Air France has an excellent first class product, at least the ground service in Paris is amazing and the onboard food generally good. Their new Boeing 777 first class seats are somewhat controversial, they don’t have doors but they do have curtains that extend all the way to the ceiling.
In any case it’s almost impossible to get into Air France first class other than by paying the regular freight. Redemptions in first class are restricted to Air France KLM Flying Blue elite members, and even then they have to pay extra miles (there are no saver awards for First).
Copyright: radututa / 123RF Stock Photo
Right now there’s a better first class fare on Air France than the business class fare, and not much more even than coach.
Here’s a sample for $1514.
This itinerary has an overnight in Paris and is cheaper, and it gives you an opportunity to spend real time in the Paris La Premiere lounge.
Key details:
- This should be a fully flexible, refundable fare. There are no date or minimum stay restrictions.
- Any changes will cause a reprice to the current fare, so assume no changes after booking.
- Widely available through end of schedule
Here it is from LAX for $1515.
The base fare here is $107 each way, most of the cost is fuel surcharges.
As I say when amazing airfares pop up, we don’t know for certain how the airline will feel about such a deep discount airfare sale, whether they might get seller’s remorse, I’d wait a few days after buying tickets before making additional non-refundable travel plans around the fare.
In theory an airline refusing to honor a sale like this would have to reimburse any out of pocket costs you incurred but there’s not much history with enforcement of that particular DOT statement so I’d still not test it.
(HT: The Flight Deal)
odds on this being honored?
Gone.
Still found all the way through Early November
@Beatriz – no it is not gone
@Shaun – hard to know!
Bought two one-ways for $637! Fingers crossed they don’t cancel.
Thanks!
Gone! it shows at $1,500 on the calendar view but then prices out to $12,000 and higher when you go to book
Thanks Gary for the heads up. I started browsing the dates in March, put in a ticket for hold. Thought about it for a while and browsed some more, then the tickets were gone. Luckily my hold on the first one went through so I just paid for it. Hoping they honor this. Even if I can’t go, it’s got free cancellation and refund. What a great deal.
Thanks for writing about this. I do appreciate it.
Thanks for posting about this, Gary. Got in just under the wire before the deal apparently ended. Will be interesting to see what happens next…
Gary,
I got ticketed, got seats assigned, have a pending charge on my credit card.
At what point do I know Air France will honor the tickets? If they dispute the pricing when would you expect them to notify me and what action would you expect them to take?
Thanks,
Al
I’m getting $4600 from SF for business class in early April, not so amazing anymore.
Sorry I missed this one
I Got a confirmed ticket from Delta but it says “Passenger Status: Schedule Changed”. What does that mean? The 2nd leg ticket from Paris to London is confirmed.
Also checked the Delta PNR on AF website, seems to show up. So a confirmed booking I assume.
Hopefully will get to use this!
@Gary: Tried again and it worked! Do you think AF will honor them?
I’m not finding anything close to the fares you report. SFO-CDG for $6000 in business.
Gone !
How do you get to the calendar page ?
If I use the normal airfrance.com webpage I never get a chance to display monthly calendars as shown in your post.
Could you send the link please for further exploration.
Many thanks
Jack
My “reservation” has disappeared – both on the Air France and Delta web sites, less than 24 hours after I was able to book. It was fun but oh so short!