It’s Official: Air France Is Returning To Seattle In March 2018

It’s Official: Air France Is Returning To Seattle In March 2018

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A bit over a week ago I shared the rumor that Air France would be bringing back their flight to Seattle Tacoma. The airline flew to Seattle between 2007 and 2012, at which point they handed over the route to their joint venture partner, Delta.

Well, there’s now an update on this front — Air France is officially launching flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Seattle Tacoma as of March 25, 2018. The flight will initially operate 3x weekly (Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays), though in the peak summer season will operate 5x weekly (with the addition of flights on Tuesdays and Thursdays). The schedule for the new flight will be as follows:

AF338 Paris to Seattle departing 1:10PM arriving 2:20PM
AF355 Seattle to Paris departing 4:30PM arriving 11:10AM (+1 day)

The flight will be operated by a three cabin 777-200ER, featuring 40 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 216 economy seats. Business class will have reverse herringbone seats with direct aisle access from every seat, which is tough to beat.

The flight will cover a distance of ~5,000 miles, and is blocked at 9hr40min eastbound and 10hr10min westbound.

The other good news is that award availability on this flight is wide open. I see up to nine business class award seats available many days, even in the peak summer season. Most of these seats shouldn’t just be bookable through FlyingBlue, but also through partner airline programs, like Alaska Mileage Plan, Delta SkyMiles, etc.

Air France’s new flight will nicely complement Delta’s existing daily flight between Seattle and Paris, which will be operated by a 777 for the peak summer travel season.

Air France’s new route is also great news for Alaska Mileage Plan members, given how many Alaska loyalists are based in Seattle. Air France is still partners with Alaska, so you can earn and redeeming Mileage Plan miles for travel on this Air France flight (at least for the time being). You can earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles on Air France flights at the following rates:

Meanwhile you can redeem Mileage Plan miles on Air France at the following rates (and you’re even allow a stopover on a one-way award):

Does anyone plan on taking this new Air France flight between Seattle and Paris?

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  1. Elston J Hill Guest

    Just booked RT with Alaska miles for December. Had to use a human assistant at Alaska to make it work. Here is the big deal. Air France will no longer be available after April 30. The relationship is over, but if you book now, you can still get seats past that date.

  2. Avi Guest

    Can't wait just booked a ticket using my Chase Sapphire card for June in Business, super easy and value was definitely there!. Does anyone know which lounge AF plans to use in Seattle?

    1. lucky OMAAT

      @ Avi -- Not positive, but I would guess they'll use the Delta SkyClub.

  3. OR 97 Guest

    When do you think the new summer AF sea-cdg routes will be available for award redemption using Alaska miles?

  4. Tae Guest

    what happened to all the availability? just couple days ago, there were ok availability.. even SEA-CDG-DXB... anyway, all gone now. Zero availability of SEA-CDG July and August. I checked, ExpertFlyer, AS and DL sites. None shows any. All taken already?

  5. Howard Miller Member

    Duplicate post NOT intended. Apologies for the error!

  6. Howard Miller Member

    For those NOT flying in the premium cabins, Delta’s 777s are nine abreast 3-3-3 at 18.5” wide, while Air France packs ten seats per row in the hideous (for a 777), and much loathed, 3-4-3 densified configuration where seats are barely 17” wide, and the two aisles are extremely narrow.

    In standard pitch economy rows, seatguru.com reports Delta’s at 31-32” and Air France’s at 32” for their 777s.

    Delta also offers “Economy Comfort” extra space...

    For those NOT flying in the premium cabins, Delta’s 777s are nine abreast 3-3-3 at 18.5” wide, while Air France packs ten seats per row in the hideous (for a 777), and much loathed, 3-4-3 densified configuration where seats are barely 17” wide, and the two aisles are extremely narrow.

    In standard pitch economy rows, seatguru.com reports Delta’s at 31-32” and Air France’s at 32” for their 777s.

    Delta also offers “Economy Comfort” extra space rows on its 777s, where the row pitch on its 777s is a relatively spacious 35” — much better for taller flyers, or those who want to have more room to stretch out for a long haul flight but whose budgets cannot accommodate the cost of premium cabins.

    For those whose budgets allow for premium cabins, Air France may be the better choice given its generally better reputation for its cuisine, or the option of a true premium economy section which Delta does not offer yet on its 777s.

  7. Howard Miller Member

    For those NOT flying in the premium cabins, Delta’s 777s are nine abreast 3-3-3 at 18.5” wide, while Air France packs ten seats per row in the hideous (for a 777), and much loathed, 3-4-3 densified configuration where seats are barely 17” wide, and aisles are extremely narrow.

    In standard pitch rows, seatguru.com reports Delta’s at 31-32” and Air France’s at 32”.

    Delta also offers “Economy Comfort” extra space rows on its 777s, where the...

    For those NOT flying in the premium cabins, Delta’s 777s are nine abreast 3-3-3 at 18.5” wide, while Air France packs ten seats per row in the hideous (for a 777), and much loathed, 3-4-3 densified configuration where seats are barely 17” wide, and aisles are extremely narrow.

    In standard pitch rows, seatguru.com reports Delta’s at 31-32” and Air France’s at 32”.

    Delta also offers “Economy Comfort” extra space rows on its 777s, where the row pitch on its 777s is a spacious 35” — much better for taller flyers, or those who want to have more room to stretch out for a long haul flight but whose budgets cannot accommodate the cost of premium cabins.

    For those whose budgets allow for premium cabins, Air France may be the better choice given its generally better reputation for its cuisine, or the option of a true premium economy section which Delta does not offer yet on its 777s.

  8. DTS Guest

    When searching for AF awards on the AS website, I never see any connections offered, even if the connecting AF flight itself is bookable via AS. So I see SEA-CDG and CDG-XXX available, but I'm not offered SEA-CDG-XXX. Is that the norm? Do I have to call to book that?

  9. Thomas Guest

    Rechecking this - there are flights in Summer 2018 where there are 5 J seats SEA-CDG - booking with AS miles.

    I don't know if it's phantom availability, but it's there!

  10. concorde02 Guest

    As a Flying Blue Platinum living in Seattle, I am excited to have AF coming to my hometown. With the nice DL lounge here, the flight will be my first choice if it offers First Class. Too bad....

    I always pay for AF La Premiere (First Class) because of their great service, good food out of Paris, and Paris lounge. Now I still have to fly AF via LAX to get the best transatlantic first...

    As a Flying Blue Platinum living in Seattle, I am excited to have AF coming to my hometown. With the nice DL lounge here, the flight will be my first choice if it offers First Class. Too bad....

    I always pay for AF La Premiere (First Class) because of their great service, good food out of Paris, and Paris lounge. Now I still have to fly AF via LAX to get the best transatlantic first class on AF 77W and to use QF F lounge (assigned for AF F pax) to get decent lounge experience.

    When I am bored of AF, I still have to fly transatlantic on LH F, LX F, via LAX to fly F, and to get a decent star alliance lounge in LAX TBIT experience (or until UA open something nice in SFO in a near future, via SFO).

    As for OneWorld (also AA Exec Plat) BA F/J lounge here is a joke, I try to come to the airport as late as possible when flying BA. I even drive to YVR to get better experiences sometimes (my office is between the 2 cities). Always fly CX F YVR to JFK

    I wish Airlines see more potential of Seattle and start sending more aircraft with First Class here (and lie flat domestic to NYC & Hawaii other than DL). BA sends 747 with Business class all the way to door 4. Seattle has Microsoft, Amazon, Space X, Boeing, Blue Origin, Starbucks, etc. lots of people are willing to pay for first class here. It's a fast growing city, and the fastest growing major airport in the country.

  11. Alex Guest

    SEA is my home airport, I’m really glad to see they’re doing this. About time! I’m sick of the Delta A330 intl. service.

    Too bad it’s not a big enough market for the La Premiere service.

  12. Another Steve Guest

    Glad it’s a bit later in the day than the Delta flight, can’t sleep on the early afternoon departures from west coast

  13. Ryan New Member

    Lucky, did you see that Monarch Airlines has completely ceased operations?
    https://airwaysmag.com/airlines/monarch-airlines-collapses-largest-uk-airline-failure/

  14. Ryan New Member

    Luckey, did you see that Monarch Airlines has completely ceased operations?
    https://airwaysmag.com/airlines/monarch-airlines-collapses-largest-uk-airline-failure/

  15. ASA Guest

    They literally JUST announced the route today. Give them a chance to put it in the damn mileage plan system people

  16. D Guest

    There's zero award availability per flight through Alaska, though that's actually norm rather than exception on all Air France routes.

  17. Thomas Guest

    Yeah, the SEA-CDG for summer seems not to be there for AS miles...

  18. Alan Guest

    I'm not seeing much availability for award travel on Alaska.

  19. Mark Diamond

    Not seeing availability with AS mile :(

    Perhaps it's just hasn't filtered down yet.

  20. Evan New Member

    I have an award booking on Delta in May to go from Seattle to Paris, in DL J. Do you think it's worth switching to AF?

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Elston J Hill Guest

Incidentally, the flight I just booked for December is on an Airbus 330.

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Elston J Hill Guest

Just booked RT with Alaska miles for December. Had to use a human assistant at Alaska to make it work. Here is the big deal. Air France will no longer be available after April 30. The relationship is over, but if you book now, you can still get seats past that date.

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lucky OMAAT

@ Avi -- Not positive, but I would guess they'll use the Delta SkyClub.

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