Flying “Air France” Domestically in the United States

Recently, I flew to Atlanta with the Optimi-daughter to visit the Georgia Aquarium. We participated in the aquarium’s “Sea Otter Encounter” (they were otter-ly adorable). This was a day trip, and I used points to book our domestic, non-stop flight with . . . Air France.

Of course, we did not fly on an Air France airplane, but rather on a Delta flight that code shares with Air France. Here is my rationale for booking this round trip with Air France instead of Delta.

Delta wanted 40,400 miles for the two round trips plus $22.40 for the TSA fees that you cannot avoid even when taking award flights. However, Air France required just 28,000 miles plus $71 in fees. Both airlines would let me transfer American Express points to their frequent flyer programs at a 1:1 ratio. Although the additional cash cost of booking with Air France instead of Delta was $49, I was able to conserve 12,400 American Express points. Since it is easy to get at least one cent per point in value out of Amex points, the minimum value of the saved miles was about $125. However, based on prior transfers of Amex points to airline partners, I would be likely to get even more value from the saved miles.

Making reservations on the Delta flight through Air France was reasonably straightforward. In addition to booking the flight, I was able to select seats. Twenty-four hours prior to flight time, I received a message from Delta letting me know I could check in for the flight and the boarding pass I printed out at home was a Delta boarding pass. There was no impact on my ability to use the Delta SkyClub. The only wrinkle was that, even though Delta was communicating with me about check-in, the flight did not appear under “My Trips” on my Delta account online or the Delta app. But overall, we had a standard Delta experience.

I don’t see much downside to reserving domestic Delta flights with Air France if you have Air France miles or transferable points available. I will point out that Air France offers a limited number of domestic US options so you cannot book any Delta flight through Air France. Sometimes I find flights that work and that I can fly for fewer points while sometimes there is either lack of availability of good flights or the points/cash cost does not justify booking with Air France over Delta. It is also important to keep in mind that, if problems arise with a flight, the “Air France” passenger might not be a high priority. As “Air France” passengers, we boarded with Group 7, an indication of being lower priority passengers.

When we create a Travel Rewards Optimizer plan for our clients, we take the kinds of information shared in this post to help you get to free and reduced cost travel as quickly as possible. The points and miles world is a filled with opportunities and pitfalls, but we keep an eye on this constantly changing landscape so you can spend your time planning your next vacation.

We are ready to help you turn your routine credit card spending into the travel of your dreams.