Air France (AF) ends upgradeable seats from Premium W
Sep 18, 2012, 10:06 am
#136
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How much does 32k flying blue miles cost? It seems that buying medium or high end S/W PV AF fare plus buying 32k FB miles would make the process rather not worth it, compared to a discount business fare... And definitely not comparable to buying DL low end W are and using 30k skymiles or 2 PU503
Sep 18, 2012, 10:09 am
#137
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If you have a 006 DL-emited ticket with DL coded flights: Y, B and M are upgradable with Delta Skymiles or Flying Blue Miles. I'm not exactly sure if you'd upgrade from Economy to Premium Voyageur or Affaires (anyone?) Availability is different depending on what type of miles you want to use.
If you have a 057 AF-emited ticket with AF coded flights: W and S are upgradable from Premium Voyageur to Affaires. The seat allocation is better if you use Flying Blue Miles (it's 16,500 per segment and you can actually purchase the miles you need). I've never tried using SkyMiles to upgrade an AF-emited ticket so not sure you can make it happen (anyone?).
Generally speaking, you need the international reissuing desk to reissue the ticket and pull the miles of you're doing skymiles. Flying Blue, on the other hand, modifies your reservation to O class and emails you an upgrade voucher you show at the airport. In the mean time your ticket reissuing is pending, which I find kind of stressful.
Your chances to upgrade at the gate are close to zero with SkyMiles (they require you do it 24 hours prior the flight) but are descent with Flying Blue Miles if your fare is upgradable. They actually open some seat the day before the flight.
If you have a 057 AF-emited ticket with AF coded flights: W and S are upgradable from Premium Voyageur to Affaires. The seat allocation is better if you use Flying Blue Miles (it's 16,500 per segment and you can actually purchase the miles you need). I've never tried using SkyMiles to upgrade an AF-emited ticket so not sure you can make it happen (anyone?).
Generally speaking, you need the international reissuing desk to reissue the ticket and pull the miles of you're doing skymiles. Flying Blue, on the other hand, modifies your reservation to O class and emails you an upgrade voucher you show at the airport. In the mean time your ticket reissuing is pending, which I find kind of stressful.
Your chances to upgrade at the gate are close to zero with SkyMiles (they require you do it 24 hours prior the flight) but are descent with Flying Blue Miles if your fare is upgradable. They actually open some seat the day before the flight.
You do, but allocation for FlyingBlue members is usually pretty good and they keep opening seats as the day of the flight nears.
Also, you can totally pull the miles from a FlyingBlue account but still get the mileage credit on another SkyTeam FFP (like SkyMiles if that is where you wanna build status). They'll be a bit confused but you should insist and they'll do it because the debit for the upgrade and the credit for the mileage are totally different things.
Also, you can totally pull the miles from a FlyingBlue account but still get the mileage credit on another SkyTeam FFP (like SkyMiles if that is where you wanna build status). They'll be a bit confused but you should insist and they'll do it because the debit for the upgrade and the credit for the mileage are totally different things.
Sep 18, 2012, 10:13 am
#138
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Also, you can totally pull the miles from a FlyingBlue account but still get the mileage credit on another SkyTeam FFP (like SkyMiles if that is where you wanna build status). They'll be a bit confused but you should insist and they'll do it because the debit for the upgrade and the credit for the mileage are totally different things.
Sep 18, 2012, 10:16 am
#139
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How much does 32k flying blue miles cost? It seems that buying medium or high end S/W PV AF fare plus buying 32k FB miles would make the process rather not worth it, compared to a discount business fare... And definitely not comparable to buying DL low end W are and using 30k skymiles or 2 PU503
Sep 18, 2012, 2:20 pm
#140
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Sep 18, 2012, 5:01 pm
#141
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I have been informed by a friend that the issue has been fixed and W and S class on AF are again upgradeable to Affaires using SWUs or Delta miles. Air France is also standardizing the names of the products. Affaires will become Business Class, Premium Voyageur will become Premium Economy and Voyageur will become Economy. Good news 
Sounds to me like DL and AF/KL just were having a little fight. I'd assume AF/KL are just getting sick of being walked over by DL for award redemption. Time and time again all you can find low level is AF/KL metal, so that probably annoyed them because it brings nothing to their FB members.
Sounds to me like DL and AF/KL just were having a little fight. I'd assume AF/KL are just getting sick of being walked over by DL for award redemption. Time and time again all you can find low level is AF/KL metal, so that probably annoyed them because it brings nothing to their FB members.
Sep 18, 2012, 5:05 pm
#142
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I have been informed by a friend that the issue has been fixed and W and S class on AF are again upgradeable to Affaires using SWUs or Delta miles. Air France is also standardizing the names of the products. Affaires will become Business Class, Premium Voyageur will become Premium Economy and Voyageur will become Economy. Good news
Sounds to me like DL and AF/KL just were having a little fight. I'd assume AF/KL are just getting sick of being walked over by DL for award redemption. Time and time again all you can find low level is AF/KL metal, so that probably annoyed them because it brings nothing to their FB members.
Sounds to me like DL and AF/KL just were having a little fight. I'd assume AF/KL are just getting sick of being walked over by DL for award redemption. Time and time again all you can find low level is AF/KL metal, so that probably annoyed them because it brings nothing to their FB members.
Sep 18, 2012, 5:54 pm
#143
Join Date: Nov 2005
Programs: DL-PM, HH Diamond
Posts: 115
I have been informed by a friend that the issue has been fixed and W and S class on AF are again upgradeable to Affaires using SWUs or Delta miles. Air France is also standardizing the names of the products. Affaires will become Business Class, Premium Voyageur will become Premium Economy and Voyageur will become Economy. Good news
Sounds to me like DL and AF/KL just were having a little fight. I'd assume AF/KL are just getting sick of being walked over by DL for award redemption. Time and time again all you can find low level is AF/KL metal, so that probably annoyed them because it brings nothing to their FB members.
Sounds to me like DL and AF/KL just were having a little fight. I'd assume AF/KL are just getting sick of being walked over by DL for award redemption. Time and time again all you can find low level is AF/KL metal, so that probably annoyed them because it brings nothing to their FB members.
I just tried this and got the same story as before- still not working.
Sep 18, 2012, 6:19 pm
#144
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: DL DM; SPG Gold
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I have been informed by a friend that the issue has been fixed and W and S class on AF are again upgradeable to Affaires using SWUs or Delta miles. Air France is also standardizing the names of the products. Affaires will become Business Class, Premium Voyageur will become Premium Economy and Voyageur will become Economy. Good news
Sounds to me like DL and AF/KL just were having a little fight. I'd assume AF/KL are just getting sick of being walked over by DL for award redemption. Time and time again all you can find low level is AF/KL metal, so that probably annoyed them because it brings nothing to their FB members.
Sounds to me like DL and AF/KL just were having a little fight. I'd assume AF/KL are just getting sick of being walked over by DL for award redemption. Time and time again all you can find low level is AF/KL metal, so that probably annoyed them because it brings nothing to their FB members.
Sep 18, 2012, 6:29 pm
#145
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: JFK/LGA/EWR
Posts: 1,296
I don't know how much FB charges to purchase miles or whether one could get some by transferring in from a credit card or hotel program, but I would assume an outright purchase would be about three to five cents per mile. Whether this would result in a TATL AF flight in business class for less than the cost of either purchasing biz on AF or buying M+ on DL and upgrading remains to be seen, but there have been reports of much better inventory for upgrades and awards being made available by AF for their own FB program. This system might also permit one to upgrade on AF flights on the same PNR beyond CDG. Also, if the higher AF PV fares book into A for DL domestic connections, this could be easier than trying to get G space or hoping to get a free upgrade into V at the window.
Sep 19, 2012, 2:24 am
#147
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: New York, NY
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How much does 32k flying blue miles cost? It seems that buying medium or high end S/W PV AF fare plus buying 32k FB miles would make the process rather not worth it, compared to a discount business fare... And definitely not comparable to buying DL low end W are and using 30k skymiles or 2 PU503
"Nombre de Miles-Prime: 28.000 + 5.600 Bonus = 714,00 EUR"
Sep 19, 2012, 2:26 am
#148
Join Date: Sep 2012
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Posts: 31
Sep 19, 2012, 2:33 am
#149
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: New York, NY
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Posts: 31
I don't know how much FB charges to purchase miles or whether one could get some by transferring in from a credit card or hotel program, but I would assume an outright purchase would be about three to five cents per mile. Whether this would result in a TATL AF flight in business class for less than the cost of either purchasing biz on AF or buying M+ on DL and upgrading remains to be seen, but there have been reports of much better inventory for upgrades and awards being made available by AF for their own FB program. This system might also permit one to upgrade on AF flights on the same PNR beyond CDG. Also, if the higher AF PV fares book into A for DL domestic connections, this could be easier than trying to get G space or hoping to get a free upgrade into V at the window.
- first, call FlyingBlue desk to make sure there is O inventory on your itinerary.
- buy S class ticket from Air France; you have to speak to an agent on the phone as there is no way to select S from the web site; you can argue it's not doable online and relatively easily have them wave the service fee; have the agent put your SkyMiles account in the reservation;
- once ticket is emitted, log in to AF.us with your PNR; most times the website would allow you to upgrade online;
- call back FlyingBlue and have them process the upgrade; the ticket won't be reissued right away but you'll receive your upgrade voucher with a different 057 ticket number; you'll have to pull 16,500 FB miles per segment.
- call back DL with the original 057 ticket to double check the SkyMiles number is still in there for mileage credit; sometimes FlyingBlue agents are zealous and would substitute it with your FlyingBlue number; triple check at the airport.
Sep 19, 2012, 3:30 am
#150
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I have been informed by a friend that the issue has been fixed and W and S class on AF are again upgradeable to Affaires using SWUs or Delta miles. Air France is also standardizing the names of the products. Affaires will become Business Class, Premium Voyageur will become Premium Economy and Voyageur will become Economy. Good news
Sounds to me like DL and AF/KL just were having a little fight. I'd assume AF/KL are just getting sick of being walked over by DL for award redemption. Time and time again all you can find low level is AF/KL metal, so that probably annoyed them because it brings nothing to their FB members.
Sounds to me like DL and AF/KL just were having a little fight. I'd assume AF/KL are just getting sick of being walked over by DL for award redemption. Time and time again all you can find low level is AF/KL metal, so that probably annoyed them because it brings nothing to their FB members.
DL and AF-KL are birds of the same customer-unfriendly feather.