORY to RUN (11 hour overnighter) I was downgraded from Alizé (ecoplus) to ordinary eco and told that I could get a reimbursment for the difference at the Air France office of my choosing. Well thanks AF for letting me waste my time getting money back that should be coming with a thousand apologies...

africanfrog

in the past 18 month, been lucky enough to get JFK-CDG from Y to C, and CDG-JNB Y to C twice... seems to be happening when there is no stopover in CDG...

heading up this sunday JNB-CDG-JFK and return 3 days later, let's see!!
j

JC25

10 years now F+R and Plat, trav. Europe to Asia/+ South America approx each 5/6 weeks, using C or Y, depending on y mood and fares. If I think about, from Y in average I am upgraded to C 5/7 (one way) times / year. Never been from C to F. Now I am 20 000 miles far away from lifetime plat : i will leave. I hate FB and AF Customer Service. I will surely leave to *A definitively, much more convenient for Asia than FB, especially China (I am based near Basel in France and Shanghai) When I was Gold in LX I was much more upgraded than in AF. Plat life time ? so what ? for which use ? I wonder ...

brunos

Are you saying that in the past 10 years you have been upgraded longhaul from Y to C five to seven times (one way) per year? If you fly half in Y and half in C every 5/6 weeks, it means approx 5 return longhaul Y, or 10 oneway Y. Hence your upgrading score is over 50%. And you are not happy? I must be misunderstanding your stats.

JC25

yes you are wrong I think. About 10/12 long haul flights/ year. 5/7 one legs op-up is not 50% But only 25 to 30 ... If you count only Y trips fo sure it's more. You should also notice that AF/KLM don't give upgrade vouchers like *A, and my meaning about FB comes from a global behaviour and services, FB as well as AF customer service, quality of meals (especially in C, almost same level than Y) and so on. Customer care : once upon a time .....

brunos

I certainly agree with you regarding customer service and the like. Being based in Hong Kong/Paris, and frequent NRT pax, I have reached the decision that OW was better for me.
Still, your upgrade score from Y to C is impressive and unexpected. Upgrades from C to F are necessarily rare given the very few P seats and the fact that AF "friends" seem to trust them. But I was not aware of any other pax getting so many opups from Y to C (longhaul). You must know the AF staff at PVG quite well.

highpeak1

I have very low expectations on upgrades. In about 15 years of FD Royal FB Gold and Plat I have been upgraded four times. MAN-AMS, WAW-AMS, MSP-AMS and YUL-AMS. MAN-AMS was on condition I did not eat a meal and it was a Fokker 100, so hardly an upgrade.
The other three were pleasant surprises, but not enough to keep me loyal to FD.
Have rocketed to*gold in three months this year after pulling travel away from Skyteam.

simonsmith

Just back from Hong Kong : The flight out was half full and a really helpful member of staff in the AF lounge at CDG managed to get me a seat free next to me in C. He could not actually block it ; but just waited until after the flight had closed. On the way back I saw the station manager at the gate and asked if the same could be done: He explained that the flight was full and they were upgrading from Y to C and C to F. being Platinum for 9 years I asked if he could see if i was one of the lucky C to Fs. Nope. I asked why and he was very helpful and explained that very recently they had been instructed by AF to upgrade on a fare value basis only and that elite status was no longer relevant . He told me he was not happy about it and he said he would probably fly with some one else if it was him!

johan rebel

In combination with all the other FB "enhancements", this raises the question why they bother having a FF program at all.

Johan

AF 001

I full agree, that means only for passengers who get paid from their company (who else will buy the expensive fare tickets?) can hope for an upgrade in case of overbooking, regardless if they are a FB member. The stupid ones who spend their own money for years and showed their loyality to AF/KLM and who unfortunately travel mainly in cheaper booking classes are out of the game.
This confirms that AF/KLM acts only revenue orintated, it has nothing to do with loyality from their side anymore.

Maybe we all here expect to much:

Last November I got a box with a salt & pepper shaker with a card in there from "Herbert", he thanked me for ten years loyality with AF/KLM

Henry III

I was on a short-hop B737 KL flight the other day; no op-up at the gate () but an odd (pleasantly odd) look from the GA at boarding. When I got to the plane, the purser was having a concerned chat with said GA ... apparently, the ServisAir crew had put the class divider at row 5 (I was in row 5 ) but one of the boarding passengers had seemed 'surprised' that he was in the 'front cabin'. The purser asked the GA to check the manifest ().

Just before push-back, the 5 of us in row 5 were asked to move, so that they could move the class divider forward. No complaint from me - nothing lost, after all - but the miserable old codger sitting next to me went off on a wobbly about the disturbance (all of 90 seconds) and the guy on the other side (he who first alerted the purser with his surprise, no less) was demanding an explanation of why the crew were delaying the flight to move the divider (which they weren't).

Only goes to show, some folks just don't know when to shut up and when to be courteous to crews (and fellow pax).

albireo

If he is right, it must be either a very recent policy, or apply to long hauls only, or apply only out of HKG. I was upgraded on a Q fare in a long haul (CDG-COO) at the end of March, and upgraded as late as yesterday on a European (CDG-FCO) N fare. Interestingly, yesterday's upgrade was from Y to C, bypassing Premium Voyageur (formerly Tempo Challenge).

ICA

In the past two years:

3 times from Y to C CDG-NRT (AF)
once from award C to P CDG-NRT (AF)
once from Y to Tempo Challenge CDG-BUD (flight OP by MA)

Never on KL...

After I moved my main business to *A this year,
I think no more OP-UPs on AF/KL in the future...

TGV

Not linked to HKG because I got an upgrade on HKG-CDG on March 31st (guess why I had chosen this date to fly !) with a Q fare.

Or maybe another "improvement" implemented on Apr Fools ?

The CDG-HKG flown 2 weeks before was K, but I assume they just look at the class for the leg being flown ?

In term of status I am (Lifetime) Plat.

Anyway it was the first upgrade since 2005 (63 flights on AFKL during this period, 80% long haul), so it was a real surprise.
Was it linked to my written complain regarding the changes in FB rules ?

As now my flight selection is not based on FB anymore I will probably not be able to check soon !

I am planning my next CDG-HKD-CDG trip and CX is not only cheaper, but with a far better comfort (744 with new eco cabin - excellent or 343 - the best config with 2-4-2) vs the 772 - (noisy and 3-3-3), and the 77W, (noisy and sardine can with 3-4-3): guess what will be the choice !

africanfrog

got upgraded yday on jfk-cdg, plane was packed..
felt real lucky as we had two aborted take offs due to faulty landing gear light in the cokpit and took off three hours late without disembarking...

heading to joburg tonite, maybe strike 2?!