Air France La Premiere Award
In the spring of 2025, I reached Air France Flying Blue Platinum status. This came after years of research, efforts, mistakes, corrections, and mild obsession. Why did I bother? Reason 1A: I was curious if I could actually reach it. Reason 1B: I wanted to book Air France’s rather luxurious, prestigious La Premiere cabin. Indeed, these bookings are limited to Flying Blue Platinum and Ultimate elites. While my pursuit predates it, the challenge’s cherry on top has been to book the new version of Air France La Premiere. I booked said award a couple weeks ago, and this is some of what I noticed along the way.
Unpredictable Inventory
Why did it take me almost nine months to book my La Premiere award? Long story short, availability – online, at least – has tremendously unpredictable and routinely spotty. On top of this, the Air France site has been historically clunky, in my experience. Based on my frequent searches over time, I noticed the award calendar would be virtually, indefinitely blank. It was as if I was searching without logging in. But that wasn’t the case. My searches ended up feeling no different than the ones I made looking for other Air France awards before reaching Platinum.
Sure, there were outliers. I’d find availability on a random day here or there, but of course, that handful of dates didn’t work for my schedule. Perhaps I could’ve called in to identify more options, but I didn’t. I’ve been lazy there, but also not particularly motivated. I’ll get into why next.
Improving Availability, Sort Of
Historically, even when I could find space, it seemed Air France was only offering the old La Premiere product. That’s justifiably been known as a remarkable product, but naturally I wanted to obtain the impeccable experience of the newer version – especially at these award rates.
But recently, I’ve seen an upswing in Air France La Premiere award availability. See the calendar above. Other months are similar, with certain dates blank. That said, missing dates are fewer and farther between now. For those wondering, I found one-way La Premiere consistently pricing at 350k miles with many city pairs, while taxes may vary. For what it’s worth, taxes and fees for my award booking were just north of $500.
That calendar can be deceiving, though. In my earliest weeks and months of Platinum, I’d frequently notice Air France offering La Premiere awards on a strict subset of flights. For instance, out of the half dozen or so daily Air France flights from CDG to JFK, only one flight offered such an award. But that seems to be changing lately, where I’m seeing more daily options. Even better, I’m seeing substantial award availability for the new La Premiere product.
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if much of this disappears sooner or later. Of course, a portion of that is due to ongoing bookings by Flying Blue Platinums and Ultimates, but I wouldn’t put it past Air France to tighten availability out of nowhere.
Finding the New Air France La Premiere Product
Since reaching Platinum, I’ve primarily determined the old/new La Premiere cabin type by clicking through to the seating chart. That might seem easy, but it took more clicks and information entry than I expected. I’d repeatedly click and type away only to find that it wasn’t the new product I was pining for. Of course, some other sites have posted about certain flight numbers which do have the new product, so that can be a guide. But I’d never assume any other entity keeps a complete, always-up-to-date list.
However, there’s now another way to determine old/new La Premiere cabin type. Search a given date for a paid fare, and Air France promptly advises which flights have the new cabin type (see above). Air France doesn’t make it as easy for award flight searchers. The airline doesn’t provide the above notice when viewing award options. Regardless, even the small improvement with the paid fares was overdue, in my view. But it’s something.
So which of the above options do I find faster? The second one, and that has something to do with another Air France La Premiere award booking shortcut.
A Handy Cheat Code
Like any other airline, the Air France site asks for a specific travel date to search availability. Travelers consequently see availability on that date and three days in each direction. Still, this can inevitably lead to more clicking than desired. But there’s a better way to search.
As Ben Schlappig at One Mile at a Time points out, simply leave the date field blank in your initial search. With this omission, travelers can see a calendar of availability over the next twelve months or so.
No, There Aren’t Cancellation or Change Fees
As I’ve already described, the Air France site recognizes my Platinum status and I can check La Premiere availability when logged in. But during the booking process, the site oddly maintains that a cancellation or change to my award booking is subject to a 70 euro fee. Even when I go to cancel, Air France advises, “depending on your Flying Blue status, you may need to pay a EUR 70 cancelation fee.” But there’s no granularity beyond that.
The Air France site has thrown me off before here, but no longer! That’s because, as the Flying Blue site mentions, Platinums and Ultimates can change or cancel award bookings without a fee.
Book Carefully
One of the other solid benefits of acquiring Flying Blue Platinum status has been increased availability of Air France business class awards at attractive rates, such as 60k one-way (or cheaper). But, again, that’s not always the case.
So while it may be natural to primarily focus on La Premiere availability, ensure you consider any other award requirements you’ll have for additional flights. Indeed, my La Premiere booking was influenced by the limited inventory of Business awards I found departing the States at the time.
Air France La Premiere Award – Conclusion
While I’m still a ways off from actually taking this trip, it’s fulfilling to take the next step by booking this noteworthy, remarkably expensive award. Of course, I’ll write about my experience on the ground and in the air. But between now and then, I look forward to covering a few other topics related to Air France, this booking, and beyond. Have you experienced Air France La Premiere? What’s your take?
