Spending Flying Club Miles on AF-KLM

Old Feb 22, 2020, 1:55 am
  #31  
 
Join Date: Feb 2020
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Originally Posted by pazza2000
Could you elaborate please? These CC vouchers cant be used on AF-KLM can they?
I asked about this before and was told the Virgin vouchers are only available for direct flights with Virgin rather than through Partners.
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Old Feb 22, 2020, 2:15 am
  #32  
 
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Originally Posted by Steveng8
I asked about this before and was told the Virgin vouchers are only available for direct flights with Virgin rather than through Partners.
Yes, I assumed! So unsure how you can get around ex-UK APD...
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Old Feb 22, 2020, 2:18 am
  #33  
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
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Originally Posted by pazza2000
Could you elaborate please? These CC vouchers cant be used on AF-KLM can they?
Sorry, to clarify. You can use the cc voucher on the virgin portion of a multi segment booking with an af / kl flight going into london and a virgin flight leaving london.
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Old Feb 22, 2020, 2:20 am
  #34  
 
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Originally Posted by Beverlion
Sorry, to clarify. You can use the cc voucher on the virgin portion of a multi segment booking with an af / kl flight going into london and a virgin flight leaving london.
Really? Im even surprised that is possible.
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Old Feb 22, 2020, 4:37 am
  #35  
 
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Originally Posted by pazza2000
Really? Im even surprised that is possible.
thats what the person I spoke to in the call centre said
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Old Feb 22, 2020, 5:42 am
  #36  
 
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Originally Posted by Beverlion
thats what the person I spoke to in the call centre said
Unfortunately that doesn't necessarily make it the truth. A few months ago I wanted to book KL-LHR/LGW-VS marketed by DL because that was the only way I could get an outbound on VS metal combined with a return on AF metal to ticket. Before booking I called and texted VS to be sure that I would be able to upgrade the VS segment if it was booked under a DL code and issued on DL (006). Both the call centre and the texting service confirmed that this would be possible, so I booked the ticket. Then, of course, when calling to do the upgrade I was told that they could only upgrade the VS flight if it was booked on a VS code, regardless of who issued the ticket.

I ended up spending more time on the phone getting this sorted than the return transatlantic flight took. It was ridiculous. In the end I found a DL agent who was willing to change the flight number to the VS code but in total it took nearly four weeks to get it sorted. And even after VS had confirmed that they had done the upgrade, one of the tickets kept having (both VS and KL) legs dropped for no reason. Two days before departure I finally thought that everything had been fixed, yet upon checking in KL refused to honour the Premium allowance and made us pay 70 to put an 11kg suitcase on a 1-hour flight to LHR. Mind you, the checkin staff had never even heard of VS. Now, months later, the argument with KL regarding this fee has still not been resolved. And upon checking in for the VS flight in LGW we were told that the one ticket that kept dropping legs still had not been issued properly. Fortunately, the VS staff at LGW fixed it promptly but as a whole it was such a mess that I vowed never to book an AFKL-VS connection again if I had any intention of upgrading.

Maybe they've smoothed things out by now but given the amount of holes still present in what was published last week I wouldn't hold my breath. If you've found a way to book AFKL-LON-VS coded as such (or all VS-coded) I'd love to hear about it but I haven't been able to.
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Old Feb 23, 2020, 6:17 am
  #37  
 
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Originally Posted by CosmicGirl
Unfortunately that doesn't necessarily make it the truth. A few months ago I wanted to book KL-LHR/LGW-VS marketed by DL because that was the only way I could get an outbound on VS metal combined with a return on AF metal to ticket. Before booking I called and texted VS to be sure that I would be able to upgrade the VS segment if it was booked under a DL code and issued on DL (006). Both the call centre and the texting service confirmed that this would be possible, so I booked the ticket. Then, of course, when calling to do the upgrade I was told that they could only upgrade the VS flight if it was booked on a VS code, regardless of who issued the ticket.

I ended up spending more time on the phone getting this sorted than the return transatlantic flight took. It was ridiculous. In the end I found a DL agent who was willing to change the flight number to the VS code but in total it took nearly four weeks to get it sorted. And even after VS had confirmed that they had done the upgrade, one of the tickets kept having (both VS and KL) legs dropped for no reason. Two days before departure I finally thought that everything had been fixed, yet upon checking in KL refused to honour the Premium allowance and made us pay 70 to put an 11kg suitcase on a 1-hour flight to LHR. Mind you, the checkin staff had never even heard of VS. Now, months later, the argument with KL regarding this fee has still not been resolved. And upon checking in for the VS flight in LGW we were told that the one ticket that kept dropping legs still had not been issued properly. Fortunately, the VS staff at LGW fixed it promptly but as a whole it was such a mess that I vowed never to book an AFKL-VS connection again if I had any intention of upgrading.

Maybe they've smoothed things out by now but given the amount of holes still present in what was published last week I wouldn't hold my breath. If you've found a way to book AFKL-LON-VS coded as such (or all VS-coded) I'd love to hear about it but I haven't been able to.
Wow! Pretty convinced then that these CC vouchers cant be used on AF-KLM anytime soon
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Old Feb 23, 2020, 8:47 am
  #38  
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
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Originally Posted by pazza2000
Wow! Pretty convinced then that these CC vouchers cant be used on AF-KLM anytime soon
Despite the mess we were in, I just discovered that some things may have changed after all. I was playing with the VS booking engine and did bump into reward tickets consisting of, say, AMS-LHR on KL followed by LHR-x on VS. The mileage is charged on a "per-carrier" basis, namely you get charged for the KL segments as per the distance-based KL tables, plus the VS part based on the segment-based VS table. So AMS-LHR-JFK in off-peak season is 4k + 10k = 14k for a one-way in Y, as opposed to 12k if you book AMS-JFK direct on KL with VS.

I had not seen these before so I'm not sure if they're a very recent addition or if they've been there since Feb 13. But it does strike me as odd that there appear to be (rare) cases in which this can be booked as a reward flight, yet to my knowledge the KL-VS code combination cannot be booked on a revenue fare (with the exception of insanely priced full fare combinations).
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 1:50 pm
  #39  
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
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Air france business class

On another topic, has anyone found any AF business class seats through Virgin? I cant find any avilibility for the flights I've been looking at...
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Old Feb 25, 2020, 2:08 am
  #40  
 
Join Date: May 2009
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Unlike AF, BA etc... its helpful that Flying Club dont have an offline booking fee. Just booked a tentative KLM Biz flight over the phone, it does sound like its all very new to them. Originating at AMS to save on the UK APD, lets hope they are happy to check luggage straight through to the final destination from the revenue KLM connection.
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Old Feb 25, 2020, 4:27 am
  #41  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
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Originally Posted by Beverlion
On another topic, has anyone found any AF business class seats through Virgin? I cant find any avilibility for the flights I've been looking at...
Yes I've found availability IAD-CDG in business class but their availability does not match AF or KLM award space. It is frustrating to say the least. I hope it's just a bug but who knows. It looks like it books into O class for business which is what AF/KLM book into as well so I had hoped it'd be same availability.
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Old Feb 25, 2020, 4:49 am
  #42  
 
Join Date: May 2009
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Originally Posted by britinva79
Yes I've found availability IAD-CDG in business class but their availability does not match AF or KLM award space. It is frustrating to say the least. I hope it's just a bug but who knows. It looks like it books into O class for business which is what AF/KLM book into as well so I had hoped it'd be same availability.
Odd that its not the same availability as a partner, but that seems to be case. Hopefully things will improve down the line
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Old Feb 26, 2020, 12:50 pm
  #43  
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Finally I am having a fiddle around with this. An itinerary from Moscow to Geneva would cost only 9,000 miles and $28 taxes, which seems an amazing deal. This would be on AF with a transfer in CDG. Round trips cost 18,000, which seems great for the distance, and varies between $77 (KLM) and $91 taxes. There are definitely deals to be had here on niche routes, if you happen to need to use them. I was sure Moscow all the way to Switzerland was going to be a lot more. Wonder what other interesting routings are out there.
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Old Feb 26, 2020, 2:59 pm
  #44  
 
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Is Virgin still blocking availability to Japan? Seems like dates I can see bookable at saver level via Flying Blue are not visible when searching Flying Club
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Old Feb 27, 2020, 12:11 am
  #45  
 
Join Date: Feb 2020
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Originally Posted by s1362083
Is Virgin still blocking availability to Japan? Seems like dates I can see bookable at saver level via Flying Blue are not visible when searching Flying Club
Yes, Ive tried numerous times to get an answer and seem to get a different answer every time. Latest is that it is just a problem with their website and that they are working on it.

Pretty poor that the Partnership launched a couple of weeks ago and they still dont have the systems set up to utilise the full benefits of the Partnership.

Dont know if ANA has maybe tried to block them from selling the routes given their own partnership with Virgin. If thats the case they should just be fully transparent about this.
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