It was a little odd since it wasn't continuous. I omitted a leg because AF didn't fly it non-stop and SAS did.

SFO-CDG-CPH
[missing leg]
TXL-CDG
CDG-SFO

This could be priced in business class only. Once I removed the TXL-CDG leg, it priced into first. So I've purchased TXL-CDG as a one-way in coach because I couldn't bring myself to pay $500 for a 2 hour one-way flight, per person, in business.

Are you staying in Europe for more than 7 days? Apparently there is a 7 day minimum stay requirement where the CDG-SFO segment must occur 7 days after the SFO-CDG segment in order for the itinerary to be priced at the lower "F" fare level. Also, there is a 50 day advanced purchase requirement. Stopovers in CDG for more than 24 hours are at USD 800 each.

Yes. The specific dates were 9/10 SFO-CDG-CPH, 9/20 TXL-CDG, 9/26 CDG-SFO. If you know my home address, I'm now in deep trouble. 8-) The booking was made back in February. And like I say, they couldn't price that itinerary at all.

I'm actually frustrated also because I have no status with AF, so I'm flying paid P TATL, yet I've got this one leg in coach without status. Not going to be much fun.

Were you solely booking online? Apparently when you choose "First Class" on most online booking sites (including OTAs), and have a "J" segment before or after a stopover in First Class, the online travel sites kick it out. This is because these sites tend to build complete itineraries before presenting them to you. If the flight component involves F connecting to J or J connecting to F, the algorithm would automatically choose the next lowest class if F is not available. However when it encounters a standalone "J" segment (stopover), it doesn't find "F" and kicks out the itinerary with a response "no flights available".

You need to call a live human travel agent such as AMEX PTS/CTS to book "F", "J", "J", "F" by choosing the flights one by one in order for it to price.

Also, some airline call centers now use a graphical interface (to reduce agent training time) that is similar to that of the online booking sites and kick out the itinerary (with one of the segments in "J" has a stopover before or after an "F" segment) if you specify "First Class".

I spoke both directly with Air France and with Chase (to spend points). None could book it. They put in the flights I specified, but no price came back. Obviously I couldn't see what was on their screens. I'm not sure what I could have said. They both insisted it was unbookable.

Perhaps they were using a graphical interface similar to Expedia?

You might need to escalate to someone using native Sabre or Amadeus (without the graphical mode).

It is unfortunate that most online booking site and graphical interfaces have a flaw that doesn't handle mixed class multi-city situations well.

See my post above (slightly changed while you were responding).

Another possibility is that back in February, there might have been married segment logic applied where an "F" leg cannot be combined with a "J" leg. (eg. Availability disappears on the "J" leg once an "F" leg preceding it is booked).

This is one of the revenue management tactics airlines use. Sometimes if there is a fare that is "low" or "good", they manipulate their inventory (during the booking process for a particular "work area") to try and prevent people from booking it.

As time progresses and they have trouble selling the seats, they may lift the "married segment logic" for a particular city pair to allow the lower fare to be booked.

FWIW I have never had a problem booking one way in P and the return in J. On the AF website.

Except that wasn't the question. He wanted a booking in P end-to-end, wiht obviously the European segments seated in J.

Exactly thta is often the problem.

There is a way around it: book SFO-CDG-CPH, and TXL-CDG-SFO as if Berlin-San Francisco was a connection with less than 24 hours in Paris. That way it gives you a round-trip P/F fare San Francisco-Copenhagen with an open jaw from Berlin to San Francisco. That P/F fare will most probably be a fare that allows for unlimited stopovers (the human can find one for you at least). Once that is booked and issued, change the Berlin-Paris leg to the date that you want, and it will keep the old fare, and you'll end up sitting in the J cabin on Berlin-Paris.

Yeah, looks like a straightforward open jaw with a stopover on the return journey. Definitely weird, and doesn't sound like married logic if they were able to reserve the space but just not price the itinerary. Unless there just happened to not be any fares available at the time that allowed a stopover. And weird that they couldn't just have a fare break to put it together manually.

Well, I was just able to price a similar trip on Expedia using multi-city (SFO-CPH, TXL-CDG, CDG-SFO). It's in F class (and J class on the euro legs) but $15k+. Probably would have been cheaper to book TXL-CDG separately, even in J! Fare basis code is FN1H06F1, and it's $800 per stopover. (Also $500 cancel fee, $450 change fee). Of course this is relatively close-in, I would gather longer A/P would result in a lower fare.

ETA: Excluding the TXL-CDG leg prices at $878 less (stopover fee plus I guess some taxes). One-way TXL-CDG booked separately in business is pricing at $561. A good travel agent probably would have caught this and booked/priced that leg separately.

"Nice Job! You picked one of our cheapest flights"



Johan

Slightly OT, but we're three months away from our next LPL visit and I told Mrs. SFO777 that I was going thru withdrawals and wanted to try to recreate Les Coquillettes at home. I found what purported to be the recipe and spend two hours yesterday afternoon playing in her kitchen. Even she had to admit that it was fantastic. Next time, we'll add some veal stock which appears to be what we may have missed from the real deal.

Wow. If you had told me that pic was from the LaP lounge, I would have believed it. Very nice..