Air France-KLM Flying Blue Waives Redeposit Fees For Award Cancellations (Even Retroactively)

Flying Blue, the loyalty program of Air France-KLM, will not charge refund fees if you need to cancel your award travel. This is a welcome move.

Refund Fees Waived On Flying Blue Through March 2021

Last week, I wrote about the absurd situation a pair of travelers dealt with. Due to government travel restrictions, they were forced to scuttle their trip. In order to redeposit their miles and receive credit for their taxes/fees back, however, Flying Blue demanded an upfront cancellation fee of €45 per ticket. It then warned that it could take up to six months for the credit to hit.

After publishing my story, a spokesperson from Air France reached out to let me know that Air France updated its Flying Blue refund policy:

“In order to make travel easier for customers in this challenging time, Air France and KLM loyalty program FlyingBlue is waiving the refund fees for travel until 31 March 2021 on all reward tickets.”

Also note that if you have recently paid a cancellation fee to Flying Blue, you can contact them for a refund. These retroactive refunds will not be automatic.

This is great news. It simply made no sense to collect a change fee upfront in order to refund an even larger dollar amount in taxes/fees potentially months later. I hope that if/when Flying Blue begins collecting refund fees once again, it will have worked out a way to deduct them from the taxes/fees rather than require an additional transaction.

CONCLUSION

As most of its competition suspends the collection of change and cancellation fees during these uncertain times, this is a nice move but also a competitive move. I applaud Flying Blue for suspending these fees as the world remains largely shutdown to international travel. Greater kudos for applying refunds retroactively to do those who ask.