cschleic

The on-line awards chart shows just New York to Paris for the 160,000 miles. I asked a reservations agent about it a couple of days ago. She said it now includes First/Business in the U.S. and onward in Europe, but perhaps she was wrong. From earlier posts it sounds like the full routing was available even though the charts showed just JFK-CDG.

BER Flyer

In the past that award included ONE connection either to or from the gateway. So you could fly domestic first in the US to JFK, but then no flights beyond CDG.
Sounds like it has changed for the better and now you get connections on both ends.

First in Class

BYUTEEFUL!

For Air France, that means:
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia (Eastern), San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vatican City, and Yugoslavia

Nice!

ak

Once they made the switch to SkyTeam awards, onwards flights from CDG were included. It is my understanding that you can go anywhere in Europe with this award.

NYBanker

I can confirm this. Once the SkyTeam 160k mile award came out (down from 200k), I booked that day. I have JFK-CDG-TCO for the award. Includes stopover in CDG.

Easiest availability going.

If you had to consider a SkyChoice J award (160k miles), DEFINITELY check on Concorde award at the same price.

jimrpa

Minor historical point. The Concorde award came down from 200K to 160K about a years before the SkyTeam award was introduced. The old Concorde award did NOT include onward travel from CDG, although the return portion DID include BE lounge access in Atlanta

NYBanker is absolutely correct - If I were ever contemplating spending 160K or more to go to Europe, I'd try real hard to do it on Concorde vs J or even F. The only annoyance is the 8:00 a.m. JFK departure. I guess with only 5 aircraft, it would be tough for AF to run two flights a day (and maintain charter operations)

jeffreyt

If you used the award to travel over on the Concorde, but did not want to fly the Concorde back, what class of service would you be in? F, J, or Y? Or is this even possible.

NYBanker

I bet they'd put you in F on AF. Awards are generally pretty easily downgradable.

There'd be no savings in miles, though. There are no one-way SkyTeam awards.

I booked an award on SQ in F. But F wasn't avail on one of the segments (transpacific) but they gladly put me in J for that leg - and put me on an upgrade list for F - which did ultimately clear. Would have paid the F miles either way.

Only potential reason I see to come back in F vs SSC is schedule. Concorde doesn't operate 7 days a week - and even when it does operate, there's only one flight a day which leaves at 10:30am. There is an evening flight (6:55pm departure) on AF back from Paris on 777. AF F isn't that great (compared to SQ or BA) to make it worth trying out just for the sake of it.

I'm on Concorde May 1 - first time - really looking forward to it.

cschleic

How about Delta's BE...compared to, say, AF F? Going over on Concorde means the overnight stay in New York, so I also was thinking of one way Delta/AF over from the west coast, then one way Concorde back. Although the Paris departure is 10:30 am, arriving before you leave would be kind of fun.

bdschobel

You could take a red-eye to JFK. You would arrive around 6 a.m., leaving plenty of time to reach Terminal 1 for the Concorde departure.

Bruce

zrs70

Last year I was ticketed roundtrip on the COncorde with the 160K miles award. But AF cancelled (2 months in advance) my return flight. When I called DL to get an AF F seat instead, the response was an adamant "NO, you'll either have to fly in C, change your date, or return the tickets."

Reason: At the time, DL could not obtain any AF F seats at all. Since that has changed, perhaps things are different now.

NYBanker

I'd take AF F over DL B/E any day. AF F seats go flat - and the F cabin is nearly always deserted on the AF flights which is great. Service won't be up to SQ, but will outpace DL.

Seen as how you must do a redeye from LAX to go to CDG - I'd personally want to maximize time on Concorde. (Doing my first SSC trip in May - using the DL miles before something bad happens to them!) But, if you've been on Concorde before, then that non-stop LAX-CDG in AF F can't be that bad.

I also see the post later about no F on AF. I agree with the writers theory that you'd prob get F now - back a year ago you couldn't redeem DL miles for an AF F ticket - period. Now, they've brought back the 100,000 mile F award, so I think you've got a decent chance.

Let us know what they say.

deltadiva

Does anyone know what the junk fees are for the Concord award? Are they more than for a F or C AirFrance award? Also, does the 331
days out rule apply to this award? Thanks.

bdschobel

My junk fees were about $30 apiece last time I did it (December 2001).

Air France uses a calendar quite similar to Delta's, but sometimes it varies by a day in either direction. If you call 331 days out, they might tell you to call back tomorrow. But the Concorde award seems to be available most of the time. I suppose the number of people with 320,000 miles sitting in their accounts (for two Concorde tickets) isn't all that large.

Bruce

andymo99

$38.62 in May, 2002.