You do have to buy a ZED fare ticket on AF. Its easy to do on travelnet, pay with a credit card then they send you a confirmation e-mail. If you dont use the ZED fare tickets, they refund you almost all of your tickets. We did this in the past twice as back-ups but always got on the DL flight to somewhere in the US. AF employees dont have anything like the pass benefits that DL does, (pay for all passes, limited amount, etc.) so they may not be that user-freindly to employees. Have a great time in France!