I’ve been writing quite a bit about Air France lately, given that I’ve earned Flying Blue Platinum status with Air France-KLM. I’ve covered the ability to redeem miles for Air France first class (which is limited to Flying Blue Platinum members and above), and in this post I wanted to talk about the other best-value…
Continue reading: How Much Is A Paid Air France First Class Upgrade?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I took advantage of an offer to La Premiere in March. Was on a business class ticket, an award redemption, going from Dubai to Washington via Paris. When I did online check in, I got an offer of $1993 for the Paris-Washington segment. First was full on Dubai-Paris. I took it and it was a fabulous experience.
Does an upgrade also entitle you to La Premiere ground services if originating or connecting in CDG? I thought it only gets you upgraded services after after boarding.
Oh I had ALL the services on my connection at Paris and on arrival to Washington. Sublime start to finish.
February 2024, I had upgrade offers priced around $1,800-$2,000 a person for my IAD to CDG flight and CDG to IAD flight. Both were booked on points. One was even booked through Virgin Atlantic.
If I recall it was closer to $1800 when only 1 of 4 seats were picked from CDG to IAD.
It was $1,960 for IAD to CDG and only the 2 middle seats were left.
Ben—you wrote last year that Air France had restricted paid first class upgrades on award tickets. Did they reverse that policy?
@ John -- Yep, Air France did indeed reverse that policy (and also reversed its policy on only one first class award seat per flight).
Gotta say I was really surprised on my AF flight home from Europe last month, business and premium econ upgrade cost was incredibly reasonable. $180 per person to go from econ to premium econ, and $380 for my parents to go from premium econ to business. I was expecting a much bigger amount to get into the lie-flats. If space is available, it's a really good way to save both cash and points.
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I feel like if I was going to splurge on La Premiere, I'd want a longer flights, either from the US west coast or somewhere in Asia-Pacific. It doesn't seem worth it on any of the east coast flights, which are so short you barely have time to enjoy the luxury.
Just did HND to CDG last week and it was USD 1990. For a 14.5 hour flight and a 3.5 hour layover, it was definitely worth it! Had the entire cabin to myself!
It was, because I was denied an LP upgrade twice for it. Apparently it was short lived. I wouldn't be surprised to see more restrictions with the new cabin though.
South America should work fine. Personally I never fly in Y on long haul flights, but I recently did a daytime LHR-BOS in premium economy and found it more than sufficient, I really can't see myself spending thousands extra just to fly in a better seat, particularly when flight length and timings aren't conducive to getting a proper night's sleep. Of course, spending a few more miles is a different kettle of fish.
There are multiple ways to approach it. Dubai is short but it's also quite cheap so you can get that once-in-a-lifetime experience for relatively small amount of money (relatively being the key word here). You still get the full ground experience and nice meal on board so it may just be worth it if the fare is right. On the other hand, if I were to splurge and was willing to spend extra to get as good experience as possible, I'd preferably go for Singapore (they use the fantastic Qantas First lounge there on return), or maaaybe Tokyo. I definitely wouldn't upgrade the US routes - expensive and the experience isn't nearly as good (e.g. terrible lounges and overall ground exprience in the US).
Offered for $1800 per passenger, didn’t think twice about it. For CDG-LAX. There was no fourth passenger, used that space for dining.
Was quoted $1700 during airport check-in to upgrade from a redemption Biz ticket, CDG-DXB. Took it as 'once in a lifetime' thing and did not regret it at all. Truly a PHENOMENAL flying experience!
DXB-CDG Nov 24 USD 1830. Didn’t take it up, as I was in 3A (the best seat in J) and was asleep from 2 min after take off to 15 min before arrival. If it was the other way around I might have…
I fly AF about 5-6 times yearly and hold Platinum status. Every time I have flown first class, upgrades are available as long as it's a First class flight. The cost from NY and Paris is consistently $2600. As hard as I have tried to negotiate, there has never been any give. Once, I had to buy a Business class fare upgrade from Z to J, pay $800, and then upgrade using 80k miles. I have flown Emirates, Etihad, Swiss, British, Cathay, and AA, and you are right. I find AF Lapremier the best first-class experience all around, hands down.
Travelling to the Far East from LHR as a couple we prefer SQ, we value the space of the suites and we prefer the arrangement of the beds, etc.
We did take the same route once with AF, however, connecting delays are just not practical, also, the double suite with curtains less spacious.
The major upside was that no Delta flight could ever dream of offering anywhere near the same quality experience.
Finally, I am yet to take a Boeing flight, with any airline, which can better the A380 or A350 flight experience.
Currently “cheating” on LH HON (2027), due to a status match to platinum with AF. Looking at getting UXP, so called in to see if I could do a paid upgrade to La Premiere which I sometimes do with LH/LX as it’s sometimes CHF900 a leg. The platinum line was super helpful (wasn’t expecting that at all) and gave me all the rules of the game:
1. Paid upgrades are by invitation only and only to Platinum and above. So that means that if there are 2 seats left in F, they will be offered to only 2 platinums. Indeed there were 2 paid F and me so the other platinum didn’t take advantage and the 4th seat went empty. So I guess AF prefers to leave it empty rather than sell it at a discount. You can upgrade your ticket without the invitation of course but the leg I checked CDG GRU about a week in advance was CHF4,000. No way.
2. “Invitations” are sent a couple of days before the flight. My “invitation” price was CHF1850 on top of my very well priced (CHF4,000) biz class ticket so receiving the invitations for the round trip would be CHF8,000. Ok. So clearly the “invitations” are exclusive…and a relatively good deal compared to full F.
3. Ground experience is awesome. Pick up at the door of the plane and off in a macan to the lounge. You have an advisor who drives you, informs you about the flights and even is in charge of ensuring (!!) your bags are on the flight. Not sure why Ben gushes so much about the lounge. LH/LX first are far superior. The food in the lounge in CDG is spectacular and it’s really nice overall, but it’s kind of smallish and very open with no real privacy so you’re all kind of looking at each other across the room. The red pleather seats looked very 80s. It’s overall enjoyable and you are right above all the best shops if you want to shop. But nothing compares to the F class terminal in FRA or the international F in MUC even after all of these years. when it’s time to go your advisor whisks you off in the macan. Not a care in the world. I literally didn’t keep track of time at all and couldn’t care less!
4. Onboard was great. Ben has covered that. Curtains were interesting but I think I would enjoy SQ or EK full walls/doors more.
5. The catch? XP/UXP miles do NOT accrue (and as I found out it’s in the T&C) on the invitation upgrade. I found this really annoying. When you buy an upgrade (by invite or otherwise) with LH/LX your HON circle miles accrue for the fare that it is (ie F). Afterall, It’s an upsell for them and extremely lucrative, but not giving one XP more than my regular biz class made me think twice about upgrading to F by the platinum invitation. Wonderful experience yes, but the whole idea behind status and so on is exactly to spend more which I did.
If they had the XP/UXP accrual, I’d probably leave LH/LX altogether! Ok, well, not quite yet. UXP doesn’t give you access to the F lounge…
It's worth noting that (perhaps due to there not being that many Flying Blue Platinums in the US; Platinums are disproportionately EU-based) it's quite common, especially on flights to/from the US, for AF to charge less for a La Premiere award than a business class award (e.g. 250k miles for a one-way P award to JFK vs. 350k miles in business).
Did the upgrade last year...Did not regret the probable "once in a lifetime" experience...
Yesterday I flew CMN-CDG-LAX in business. There were two seats available in La Premiere, I was offered to upgrade for the staggering price of $3,119. That was an easy no merci. As a Platinum member I was in 3L, with the larger footwell, all was wonderful. I've flown La Premiere numerous times using my miles, a much better option, at least for me.