GregInMN

I've looked through the thread history but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. We're going from MSP into BCN and out of LIS in October. Looking to book on AF equipment in Prem. Economy which I believe is same as DL PS (at least it looks the same when I go through the seat selection on AF.com. Not sure why, the flight is about $1,100 per ticket less expensive on AF.com than booking it on the DL.com.
My question is, I have never booked on AF.com and have no status with them. I assume, we will get the DL Sky mile benefits (MQM, Miles, MQD - per partner formulas) once our sky miles accounts are added to the record. Is there any real risk in doing this? I assume I will be able to log in and see the record and adjust if needed. We have DL e-Credits to use, but we can use them on a different flight in 2023.
TIA

DLHubber

There's nothing abnormal or risky about this, and you can add your SkyMiles number as part of the booking process. Go ahead and book it.

Duke787

Nothing risky but just want to clarify one thing is the difference just whether you book it on DL.com or AF.com or is the difference that one flight is on AF metal (the one booked via AF.com) and one is on DL metal (booked via DL.com).

The distinction is important because while AF PE and DL PS are the same class of service however the PE product on most AF metal is not the same as the PS product on DL metal. The AF product is much older and more worn out. There is an effort underway to modernize it on older AF planes and put the more modern seat on new/upcoming deliveries but I don't know whether the flights you are looking at are in line for the update.

However if the actual underlying flights are exactly the same and you are just debating between booking and buying it on AF.com or booking on DL.com, there is no difference fundamentally, especially if you are booking PE (only real difference would be if you were booking in Y because C+ upgrade timing would change)

xliioper

While DL/KL/AF coordinate on fare filings, they can choose to have different bucket availability on flights. DL dominates point-of-sale from US (particularly from hostage hubs) and many people don't even bother to comparison shop (or may not realize they can earn DL miles on AF/KL even if they do). So it shouldn't be that surprising that DL has less availability in lower fare buckets than AF does. DL uses P/A/G for PS and there are likely no options with G bucket open with DL marketed flights. While AF/KL use W/S/A classes and you are likely finding options with A bucket open on AF marketed flights. The AF/KL sites show fare class you are looking at in Flight Details section (it's always the first letter of fare basis code on their flights).

Note that AF/KL sites will actually quote DL marketed flights when booking on their sites. So you can't always assume that you will get partner earnings rates just by booking on their sites. However, the DL marketed flights look to be limited to non-stop flights on DL metal (which would not be the case with your itins as DL does not serve either market non-stop from MSP).

safigan

Often AF does much better on points redemptions as well. If you have AmEx MR points you can transfer them 1:1 to AF.

GregInMN

Thanks - It was looking at the fares on AF.com site and comparing it to the fares on DL.com site for the same flights.

SUPERTRAVEL

Also worth noting, if you're buying your tickets with an AMEX credit card that earns double or triple miles on Delta purchases, I don't believe you get that if you purchase from Air France or KLM. Not worth paying $1100 more per ticket for exactly the same thing but I think you should be aware of this.

ATOBTTR

Conversely I had an AmEx Platinum promo recently (dropped off a few days ago) for AF/KL that was spend $1K and get a significant amount of $$$ back (I don’t remember what it was). I added it in case I ended up booking an AF or KLM flight in Europe for our upcoming trip but ended up not using it since I was able to use miles and any intra-Europe hopper flights I may have booked wouldn’t hit the spend threshold. But if making a major purchase it always pays to check your CC promos.

enoscabell

if the plane is AF, I second the recommendation to look into the PS seat. I flew in this seat a few years ago, and it was the most uncomfortable seat I think I've ever been in. Forget about trying to recline - the seat has a hard shell so that the cushion slides down rather than having the entire seat slide back, and it's a terrible setup.