AF: Premium Economy IST to USA from $742/€731
 

Just wanted to notify you guys of some good offers on AF from Istanbul. This is often a good airport to get AF premium economy offers to the US from.

With the bloated flight prices everywhere right now, this can be a good strategic choice if you are aiming for a certain Skyteam status (especially with a Skymiles FF number & if you're Europe-based).

https://wwws.airfrance.com.tr/deals?...UM&zoneCode=FR

Miami from USD 756
LAX from USD 787
DC from USD 756
Chicago from USD 796

Montreal, NYC, Boston, Atlanta & Toronto are all okay value-wise, too. Availability varies but is generally from Nov '22 to Jun '23.

Skymiles members would receive 20222 award miles (+ bonus miles on top if you already have status) & I think 21190 MQMs/status miles for LAX. If you value the base price of Skymiles at at least $0.01/€0,01 (I do & recommend they be ideally used for domestic US Delta flights), you essentially get a premium economy transatlantic flight with a good status miles bump for just under $600/€600. You would also then be close to Skyteam Elite status (free bag & IIRC seat selection on AF/KLM econ light fares) in just one booking or Skyteam Elite Plus if you already have Skymiles Silver status).

As a Skymiles Platinum member, I personally would earn an extra 11300 Skymiles for this booking (80% bonus on base miles), so 31522 award miles in total. Not a bad haul at all.

The other positive is that because most of the connections are so long on the return journey, you can ask to have your bags checked to CDG & then skip the last segment. Otherwise you could store your bags at CDG & have a day in Paris.

If you are a Skymiles Diamond Medallion based in Europe (unlikely but possible after 3 years of rollover MQMs), this would be an ideal route to use your Global Upgrades on.

The main downside of these flights is the 5.05am departure time from IST but if you plan a day or two in Istanbul beforehand for positioning, it is not as bad. If you do choose to fly the last red eye segment from CDG-IST (as I have done/survived this previously :o), you can book a flight back to your home airport from IST safely in the morning (8-10am) as you will be covered by European compensation rules (EU261).

The other downside is a fairly long flight in a standard European econ seat from IST-CDG & many are not fans of AF's long-haul premium economy seats, but I personally don't share that view regarding the latter. There're both positives & negatives to the seat as you tend to have more privacy (except for the bulkheads) & you're less likely to feel the person behind you impact/kick your seat than other airlines' PE seats, but the seat is less comfy IMO than some others. AF's soft product in PE IS better than many others OTOH.

Sorry if this is a bit long-winded or doesn't adhere to standard FT formatting, this is my first deal contribution. Hope someone can use it.

Op

thanks a million times

Bit of a pain replicating exactly the same Fare rules on ITA and then on AirFrance.com, getting AL14UMJB on ITA Matrix versus AL1DI7JB on Air France looks like Y for the intra Europe and A across the pond to Los Angeles.

A Class gives MQM 150% MQDs 30% or 17010 MQMs 3402 MQDs
Y Class gives MQM 150% MQDs 25% or 4137 MQMs 690 MQDs

For a grand total of 21447 MQMs and 4092 MQDs
But overall great earnings for Delta MQD hunters since it gives ~4092 MQDs and a ~5.17 to 1 + MQD Ratio to LAX

For CA Amex holders with AF/KL targeted offer, if you can purchase this deal on their Canadian websites, you may or may not get a $250 bill credit:

DETAILS

Spend at least $1,000 in qualifying flight purchases using your registered Card at www.airfrance.ca/en or on the Air France mobile app or www.klm.ca/en or on the KLM mobile app by 31/08/2022 and earn a $250 credit. Registration cap applies. Terms apply.

This works to Canada and MEX too.

So if one wants to use it this from the USA, the Y+ fares are in 1700 ex USA, but you could nest it with a ex IST.

For instance ex SEA... 38848 MQMs or 7412 MQDs for 2606 USD (sample November and then February)
If I'm not mistaken, on an A fare you just need Z space on Air France to use a GUC?

Is it too crazy to do a B2B on IST it more reasonable have 25 hours/next day flight?

Are you able to upgrade these to J using Flying Blue Miles?

The other thing to stress that could be beneficial to some is that Istanbul, & Turkey in general, is the optimal place to complete a mattress run particularly for hotel programs like Hilton or IHG, &, to a lesser extent, Marriott or Hyatt.

The chain hotels are largely of decent quality & you can hop from place to place with ease to bump up your stays towards elite qualification. Some Hiltons in low season can be booked for just 45-55 $/€. Further eastwards, if you opt for a road trip to see elsewhere in Turkey, there're a ton of category 1 Hiltons (from 10k points pn).

ALSO, open-jaws in the US are possible for similar prices with the aforementioned airports. I originally found this offer back in February & spent ~€670 to fly IST-CDG-LAX/MIA-CDG-IST. Those prices ended shortly afterwards but it seems that they intermittently offer these favourable deals in PE to pick up *A flyers going westward from TK's massive hub. It definitely makes sense as TK doesn't offer PE itself & there's also a large Turkish(-American) diaspora in North America, so many familial links.

Looks like this may be able to be paired with the other Y+ fare IST-LAX, should come to around 7,000 MQDs if my math is right - good head start for 2023

how can you tell what fare class is bookable from the Air France website?

What does "AL2DI7JB" mean when I look at the AF website?

any pointers on how to book this?

The "A" on the left indicates the primary fare class, which will apply to the CDG to US segments. All long-haul A fares are paired with Y fares for the intra-Europe feeder routes AF flies (including to Turkey).

I'm not sure where you reside but your best bet is to book thru the AF website iteration for your country of residence as you should then be able to pay in your local currency (rather than USD) & I'd assume your country's consumer protections would also apply to the ticket. It's also easier if anything needs to be changed after purchase.

Just make sure there's an "A" to the left of the fare basis & that on the transatlantic legs it clearly says PREMIUM ECONOMY in the "View trip details and fare conditions" section because occasionally the AF/KLM sites can be a little glitchy in the search function with cabin classes.

Can get a little goofy with the routing if need be:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7e58ee2f7.jpeg

My last purchases with KL and LH, I didn't receive any email confirmations (is it normal with them?), and KL over charged my card than what the screen said. I recommend you to take screenshots every steps with any high value online purchases, but especially with KL, probably with AF, too. I complained to KL, they replied telling me too late, too bad, I filed a chargeback with Amex, I won, thanks to screenshots.

The fare rule on AF site said max stay 3mo, is it true? Visiting Turkey twice in 3mo is a bit too soon for me.

There are fares departing from many other major European cities with similarly attractive, some even better, depending on the city pairs. VIE-HNL at $1,361, VIE-LAX at $1,006, VIE-NYC at $898, LIS-YYZ at $933, FRA-PUJ at $1,059, etc, etc.

After watching a few YouTube videos of the AF A350 PE product, I personally would give it a pass for any flight more than 7 hours. I'm a self-entitled boomer who has grown too fond of the creature comforts afforded by business class, namely a lie-flat seat. I don't care about the F&B, but I really need my 40 winks in a perfectly horizontal position.

^^^ There is wisdom in this post.

I agree about the strong desire for lie-flat seats on the long distance flights.

But I really like this deal for the 5:1 MQD ratio and the relatively cheap costs of about $800 round trip. Spending about $800 and getting $4K MQDs seems like a bright spot at this time.