Flying Blue (Air France & KLM) - Tier change mid-journey?

Apologies if this has been asked already or is just a dumb question:

Flying to Miami with AF later this month. Once I get off at Paris to transfer, I will have actually earned Gold status - will I be able to use the lounge facilities or will they not recognise the tier change mid-journey?

Thanks in advance.

Doubtful.

In general it takes a few days for your tier change to take effect.

I started flying KLM/AF in June I believe and had my Ivory to Silver qualifying flight on Friday going AMS to STR via CDG.
The first leg was the 15th leg and should have given me Silver status.

Today the KLM website is still stating me as Ivory but I got the "SPECIAL ELITE BONUS MILES 50%" so it seems the status upgrade is recognized.

But the 50% bonus was only taken into account for the Sunday direct flight from STR to AMS and not for the second leg of the Friday journey...

So nope, you'll most likely be out of luck on your Gold upgrade. But it's surely worth a try to see if the lounge staff will let you slip in...

[Edit: I just checked again and FB has me as Silver. Time from qualification to being recognized was 5 days then]

Just as I thought - they're not exactly efficient at the best of times!!

Honestly, it would be hard to blame them on that. FB IT systems are not updated each time an AF aircraft takes off.

You may nevertheless try to go to the (arrival or departure) lounge with your mileage summary and explain your situation. They can also take a look at your account.

...They can also take a look at your account.

That said, there might still be level flights (and/or level miles) floating around in cyber space, as the servers only get synced at specific times. I could imagine it would be next to impossible to sync them continuously and most likely done at night time...

Sure, but if the OP have 29 level flights in his account and shows his boarding pass stub the dragon lady, it should work.

Sure, but if the OP have 29 level flights in his account and shows his boarding pass stub the dragon lady, it should work.

Not so sure about that. I've seen it often enough that the personnel at the counters is very friendly and apologetic but they cannot do anything for you because your account shows the necessary 29 flights (plus the one on the boarding pass) but unfortunately you only have 20.000 miles instead of the needed 40.000 miles.

Of course they are wrong but their booklet is not very clear about the level thresholds being _either_ miles _or_ flights but not both.

What at least it is worth to try.

What at least it is worth to try.


Always worth a try, but they seem very reluctant to use their heads. Case of the Nuremburg defence I think....just following orders.