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Air France

Updated: 20 of My Favorite Airline Awards

January 23, 2012

It’s been almost a year since I’ve updated the list of my 20 Favorite Airline Awards. Since then, so much has changed in the world of points and frequent flyer miles—from Aeroplan fuel surcharges to British Airways’ new Avios program—that I thought it was high time for a refreshing of the list. I’m going to [...]

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Using Amex Points to Book My First FlyingBlue Promo Award

November 5, 2011

Just thought I’d chime in and share my experience booking my first ever Flying Blue Promo Award. I frequently write about Flying Blue (Air France/KLM’s frequent flyer program) and their bi-monthly 50% off Promo Awards. In general, Flying Blue charges high fees, but these promo awards may make sense since the number of miles required [...]

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Air France Intra-European Business Class Review

July 26, 2011

This trip report is going to be pretty short, but I thought I’d still highlight Air France’s short-haul business class product. While many of us complain about US domestic first class as, “not being worth it” and “paling in comparison to the good old days of travel,” European business class is much, much worse. In [...]

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July/August Air France & KLM 50% Off Promo Awards

July 21, 2011

Air France’s frequent flyer program, Flying Blue, is a 1:1 transfer partner of American Express, but I generally don’t recommend using them for awards. Their taxes and surcharges are usually very high so it usually makes sense to transfer to Delta instead (usually at a significant transfer bonus) to book the same Skyteam award. However, [...]

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Reader Success Story: Using Delta Miles to Paris and Seychelles

July 8, 2011

I love getting reader emails – especially when they are success stories. I was corresponding back and forth with TPG reader Bill and I was delighted to get a confirmation of his upcoming trip. I thought it was a great demonstration of getting in on the top deals and then getting the maximum value of [...]

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AirFrance.us Now Shows Delta Awards

May 24, 2011

I’m a big fan of using airfrance.us to look up Skyteam award inventory. Historically, it’s been a reliable indicator of Air France, KLM, Alitalia, Czech and Kenyan award availability. When you found something at the Classic level, it meant it was bookable using Delta miles. The only flaw was that Delta inventory did not show. [...]

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Flying Blue 50% Off Promo Awards Announced and a Guide on How to Book Them

May 3, 2011

I find Flying Blue (the frequent flyer program of Air France, KLM, and some other Skyteam carriers) to be generous with award availability. They even run “50% off” promo awards all year long, which means you can fly roundtrip from certain North American cities to Europe and beyond for as low as 25,000 in coach and [...]

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Air France Bull in a China Shop Incident

April 12, 2011

Growing up, my parents always called me a “bull in a china shop” for not being the most graceful when it came to my surroundings. Hey, it’s hard being 5 feet tall by the 3rd grade! (Okay, maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point). Anyway, I could only think [...]

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Assorted Points and Miles Contests

March 19, 2011

I’m not a huge sweepstakes person, but I figured I might as well post these. The way I look at it, since my site readership has been increasing at huge rates this past year, the chances of a TPG reader winning one is on the rise. Air France: Click 4 buttons to win 160,000 FlyingBlue miles [...]

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My Birthday Wish List

March 7, 2011

Today is my birthday and while I’ve already gotten myself a gift (a $260 roundtrip ticket to Madrid which I splurged and upgraded both directions, an Air Europa ticket to Barcelona, one night at Le Meridien Barcelona on points and two nights at the Westin Palace Madrid on cash and points), I thought I’d create [...]

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Twenty of My Favorite Airline Awards

February 21, 2011

I book millions of miles a month in awards for clients and I’m always trying to think about what award option works the best, since most people have multiple mileage balances and flexible credit card points. Whether its wrangling a Delta award to the “low” level or helping someone maximize an American Express transfer bonus [...]

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Air France Adds Premium Economy to A380

February 20, 2011

Air France recently announced that they are adding Premium Voyageur seats to its A380 super-jumbo fleet. This is great news for flyers who want to spend more for a nicer, roomier seat, but don’t have the kind of money to afford business class. Air France’s premium economy seat is actually a more comfortable and generous seat unlike [...]

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Delta Skymiles vs. Flying Blue for Skyteam Awards – Which is Better?

February 18, 2011

Delta and Air France/KLM have a very close relationship. As founding members of the Skyteam alliance, they also have a tight-knit joint venture that allows them to own a huge portion of transatlantic travel. While this relationship continues to grow (I sometimes hear, “Thank you for calling the Delta, Air France, and KLM elite line, [...]

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1,000 Flying Blue Miles for Account Sign-Up

February 16, 2011

I’m a big fan of the Flying Blue frequent flyer program. As an Amex 1:1 transfer partner, I find that having the option of the Flying Blue airlines to be extremely useful at times, even though they do have relatively high fees on awards (often $250+). What I like: They allow one way awards on [...]

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Flying Blue 50% Off Promo Awards for March/ April Announced

February 14, 2011

Flying Blue (the frequent flyer program of Air France, KLM, and some other Skyteam carriers) is frequently generous with award availability. They even run “50% off” promo awards all year long, which means you can fly roundtrip from certain North American cities to Europe and beyond for as low as 25,000 roundtrip in coach and 50,000 [...]

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My Summer Vacation Planning and Why I Love Being a Delta Diamond

February 11, 2011

Sure, I love a nice first class upgrade or “bend over backwards” customer service, but one of my favorite benefits of Delta Diamond (and Platinum) status is the ability to change award tickets for free. Delta Skymiles are pretty difficult to redeem, but luckily I’ve mastered the system as best I can. I can usually [...]

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My Experience Using Delta Systemwide Upgrades on Air France

February 9, 2011

In October I wrote about the ability to use your Delta miles or systemwide upgrades to upgrade Air France Premium Economy to Business class. This is a great value because Air France Premium Economy can be purchased for as low as $1,200 roundtrip from the US (offpeak) and around $2,000 (peak). Alternatively, if you wanted to upgrade [...]

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Flying Blue 50% Discount Awards

January 16, 2011

Flying Blue, the frequent flyer program of Air France, KLM, Air Europa, Aircalin, Kenya Airways and Tarom, runs frequent award redemption promotions. These flights can be extraordinary values, especially since Flying Blue is an American Express Membership Rewards direct transfer partner. This means anyone with Amex points can take advantage since Amex to Flying Blue [...]

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Kudos of the Day: Delta Technology

December 10, 2010

I read the Cranky Flier post “Is Delta the Airline Passenger Technology Leader?” yesterday and it got me thinking that Delta does have some pretty good technology in comparison to the other US legacy airlines. Delta certainly has its share of IT blind spots (online award booking calendar and a buggy website), but from a passenger [...]

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Delta to Give SkyTeam Elite Plus to Gold Medallions Plus More Planned Enhancements

October 25, 2010

Delta recently hosted a bunch of frequent flyers to their Atlanta headquarters for a weekend of fun. Unfortunately I was unable to attend due to a family wedding, but I heard Delta really pulled out all the stops- including speeches by the CEO and VP of SkyMiles. They also gave away 1 million SkyMiles to [...]

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Delta System-Wide Upgrades Now Available for Use on Air France

October 16, 2010

As a Delta frequent flyer, you can choose an array of benefits when hitting the 75,000 and 125,000 Medallion Qualifying Mile marks. System-Wide Upgrades (SWUs) are an option, but they have always been a sore point with Delta elites because they require booking into expensive fare classes (Y,B,M) when flying internationally. Many times, these fares are more [...]

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Air France- CDG-JFK Business Class Report- Service with a “Sourire”

July 22, 2010

Our last night in Paris was a memorable one- meeting a close friend in Le Marais for dinner and then watching the World Cup championship at a local bar. I was rooting for Spain, but it was interesting to see the 50/50 split of Spain/Dutch fans at each establishment- all of whom were getting along [...]

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Air France Business Class JFK-CDG

July 13, 2010

We quickly made our way down the empty jet bridge and boarded the 777-300 aircraft. Friendly flight attendants greeted us in French and English upon boarding and directed us to our seats. We enviously walked through an empty first class cabin with big, plush leather seats. I would have redeemed for first class, except that [...]

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JFK Terminal 1: Check-in and Lounges

July 13, 2010

Getting to the airport: The day had finally come for my show stopping vacation of the year: Paris and Seychelles (details here on how I used points to fund almost all of this trip). Since I had more than enough time and I wanted to keep costs down so I could spend more on food [...]

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