Often great premium fare deals involve flying between one or two ‘secondary’ airports that aren’t many peoples’ desired origin or destination.
They also often involve at least one stop, as those carriers offering direct flights can usually charge a premium for the convenience of flying nonstop.
But right now there are excellent direct flights this summer between Paris (CDG) and New York (JFK) on either Air France or Delta, from as low as €1,280 / $1,458 per person.
Depending on the date, there are several flights available, mostly operated by Air France (on their Boeing 777 or Airbus A380), and the odd Delta operated flight (on their Airbus A330).
I can see a good range of dates available from April through to September — travel in both directions seems to need to occur on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday (Tuesdays have the best availability).
Although Air France’s A380s are finally getting their business class cabins refurbished, you may want to pick a 777 service to ensure you have a 1-2-1 seat.
Unfortunately, these deals are not available in the other direction.
As you can see, these are Z fares. The return direct journey is just over 7,000 miles flown.
Z fares earn a range of different base redeemable miles in different SkyTeam programs, noting that most itineraries I saw were Delta-coded flights (operated by Air France).
This is an important distinction if you are looking to credit to either Flying Blue or SkyMiles. DL numbered Z fares will earn 125% base miles in the Flying Blue program (almost 9,000 redeemable miles, more with status bonuses), while only earning 5 miles per dollar crediting to the SkyMiles program (fewer 7,500 miles, since you don’t earn miles based on taxes and fees) as well as 150% MQMs, so around 10,500.
Whereas if you book AF numbered flights instead, it is the other way around. Crediting AF Z fares to Flying Blue will provide 4 base miles per Euro spent (around 5,000 miles), while crediting to Delta provides an impressive 200% miles flown, so around 14,000 SkyMiles, and 10,500 MQMs.
So if crediting to Delta, try and find AF numbered flights, rather than DL numbered flights. They may be slightly more expensive, but you’ll be receiving a lot more miles.
Bottom line
This is a great deal for direct flights on solid carriers between two very popular cities during peak northern summer travel.
I found a great deal on Air France Manchester uk to Punta Cana DR, but I couldn’t continue all the way through with a booking due to a “technical error” do Air Franc have any duty to honor that offer? I have a screen shot showing the price.
Great, but Air France is routinely blocking my searches for award flights. The choices gray out with a circle with a slash through it. I've done a workaround of using private browsing, but even then if you log out it blocks even under private browsing. I can't even log onto the Air France site using a VPN. Clearing out history and caches doesn't work. Good luck getting anyone at AF or Flying Blue on the...
Great, but Air France is routinely blocking my searches for award flights. The choices gray out with a circle with a slash through it. I've done a workaround of using private browsing, but even then if you log out it blocks even under private browsing. I can't even log onto the Air France site using a VPN. Clearing out history and caches doesn't work. Good luck getting anyone at AF or Flying Blue on the phone. I hung up after 40 minutes. I got through on the ticket line but the agent was unable to help and transferred me to an incorrect department. She just kept offering to do a search for me. I didn't want her to search a specific date. I was not successfully in getting her to understand what I was asking. American based agent. In her defense, she had been on vacation for five days. So
@James Is this pricing just for one way? The best fare I am seeing on Delta's portal for a round-trip is ~$2,800 USD
@ Jason - no it is return but the fare may have been pulled by now.
@ Robert...I think the readers here for the most part, including you, are well traveled and can easily dissect nuances in English.
This sounds nitpicky, but these flight are "nonstop," not "direct." I realize that Australian/British English conventions dictate otherwise, but since this site was written completely in US English before you came onboard, I think you should maintain a consistent voice with the other authors.
I see fare is “non modifiable” I.e regardless of a fee you cannot get a cent back if you miss your flight.
Is that your understanding of the Air France rules?
As well, AF has been offering some sweet paid promo upgrades to F when checking in online. Even on redemptions with Flying Blue in business.
James, where are you seeing these fares? I've checked Google Flights, ITA Matrix, and both AF and Delta websites and don't see these fares on any date. Have they been pulled?
@ John - they were showing on both ITA and Google Flights earlier today when I wrote the article.
I think AF has a bunch of C class capacity in summer. I booked IAD-CDG-SVO round-trip on AF and SU/KL on the way back in business for July about 2 weeks ago, It was $2800 on Expedia and I got it for $2400 (round-trip) using AmEx's International Airline Program. Ok, it's not $1,458 like in this post, but still pretty good for business class in the middle of summer. One thing I noticed is that...
I think AF has a bunch of C class capacity in summer. I booked IAD-CDG-SVO round-trip on AF and SU/KL on the way back in business for July about 2 weeks ago, It was $2800 on Expedia and I got it for $2400 (round-trip) using AmEx's International Airline Program. Ok, it's not $1,458 like in this post, but still pretty good for business class in the middle of summer. One thing I noticed is that in the AF case, it's on one of their 5 remaining A380's, which are not a great seat in business class, but I don't sleep on such an early flight anyway. It booked in Z class.
James - at the risk of asking a silly question, how does booking a 777 guarantee a 1-2-1 config? AF haven’t finished refitting the 777 fleet yet, so far as I know.
@ Chris - thats not a silly question.
I understand per Flyertalk sticky that all 4 class 777s (i.e. with F that go to destinations like JFK), have been refurbished to the 1-2-1 seating.
Is this deal possible for half the price on a one-way? I live in NYC and I would be interested if I could use this fare for the return portion of my journey.
The Z fare for both AF and DL on this route credit to Aeroflot Bonus as 9,072 qualifying miles round-trip, plus an extra 5444 miles with my tier bonus. So, a total of 14,516 redeemable miles. I am tempted to bite on this fare once or twice just to visit friends in Paris that I rarely get to see, since I need to fly between Moscow and New York anyway in April, May, June, July,...
The Z fare for both AF and DL on this route credit to Aeroflot Bonus as 9,072 qualifying miles round-trip, plus an extra 5444 miles with my tier bonus. So, a total of 14,516 redeemable miles. I am tempted to bite on this fare once or twice just to visit friends in Paris that I rarely get to see, since I need to fly between Moscow and New York anyway in April, May, June, July, August and possibly September.
Aeroflot's business class fares from SVO-JFK are around 151,000 rubles (~$2300-Aeroflot fares are remarkably consistent), and the qualifying mileage for the ZC fare is 13,986. The same mileage earning rate with the AC fare class in Aeroflot's superb Comfort class, which costs significantly less (~75,000 rubles = ~$1150).
Based on the cost of positioning to Paris, plus the cost of the Paris-NY business class, I would save maybe $150-200 doing this, and end up earning roughly the same mileage (including the positioning flight from SVO-CDG in economy). I wouldn't do it for every trip, but I will definitely do it once or twice to visit Paris again.
Thanks for the heads up on this fare! I doubt my post was useful for anyone other than Aeroflot flyers, though ;)
As a Flying Blue member I will earn a lot more FB redeemable Miles if the tickets have the Delta Air Lines codeshare flight numbers on them than if I have the Air France flight numbers on the tickets because AF flight number tickets would only give me as a FB Platinum 8 Miles per Euro based on the base fare and any airline extras - so a pittance for discounted business class fares.
So...
As a Flying Blue member I will earn a lot more FB redeemable Miles if the tickets have the Delta Air Lines codeshare flight numbers on them than if I have the Air France flight numbers on the tickets because AF flight number tickets would only give me as a FB Platinum 8 Miles per Euro based on the base fare and any airline extras - so a pittance for discounted business class fares.
So it seems that you join an airline FFP and do better by flying on partner aircraft or partner codeshare flight numbers. Is FFP a dead term now? Is it now something like SFP (Spending Flyer Program)?
Nice fare - and it even books into Z class, i.e. earns on other Skyteam programs (as opposed to O class)
disinterested