A new pricing scheme kicked in for Air France/KLM Flying Blue award redemptions on June 1st. Figuring it out has been like trying to figure out the writing of Faulkner. But I’ve been able to make a few general observations.
Pros
Cheaper Awards in Some Cases
The most popular redemption I make for Award Expert clients using Flying Blue points is between the USA and Europe. In some cases, prices have dropped. Previously, saver rates were a flat 62,500 miles each way. Now, “saver” business class seats seem to range from 51K to 68K. That makes award redemptions to Europe even more valuable than before.
Remember, “Europe” includes Morocco and Israel for Flying Blue, a great way to get all the way to the Middle East or Northern Africa for cheap.
Odd Married Segment Logic
Flying Blue is doing exactly what I recently observed with Delta SkyMiles redemptions: what seems to be an odd use of married segment fare logic. Take for example the example above. What if you just wanted to travel as far as Paris?
Same day, same flight, 2K more. That’s just odd. There are other more draconian examples, but we see that on many routes around the world, including on partner flights.
The potential for hidden city or throw-away ticketing is excellent in the new program. Remember, however, that once you skip a segment all remaining segments are cancelled. You’ll never book a round-trip if you intend to skip part of the outbound journey. Checking luggage is also difficult.
Cons
Odd Married Segment Logic
This odd married segment logic is also a huge hindrance in some cases, like if you want to go to Paris and check bags in the example above. Check out these other examples:
JFK to Paris is 91,500 miles for a one-way in economy (ouch):
New York to Singapore via Paris? 8K miles less, same flight/same day from New York to Paris.
What about New York to London? That will set you back 150K, so almost double the price for the CDG-LHR segment:
How about from the West Coast?
San Francisco to Amsterdam is only 26K miles one-way on October 3rd:
But if you connect to London, the fare drops to 21,500 miles. Same flight to Amsterdam…
There’s just no sense to it from a redemption perspective (where married segment logic has traditionally been limited and unlike revenue tickets, the point is to limit liability, not entice passengers to take extra flights).
Promo Awards
Perhaps you’ve heard about the great deal: Chicago to Paris for 22K r/t and even less with the current 25% transfer bonus from American Express to Flying Blue.
That’s great…if you want to go Paris. Traditionally, Flying Blue Promo Awards included a connecting flight to wherever you wished to go in Europe, subject of course to award availability. That’s gone now — the Promo awards will get you only to Pairs on Air France or Amsterdam on KLM. That’s a shame, though if the deal is good enough it still may make sense.
CONCLUSION
I’m still “learning” the ins and outs of the new Flying Blue program. As I unearth more tricks, I will certainly bring them to your attention.
I think the married segment examples make perfect sense. You pay a premium for nonstop over connecting. I suspect they are pegging the award cost to the cash price similar to UA and DL. Btw, does anyone know how they do that in practice?
Except the London example blows that logic up. Just bizarre.
I don’t think so. Which example are you referring to?
I think he means the New York to London via Paris for 150K — a huge premium to connect in Paris.
Oh I see. I just read the text, not the screenshot.
I observed something similar as well and transferred a few points from Amex MR to Flying Blue.
But the sad part seems to be that the transfers are not instantaneous anymore 🙁
SO basically I can book because my miles havent arrived yet.
Take advantage of the free 72-hour holds (available only if you make the reservation over the telephone).
So does the new FB have big YQ On TATL awards?
Same as before. Sweet-spot is Delta, which has no fuel surcharges for one-way trips to Europe departing from North America or r/t journeys departing from North America. Also no fuel surcharges for Asia or South America.
Air France/KLM fuel surcharges remain moderate. China Airlines, Aeroflot not appearing right now. High surcharges on Middle East Airlines and Air Europa.
Hah! No, not Faulkner so much as Proust.
They really screwed this up. Even AF loyalists have been anxious over the strikes and the already implemented changes to FB ( XP and all); the last thing AF would have wanted is more confusion/uncertainty, but that’s exactly the outcome of the award changes.
OK, there could be a bargain in there somewhere ( sure, it’s great for anyone looking for a CDG-ORD in Y over the next 2 months ( @11,000 o/w). But that’s not a bread and butter route…and the other offerings range from luke-warm to insane ( and are pretty much without rhyme nor reason).
They’ve stuffed this up…at at very bad time for the airline.
The worst bit is that you could upgrade from economy to business in a flight from Detroit to Amsterdam and atill only get the XP for economy as that was your oroginal booking class and they do not consider upgrades for the XP. It is just plain stupid.
Hello everyone, I’m Platinum since 6 years, I give You a rough idea of my new Flying Blue BAD experience: as Italian citizen I needed with the old program 70.000 miles to renew the platinum status. With Alitalia from Roma to Buenos Aires/return it was about 14k miles, based on economy ticket H fare basis, it’s like saying that in 5 trips/year I had renewed my status (including some domestic flights). Today, flying economy class no matter the fare basis, for return trip to Buenos Aires I get 24XP points, but now I need 300XP points to renew the platinum status!!! You don’t need to be a master at Harvard business school to understand that they fcked me…… and like me I’m sure most of frequent travellers have been penalized. I was aiming to get to lifetime platinum and now I have a mountain in from of me to climb.