Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue Keeps Its Cheapest Awards, Strips Benefits Unless You Spend More Miles

Air France KLM Flying Blue will introduce Light, Standard and Flex fare families for award tickets starting September 8. It isn’t increasing the lowest mileage prices or reducing award availability. Instead, it’s removing benefits from awards at the lowest price. Elite members, who receive those benefits from status, are largely unaffected. Everyone else will pay more miles if they want things like seat assignments, checked bags, and lounge access included with the award. It’s a devaluation, but it’s a targeted one and arguably less bad than charging everyone more miles. Members with status keep their status benefits, and everyone else can choose to pay the increase either in miles or accepting restrictions. What happens at Flying Blue matters, of course, because the program partners with basically every transferable currency and has a U.S. Bank of America co-brand card that can generate elite status. I spoke with Flying Blue head Tiffany Funk about these changes. Flying Blue’s Lowest Award Prices Stay, But The Product Changes New Air France and KLM award bookings in economy, premium economy and business will offer three choices: Light preserves the lowest mileage price but comes with fewer bags and no voluntary changes or refunds. Advance seat selection costs extra. Business Light includes one checked bag but no lounge access. Standard is basically how today’s awards work: checked bags, changes and refunds for a €70 fee, and business class lounge access. It costs more miles. Flex includes free changes and refunds, advance seat selection and, where carrier surcharges apply, a lower required cash payment. It costs substantially more miles. Existing award tickets keep their existing rules even when a wholly unused ticket is later changed. La Première awards are excluded from this change, though those are only available to Platinum members and above. Standalone partner awards do not change at all. They aren’t going to book Delta awards in basic economy. These changes apply to Promo Awards as well (which will have all three fare offerings). I understand we’ll see ‘Business Lite’ only when saver inventory is available. The biggest exception is a trip combining Air France or KLM with a partner airline. Only Standard fares will be offered. The partner flight’s price remains unchanged, but the Air France or KLM component prices higher than it does today. That increase applies even to elites who would otherwise be largely protected from price increases on Light fares. Fare Changes And Refunds Checked Bags Advance Seat Selection Lounge (Business Award) Light None (status exceptions apply) None in economy or premium economy; one 32kg bag in business Paid; a standard seat remains free at check-in Not included Standard €70 fee plus any fare difference One 23kg bag in economy; two in premium economy; two 32kg bags in business Paid; a standard seat remains free at check-in Included Flex No fee; any fare difference still applies Same allowance as Standard Standard seat included in advance Included Examples Of Price Increases Flying Blue shared examples of how these fare families will price. For instance an intra-European economy example that currently costs 10,000 miles plus $70 with a checked bag and changes or refunds for €70 priced out as: Light remains 10,000 miles plus $70, but loses the checked bag and cannot be changed or refunded. Standard costs 13,000 miles plus $70 and roughly restores today’s package. Flex costs 17,000 miles plus $70 and adds free changes, refunds and advance seat selection. That is a 30% mileage increase for Standard. Meanwhile, a Paris – New York business award currently costs 60,000 miles plus $608.83. It includes two checked bags, lounge access and changes or refunds for €70. Under the new structure: Business Light remains 60,000 miles plus $608.83 but includes only one checked bag, no lounge access and no changes or refunds. Business Standard costs 75,000 miles plus the same $608.83 and approximately restores today’s award. Business Flex costs 110,000 miles plus $302.82, adding full flexibility and using miles to reduce the carrier surcharge. Here, keeping today’s business class package costs 25% more miles. Elite Members Lose Much Less Flying Blue status follows the traveler rather than the fare. An elite can book Light and retain the benefits attached to status. Silver restores a standard seat and an additional checked bag. Gold also receives SkyPriority and lounge access. Platinum and Ultimate receive broader baggage and seating benefits, and Flying Blue shows Light remaining changeable and refundable without a fee for top members. However, even top elites lose one unit of total checked bag allowance on Light because the underlying fare starts with one fewer bag and the elite benefit adds bags on top of the standard allowance. But most members are not checking three or four bags, so the practical loss there is limited. But since status belongs to the traveler, a Platinum using miles to book a nonelite friend (on a separate reservation) wouldn’t be able to gift their benefits. Why Flying Blue Is Doing This Flying Blue wants to preserve a low award price. They’re raising prices here, but keeping the starting price the same. That keeps awards feeling attainable and supports the economics of selling miles to banks. Flying Blue has made a deliberate push into the U.S. transferable-points market because lower and more usable award prices can make a loyalty program more profitable. The program’s solution is segmentation. Travelers who value the lowest number of miles can accept Light. Travelers who want current benefits can spend more miles. Those who want flexibility or lower cash outlay can buy Flex. Nobody receives today’s package for fewer miles, so no one is better off with these changes. Flex create a new payment option, but the lower cash component is purchased with additional miles. Government taxes still have to be paid in cash. Carrier surcharges can be bundled into the mileage price. This Is Becoming Pretty Industry Standard, Unfortunately I’ve always thought of awards are rewards for loyalty. A customer should be treated better when they redeem miles than on a paid ticket! Delta upended this when they started booking awards as basic economy. Transferring points and booking an award immediately isn’t exactly traditional loyalty, and customers who have status still largely preserve status quo ante benefits, so in a sense loyalty is still protected. More broadly, Aeroplan has long offered different award fare families. And Lufthansa Miles & More went considerably farther and Flying Blue isn’t matching them. British Airways has charged nonelites for advance seat selection on award tickets, including business class awards, since 2009. Losing a checked bag, lounge access and the ability to cancel is a bigger deal. Delta has offered Basic Economy awards since 2018, with restrictions that status generally does not erase. Delta and United have also introduced stripped paid business class fares but neither currently applies those premium products to award tickets. Flying Blue says it has no plans to introduce Air France and KLM’s still more restrictive Basic fare on awards. Light retains a full-sized carry-on and continues to recognize elite benefits. How To Minimize The Impact Book by September 7. Existing tickets retain their current conditions, including when changing a wholly unused ticket. Price the missing benefit separately. Light plus one paid bag may cost less than transferring thousands more points for Standard. Use transfer bonuses. A 25% bonus would turn 60,000 bank points into the 75,000 Flying Blue miles required for Standard in the Paris – New York business example. Use status. Elite benefits remove most of Light’s restrictions, although status must belong to the traveler. I have Flying Blue Gold as a Bilt Platinum, and I’ve been tempted by their Bank of America cobrand for access to better saver award space and first class awards. Watch mixed-airline itineraries. Air France or KLM combined with a partner forces Standard. Separate awards might cost less but sacrifice through-ticket protection. Consider partner-only awards. Those remain unchanged and will not be mapped into partner Basic fares. Do The Math Before Buying Flex. The value of miles isn’t going to be high buying down surcharges, but Tiffany tells me that the miles will be valued at “the range…we use when selling miles during a promotional period.” The Bottom Line This is a devaluation that hits those without SkyTeam status most significantly. It’s roughly what many programs are doing. And non-status members especially will have to choose between lite fares and spending more miles, or finding award space through an airline program that isn’t taking this approach. However, Flying Blue remains useful for the numerous flights they operate across the Pond, for still-reasonable pricing and availability, and for a variety of partner redemptions (which are unaffected by this news). Topics on this page