Gardyloo

Not really.

Unfortunately most Oneworld airlines aren't very well integrated when it comes to showing redemption seats on partners, and sometimes seats will show as available for members of that airline's FFP but won't be available to members of another airline's FFP. In general Qantas seems to have the best search function for partner flights, followed by BA and AA, although in most cases some partners, e.g. Cathay Pacific, simply won't show up at all on Qantas, BA or AA searches; you need to sign up for AsiaMiles and then when you find what looks to be an open seat, phone your airline to make the booking. And some airlines' "native" FF booking function (cough, Iberia) is basically inept, so yes, it can and does require a lot of legwork.

There was a time not long ago when booking *A seats was comparatively easy using AC, ANA or even ExpertFlyer. Lately, however, some Star carriers, most notably United and Lufthansa, seem to have stopped playing nicely with their friends, so online award booking with those airlines (and through them, multiple *A carriers) has also gotten harder.

pease

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it must be a dream. I've used other travel sites (though not much: I'm fairly old-fasioned--and old!-- and not on the web much). People are generally kindly as well as helpful. FT is the one place I've seen real ugliness, fairly frequently, so this thread is amazing to see.

We'll be flying from CDG to MIA in June. Needs to be non-stop. There's an AF flight; aircraft is 777-300, the configuration that has business and premier economy as well as coach. We don't have lots of money, but I've read that coach seats on this aircraft are fairly awful. My husband is mid 80's and has trouble with long flights, so I'm thinking to find a way to splurge and book one of the other classes.
The only premium seats left are the ones that seatguru (or seatexpert?) says have drawbacks (curiously, those seats are marked in green on their chart however): the ones in the first row of premium. Business, of course, is a great deal more $$.
I'm wondering if anyone happens to know those seats in the front of premium (a nice small cabin). Or if people feel strongly that business on that aircraft is a "must" for any sort of real comfort.
I tried posting on the AF board, but got a dismissive reply. I've tried to find the answer by using "search," but haven't found anything.
Help? THANKS in advance.

JohnAx

Only the mods can change titles, and you're certainly right about Flyertalk being the domain of a number of people who revel in putting others down. It varies by forum. And not to join that group, but do note that Air France in not a OneWorld carrier, so this is technically the wrong place to post your question.

To your trip: do you really need to fly one-way from Paris to Miami? And is your travel date(s) specific, or do you have leeway?

The cheapest comfortable trip I found was a round-trip in business class from Paris to Miami and return. Air France wanted about $3500 including all taxes and fees. American was about $100 more. I would personally favor AA over AF but it may be that AF is much more comfortable in this case, see below.

One-way in business class actually cost much more than the round-trip, and even the cheapest one-way in premium economy cost $4200 (on AF, the seeming price leader).

Those cheap business-class round trips are in a discount class (Z on AF, I on AA) and come with some restrictions that likely won't affect you. Note that if you don't intend to use the return ticket, you'll be violating the contract between you and the airline and they'll be able to retroactively charge you the much higher one-way fare; do your research to see how unlikely that is.

Others will have to tell you how comfortable the business-class seats are on the two carriers. International business class seats usually are extremely nice with seats that convert to beds at the touch of a button, although AA's "old" beds were "flat" but at a slight tilt rather than level, thus probably not popular with older folks.

pease

Thank you ever so much for replying.

Outbound will be to Venice, overnight flight on USAirways, business class; we're all set for that. Trip is part of a cruise vacation, and we get much reduced airfare rates through the cruise company.

Trying to decide on the return.

Again, thanks for input; truly appreciated.

EuropeanForce

we instantly trying (for days now) to get our RTW ticket booked but we are always failing with the same error:
The following error(s) occured: We are unable to confirm the fare for the flights you have selected. Please choose a different fare or flights and resubmit your request. (15012 - 118)

We have tried different variations of flights, destinations etc. We can confirm all flights, enter our names and email adress and the error message occured.
Does anyone have a clue how to solve that issue?

The route we would like to do is the follwing:
HAM-DOH-BKK-HAN-HKG-TJO-HNL-LAX-NYC-HAM

Many thanks for your help!

Mwenenzi

Welcome to the forum
What web site are you using?
What sort of RTW ticket? OW Global explorer, AA award, etc, They all have different rules.
You will need to put JFK for NYC and NRT for TJO (Toyko?) TJO does not exist. No long haul OW flights from HAM. Try FRA
For *ONE* try the unoffical http://www.slfft.org/mm/award.htm
http://www.slfft.org/mm/award.htm?ow...K-HAM&cabins=y

JohnAx

Interesting the cruise didn't set you up for round-trip air; as I noted they're often much cheaper than two one-ways (international, at least).

I didn't look at the rules for any of the flights I looked up, since I wasn't sure of your parameters.

A respected source many use for that information is matrix.itasoftware.com, but the user interface can be frustrating until you use it a lot. Any 20-something nerd you have handy will grasp it pretty quickly, though. Basically pick from and to cities and either specific dates or a month-long range, number of travelers and cabin; that gets you all the airline choices across the page, price lowest first down the page. Clicking a price shows flight details and all the taxes and fees included in the fare, and a 'rules' button that tells you more than you want to know about the airline's rules (e.g. change fees, validity period).

For myself I'd probably select the biz class r/t, making sure that it was valid for a year so that I could use the return when I decided I wanted to go back to Europe. (I'd actually look to see if it made sense to fly intra-europe from Paris to a starting point so much cheaper it was worth the trip, but that wouldn't fit your non-stop requirement.)

Assuming you decide to buy a r/t and don't know your return date and don't want to pay a large change fee (stated in the rules, vary from zero to perhaps $450) and the ticket is valid for a year, when you buy the ticket ask for a return date that the airline can't book yet; they'll book the last date they can and note that you get a free change.

As I said, if you decide not to use the return leg there's a possible consequence. People here usually don't outwardly recommend doing that, which you note I'm following, and sometimes go on to mention that they've not heard of anyone being back-charged save perhaps blatant repeat offenders. If I were going to do that I'd do my best to make sure my non-compliance was due to circumstances beyond my control.

pease

Hi JohnAx: Thanks for coming back.

The "air" part of our cruise company absolutely did set us up with round-trip air, but I'm able to choose the carrier (for the most part) and class of service. (The business and premium categories are way less expensive than booking oneself-- unless, of course, one has miles.)

What I'm trying to do is decide whether to pay the hefty upgrade for business or the somewhat less hefty cost for premium economy. (Still well under what the airlines charge.)

I just can't get much info on the aircraft in premium class, e.g. why seats 14KL and AB are marked in green (good seats, right?) on seatguru, but then the description makes them seem worse than the others in premium (which are already gone for our dates).

Many thanks for trying to help.

jerry a. laska

Looks to me like you have received a number of helpful replies in this thread and that various persons in the Air France forum are definitely trying to help:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-f...-business.html
If you want a nonstop and at a particular time of day then the AF flight will probably be best.

pease

Thank you. I was just trying to get a more clear "reading" on those premium economy seats. But you're right-- enough already.

jorbren

I am looking to go on a trip to Europe in May and was wondering what people recommended as an ideal business class route on points. We plan on going to London, Paris, and somehwere in Italy. Where we start doesn't really matter. Im pretty well covered in AA, US AIR, and BA. Im not really interested in the high fuel charges on BA metal. I live in columbus and can position myself to Chicago, NY, Boston, etc with avios. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

JohnAx

I'd imagine the most important parameter is award ability on your schedule. My experience since the economic contraction (and the airlines' reaction to it) has been that long-haul premium-cabin availability is very much hit-and-miss, heavy on the 'miss' side.

Going forward that may not be as true for biz as for first on TATL routes where AA seems to think bigger biz cabins are in their interest.

Frenchie Flyer

Thanks in advance for any suggestions / wisdom on this. I am no pro at booking TATL fares. I booked a one way trip from IAH with a stop in London and final destination Paris on United. Then I figured out that I should have done a round trip to get the extra free stopover at the end. So barring canceling and paying a fee to re-book, I thought I'd use AA or BA miles to return and still get my extra free stopover later. I can get us to another city in Europe for the return and I thought about Dublin to Boston via Aer Lingus and then on AA back to TX and add the free stopover back to Boston later this year. I know the free stopover has to involve the Gateway city in North America. We have a great niece and nephew in college in the Boston area we could visit. If I try to search on AA or BA they want to charge me all kinds of taxes / fees and I hope that E1 would not.

Is this doable? Seems like they might say doubling back across the states isn't what they had in mind on that last leg.

Follow up: I found HauteBoy's itin validation site and it tells me that I don't have a single redemption, but two. So back to the drawing board.

His site shows that AMS-DUB_BOS-AUS would be valid on BA's site. This would be E1 and AA flights. I just can't find a miles or cheap air yet from Paris to AMS that makes sense...train is not too bad. BA goes through LHR with a long layover and nothing direct.

nsolitude

Hello all,

I am flying from CPT - JNB on Comair, and I have searched everywhere (with wrong keywords?) and couldn't find others' experience with their baggage allowance policy. I know that according to the BA website, one world emeralds are entitled to:

An additional free checked bag in any class of travel for the cardholder and any customer travelling on the same booking (excludes hand-baggage only fares and group rate bookings).
A weight allowance of 32kg (71lb) per checked bag in any class of travel for the cardholder only.


But does this count for domestic flights on Comair? When I checked in my luggage in JNB to CPT, I asked for a priority tag. The agent pretended to put the tag on, but when I received the luggage, there was no tag. I am not sure if I am wrong, because this is my first time flying BA after 17 years, and out of the CX territory.

yaxha

First time post - I think I've come to the right place. Please excuse if I have missed something.

In February I am flying on a Qantas-Emirates codeshare flight from FCO to MEL via DXB; it's an Emirates-operated flight but booked under a QF code. I am a Gold QFF member (therefore Sapphire OneWorld). My understanding is that, since the flight is operated by Emirates, I'm not allowed access to any of the OneWorld lounges at FCO, is that correct? Or am I wrong and thus about to be pleasantly surprised?