Getting married and looking for advice on AF upgrades to business or first
Apr 18, 2017, 12:10 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: San Francisco
Programs: Skyteam
Posts: 9
Getting married and looking for advice on AF upgrades to business or first
Hi everyone!
Great news! I'm getting married in September, and my fiancée and I will be holding our wedding back home in Beirut so that we can be close to family.
Ideally, we'd like to fly business (or first) because it's a special occasion; that said, business/first inventory is expensive on Air France! Economy is ~ $1,200; business is ~ $3,600, first is $$$.
Do you guys have any advice on how to maximize the odds of being upgraded to business or first on this itinerary:
JFK -> CDG (9/1)
CDG -> BEY (9/3)
BEY -> CDG -> JFK (9/17-ish)
I'm SkyTeam Elite through Delta PM. Couple of options:
* Are GUCs transferrable? And if so, are they usable on AF-marketed flights?
* We're sitting on a lot of AMEX points - is there a way to find upgrade inventory that we can use Delta SkyMiles or American Express points to upgrade with?
Thanks!
Great news! I'm getting married in September, and my fiancée and I will be holding our wedding back home in Beirut so that we can be close to family.
Ideally, we'd like to fly business (or first) because it's a special occasion; that said, business/first inventory is expensive on Air France! Economy is ~ $1,200; business is ~ $3,600, first is $$$.
Do you guys have any advice on how to maximize the odds of being upgraded to business or first on this itinerary:
JFK -> CDG (9/1)
CDG -> BEY (9/3)
BEY -> CDG -> JFK (9/17-ish)
I'm SkyTeam Elite through Delta PM. Couple of options:
* Are GUCs transferrable? And if so, are they usable on AF-marketed flights?
* We're sitting on a lot of AMEX points - is there a way to find upgrade inventory that we can use Delta SkyMiles or American Express points to upgrade with?
Thanks!
Apr 18, 2017, 12:26 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 21,009
Congratulations on the upcoming wedding
Have you purchased the tickets?
What airlines? (All AF?)
Are any codeshares (airline flight number not the same as operating airline)?
What fare booking class?
You may have been better looking an business class award flights
Your chances of an upgrade are low.
Cross airline-ffp upgrades are uncommon.
Star Alliance has cross airline upgrade scheme. but the scheme has a lot of t&c's. So useless for most people.
Have you purchased the tickets?
What airlines? (All AF?)
Are any codeshares (airline flight number not the same as operating airline)?
What fare booking class?
You may have been better looking an business class award flights
Your chances of an upgrade are low.
Cross airline-ffp upgrades are uncommon.
Star Alliance has cross airline upgrade scheme. but the scheme has a lot of t&c's. So useless for most people.
Apr 18, 2017, 12:54 am
#4
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: PHX
Programs: Delta 2M DM, Southwest A List and CP
Posts: 1,102
Do you guys have any advice on how to maximize the odds of being upgraded to business or first on this itinerary:
JFK -> CDG (9/1)
CDG -> BEY (9/3)
BEY -> CDG -> JFK (9/17-ish)
I'm SkyTeam Elite through Delta PM. Couple of options:
* Are GUCs transferrable? And if so, are they usable on AF-marketed flights?
* We're sitting on a lot of AMEX points - is there a way to find upgrade inventory that we can use Delta SkyMiles or American Express points to upgrade with?
Thanks!
JFK -> CDG (9/1)
CDG -> BEY (9/3)
BEY -> CDG -> JFK (9/17-ish)
I'm SkyTeam Elite through Delta PM. Couple of options:
* Are GUCs transferrable? And if so, are they usable on AF-marketed flights?
* We're sitting on a lot of AMEX points - is there a way to find upgrade inventory that we can use Delta SkyMiles or American Express points to upgrade with?
Thanks!
1. GUCs are non-transferable; the GUC "holder" needs to be traveling and can take one traveling companion (4 GUCs required total for a round trip for two people)
2. Are you both Delta PM? If folks need to be "bumped up" to business, then they usually take only elites, starting from DM. My experience is that DL elites have better OPUP chances for DL flights than for AF.
3. Upgrades with DL miles usually are ridiculously expensive; better get an award ticket.
Apr 18, 2017, 1:18 am
#5
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 599
You haven't mentioned how much is "a lot" of Amex points, but ...
If you have an Amex Platinum Business card, then by far your easiest and guaranteed upgrade options would be to buy your business class flights on amextravel.com, one person at a time, using amex "pay with points" feature which refunds you 50% of the amex points.
This requires you to have an amex business platinum card, and requires you to buy the flight per person at a time unless you have 700000 amex points to pay for 2 people with points, and requires you to have some familiarity with their 50% pay with points feature on which there are blogs.
You won't have to deal with availability, or trying to upgrade when no space is available etc, and your flights will earn you miles/status also.
If you have an Amex Platinum Business card, then by far your easiest and guaranteed upgrade options would be to buy your business class flights on amextravel.com, one person at a time, using amex "pay with points" feature which refunds you 50% of the amex points.
This requires you to have an amex business platinum card, and requires you to buy the flight per person at a time unless you have 700000 amex points to pay for 2 people with points, and requires you to have some familiarity with their 50% pay with points feature on which there are blogs.
You won't have to deal with availability, or trying to upgrade when no space is available etc, and your flights will earn you miles/status also.
Apr 18, 2017, 3:20 am
#7
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep. / Washington, DC
Programs: AA PPro/DL PLT, PPass, Marriott / Hilton Gold, JetBlue Mosaic, Hertz Presidents Circle, Amex Plat
Posts: 4,629
My experience is the opposite. I've seen many more upgrades in AF as a DL Silver/Gold (at least one TATL upgrade per year) than what I have seen in DL as a Platinum (zero).
Apr 18, 2017, 6:53 am
#8
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Washington, DC, Chapel Hill, NC (RDU)
Programs: DL Plat (won't hit DM again) 2MM (2.5), HH Gold, PC Gold, Hyatt Plat
Posts: 5,626
Congratulations.
Opups are a possibility on either DL or AF, but probably not too likely for two platinums. As a DL diamond, I gotten 2 or 3 of them on AF CDG to Asia.
If you want some comfort but don't want to spring for D1 or AF business -- maybe booking JFK-CDG and vv in AF premium economy. I think that all of AF PE is either 2-3-2 or 2-4-2, depending on the plane and with 38" pitch and 19" width isn't too bad.
Opups are a possibility on either DL or AF, but probably not too likely for two platinums. As a DL diamond, I gotten 2 or 3 of them on AF CDG to Asia.
If you want some comfort but don't want to spring for D1 or AF business -- maybe booking JFK-CDG and vv in AF premium economy. I think that all of AF PE is either 2-3-2 or 2-4-2, depending on the plane and with 38" pitch and 19" width isn't too bad.
Apr 18, 2017, 7:29 am
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 27,230
Regardless, if they purchase coach tickets, they'll only potentially be upgraded to premium economy, not business class and certainly not first class.
Apr 18, 2017, 3:02 pm
#10
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: San Francisco, CA
Programs: DL PM/MM, Hilton Silver, SPG+, Hertz PC
Posts: 7,899