Air France offers one of the world’s most exclusive first class products. It’s not only exclusive in terms of the size of the first class cabins, but also in terms of how few ways there are to get into these cabins with miles. In this post I’ll go over all those details.
Continue reading: Can You Redeem Miles For Air France First Class?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Washington indeed appears to be the cheapest market for La Première, at least as far as US routes go. I managed to get an upgrade in July for the IAD-CDG sector for 75,000 miles on a paid business class ticket (around £2,000). I thought this was great value and I was told there were 3 seats available for upgrade at time of booking (There were 2 of us travelling). As we were connecting from CDG, we got to use the La Première lounge in Paris, on top of the first class section of the AF lounge in Washington. Given that at most 4 people a day fly in La Première each day on that route, the first class section feels very private and spacious (given it opened in 2019 when Air France was still flying the A380 on that route). There was one other passenger on the flight who seemed to be e regular. He showed up to the lounge close to boarding and went straight to sleep once we were airborne.
They offered me the last seat in F on DXB-CDG for US$1200. Given I knew I would be asleep by 10,000ft and had 3A (the best J seat on the plane), it didn't seem like a good value. A day flight? Sure...
Do anyone know if it’s possible for someone with AF Platinum or Ultimate to book La Premiere for others (when they’re not flying themselves)?
This is why I love AF and as they make it very difficult for people using points.
"He showed up to the lounge close to boarding and went straight to sleep once we were airborne."
Yup, that is the typical behaviour of a very regular first class traveler on a short overnight flight - get the airport at the latest time possible, then sleep. People who travel a lot - there are many business travelers who fly as many hours every month as full-time pilot or flight attendant - come to regard flights as a necessary evil, rather than an indulgent, luxurious experience.
Ben, if it’s that restrictive, how have you managed to travel in Air France first in the past? I follow your blog pretty closely and don’t recall you having Flying Blue Platinum status. What was your trick?
Ben,
Barcelona - Paris - São Paulo is normally priced 166 K miles
Just did in November, what a treat
@Ben my understanding is that even if you are FB Platinum you cannot book more than one seat with miles, is that correct?
This is one reason I have stuck to maintaining FB gold vs going for platinum as you have. If I am going to try to book La Premiere on points I would like to be able to have a shot at having my wife join me without having to sell a kidney for the privilege.