Flying Blue (Air France, KLM, and Other Partners) - Moving to France question

I am currently Delta Diamond and BA Gold moving to just outside Marseilles (currently based in the US). I will mostly be traveling around Europe and the Middle East.

Do you regular AF travelers recommend I simply keep my status with Delta or swap over to AF ASAP (I know that AF doesn't usually status match)? Im not sure of the specifics around AF and using DM miles with other Sky Team partners.

Thanks,

Moz

I am currently Delta Diamond and BA Gold moving to just outside Marseilles (currently based in the US). I will mostly be traveling around Europe and the Middle East.

Do you regular AF travelers recommend I simply keep my status with Delta or swap over to AF ASAP (I know that AF doesn't usually status match)? Im not sure of the specifics around AF and using DM miles with other Sky Team partners.

Thanks,

Moz
Hi Moz,

I would personally stay on Delta Skymiles. It would allow you to earn 100% mileage on almost all fares, whereas FlyingBlue earns 100% only on higher fare buckets.
I know that AF gives you lounge access domestically if you are FB Gold/Plat, not sure what they do with DL Diamonds, Plats and Golds.
But if you fly outside of France, you will have access to lounges even for the domestic segments.

Hi Moz,

I would personally stay on Delta Skymiles. It would allow you to earn 100% mileage on almost all fares, whereas FlyingBlue earns 100% only on higher fare buckets.
I know that AF gives you lounge access domestically if you are FB Gold/Plat, not sure what they do with DL Diamonds, Plats and Golds.
But if you fly outside of France, you will have access to lounges even for the domestic segments.

I agree with you : stay with your DL Skypesos card ;)

I agree with you : stay with your DL Skypesos card ;)
It is DL SkyPesos vs AFKL "FlyingBouse" + $$$ of taxes, right :D

I think your class of travel may matter. Do you expect most of your travel to be in business class? If so you don't have to worry about lounges.

Also, do you expect to stay in France permanently or perhaps for 10 years or more? You can get lifetime Platinum status with AF/KL and thus ST-PE after 10 years of Platinum. However if you think you will return to the US after a few years, then probably keep DL.

Lastly, we do get op-ups from time to time with AF and KL as FB Plat members. It's a bit rare, but it happens. I was recently upgraded to AF First class CDG-ATL which was pretty sweet. ^

Not real reason to move to FB.
There is no such program as systematic opups in FB, so it is hard to give a reason to move to FB unless you plan to live in MRS for many, many years. And there is currently no AF lounge in MRS. And the AF lounges at dsome other omestic airports are usually "patio" lounges, meaning limited drinks (no wine or spirit) and cookies or salted nuts.

Aren't Patios open to ST E+?

Not real reason to move to FB.
There is no such program as systematic opups in FB, so it is hard to give a reason to move to FB unless you plan to live in MRS for many, many years. And there is currently no AF lounge in MRS. And the AF lounges at dsome other omestic airports are usually "patio" lounges, meaning limited drinks (no wine or spirit) and cookies or salted nuts.

Thanks everyone and this answers my questions.

I am *hoping* that the move to MRS is final as I have dragged my family around the world for long enough and it is time to settle down somewhere!

That being said, it sounds like there is no reason to move to FB. I doubt I will keep DL Diamond with the amount of traveling I will be doing and there is no lounge in MRS so little point of doing milage runs anyway. Most of my travel will be in the back of the bus as flights are going to be less than 3 hours and that I can handle.......

That being said, it sounds like there is no reason to move to FB. I doubt I will keep DL Diamond with the amount of traveling I will be doing and there is no lounge in MRS so little point of doing milage runs anyway. Most of my travel will be in the back of the bus as flights are going to be less than 3 hours and that I can handle.......

There may not be a lounge at MRS, but there are lounges at other airports which can be very useful in times of bad weather, strikes, etc. So I would do whatever possible to have lounge access. Be that with AF or BA or Priority Pass, it is worth it if you travel a lot.

You might also qualify for FB Gold based on segments. I would say if you are going to stay in France permanently and fly AF a lot, open a FB account and try for some sort of status match, even if it's only to Gold level.

There may not be a lounge at MRS, but there are lounges at other airports which can be very useful in times of bad weather, strikes, etc. So I would do whatever possible to have lounge access. Be that with AF or BA or Priority Pass, it is worth it if you travel a lot.

You might also qualify for FB Gold based on segments. I would say if you are going to stay in France permanently and fly AF a lot, open a FB account and try for some sort of status match, even if it's only to Gold level.

Good advice and I will do that. If I get the status match then it is worth making the switch for me certainly.

The only advantage of FB Gold over DL DM is access to the domestic patio lounges. And these are minimal lounges when they exist. You have access to all the other lounges with DL DM. Remember that DL DM gives you 6 systemwide upgrades that can be used on AFKL, while AF FB gives you none of that.

If you wish to qualify on FB, it is better to use a non-French address. If you qualify with miles, the level is lower. If you qualify with segments, French flights count (do not if you have French address).

I'm an American living in France for the past 7 years. I agree with Brunos, there are advantages to FB over SM.

When I first moved, I kept my SM Plat status, but I found that not all the flights that I took with Air France counted for SM. For example, many of the regional carriers Regional, Brit Air, etc.. are not recognized by Delta. I was able to get the miles, but each incident meant calls and faxes to Delta.

I switched to FB after a couple of years and it has been much smoother. The KEY is to keep the FB account assigned to a US address. This has allowed me to easily reach Plat level every year between the lower miles threshold and French domestic flights counting towards segments. As you will be in MRS, you will fly quite a bit domestically (Paris) to get anywhere.

My recommendation, switch to FB on a US address and call them about status matching...you never know.

Good luck with the move. France is a wonderful place to live.

I'm an American living in France for the past 7 years. I agree with Brunos, there are advantages to FB over SM.

When I first moved, I kept my SM Plat status, but I found that not all the flights that I took with Air France counted for SM. For example, many of the regional carriers Regional, Brit Air, etc.. are not recognized by Delta. I was able to get the miles, but each incident meant calls and faxes to Delta.
Have other FT members experienced the same recently? This might have been solved recently? The situation might have improved since the Joint-Venture is in place.

I think your point Boatboy, is right: It is harder to qualify with segments on Skymiles, but easier on miles (as all buckets on SM give you 100% MQM on AF flights, as opposed to some buckets giving you 25 or 50% MQM on FB).

So it really depends on your flying pattern.

I decided to keep my Delta status since I have over 200,000 miles on my account, and also to keep my AA Status. Soon I found out that the flights I'm taking regularly are being booked in V class, so no miles or segment are counting. For all my future reservations, I am actually using my FB account to credit the flights booked in V.