Flying Blue (Air France, KLM, and Other Partners) - flyingbluenews.com redesign - including new store

They've launched a new-look http://www.flyingbluenews.com website.

new (I think?) is this Flying Blue store (for booking car hire packages/hotel stays/meals etc):

http://store.flyingbluenews.com/all-products.html


Interested in spending your Award Miles on something other than
award tickets?

With the recently launched Flying Blue Store, it’s now easier than ever to choose and spend your Miles on a wide variety of services and products.
We have made the process much simpler. There’s no need to request an award voucher via mail or fax anymore.

Now you can do it all directly online. Simply take your pick from the exciting rewards including:

* hotel stays
* holidays
* car hire
* and much more

Once you have selected your desired award in the store, login using your Flying Blue number and PIN to order an e-voucher. As soon as you receive your e-voucher in your inbox, just make your reservation directly using the partner’s reservation centre as specified in the e-voucher. Be sure to mention that you will be using a Flying Blue award.

To browse and spend your Award Miles in the online Flying Blue store, visit www.flyingbluenews.com/store
We have also added a new way for you to earn even more Award Miles by shopping online at your favourite webshops. Just click on ‘earn while shopping online at www.flyingbluenews.com to access your favourite webshops like:

* Fnac
* Fauchon
* Bol.com
* the Apple store

Follow these steps and you’ll earn Award Miles on all your shopping! Currently open to members in France,
the Netherlands and Spain, this option will soon be available in more markets.

To shop online and earn Award Miles, visit www.flyingbluenews.com

Thank you for the heads up, Irishguy28.

I was just browsing the revamped site and stumbled upon following news which will make our Silver and Gold friends happy (assuming there is not another FT thread already dealing with that topic - mods, do what you have to do here :p) :

http://www.flyingbluenews.com/news/1132/carry-over-your-level-miles-to-2012-and-beyond.html

It is now possible for them to carry over status miles they've earned the previous year above qualification threshold. AFAIK, this was a perk which was only available to Platinum so far.

Interestingly enough, in that same piece of news, they mention that they have lowered the carry over threshold for Plats :

"Platinum members benefit even more, since we have also lowered the threshold for carrying forward their level Miles. So they carry forward a greater number of extra Miles, which will automatically appear from mid-2012 in their account."

I tried to figure out (FB news / AF web site) what this new threshold was without any success. Does anybody know what it is ?

Thanks,

Fred

I was just browsing the revamped site and stumbled upon following news which will make our Silver and Gold friends happy (assuming there is not another FT thread already dealing with that topic - mods, do what you have to do here :p) :

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/flying-blue-air-france-klm-other-partners/1313595-programme-update-roll-over-level-miles-above-level-threshold-elite-members.html

;)

Oooopssss... Back to my cave!

At last, FB has rolled out an online shopping portal.

Click through to the various online stores (note - you MUST visit their website, or open up your iTunes, etc, by using the links on the Flying Blue shopping portal) and receive miles based on the amount you spend (usually excluding taxes and delivery fees [if any]).

http://earnonline.flyingbluenews.com

Partners include La Redoute, FNAC, Lavazza, bol.com, El Corte Inglès, iTunes (separate stores for ES, NL, FR, UK), V&D, hmv.com, Argos, BBC Shop, Tesco Direct, Sainsbury's, Waterstones, Ticketmaster (have not seen these on any other online shopping portal, and I spend a lot of money on them!!), BAA Airport Parking, hotels.com, Club Med, Millennium Hotels, the Trainline, M&S, Selfridges, Boots, Gap, Debenhams, O2, Orange, the Phonehouse, Carphone Warehouse, Monoprix, John Lewis, Liberty, etc etc etc

Quite a surprising bounty of UK retailers, in fact. I guess FB is quite a force in the UK.

The locations of the retailers are split between France, Netherlands, Spain, and the UK. However, this should not prevent anyone from outside these countries shopping at ANY of the stores (unless, for instance, they only ship to their own country, or the offer is related to a service that can only be finalised in that country, such as a mobile phone contract), and similarly, shoppers in any of these 4 countries can similarly buy from shops that are directed towards a different country. The exception may be iTunes, given that here they have 4 different stores - though it's worth trying, when redirected to your own country's store to make the purchase, it may still count. In other online portals, I have only ever seen one link to iTunes, and it doesn't matter when you then change the country to your own local version (as you have to be in your registered country's store to purchase on iTunes). I'd be interested to hear if this works for any FB members outside of FR, NL, ES and UK.

Interesting to note that, although airfrance.co.uk is a partner of Priority Club's shopping portal (meaning you can earn Priority Club points for the base fare (no taxes and charges included in calculating the points) when buying tickets through the Air France UK website), neither Air France, KLM, nor any of the other FB airlines are members of the store (yet).

Indeed quite alot of British companies, most notably supermarkets. Shame Albert Heijn or Bijenkorf aren't one of them. I would have enough for a J award very quickly then! :D

Hopefully they will be added before too long....

I guess the British chains are far more used to this concept than companies like AH - or maybe they just want to stay loyal to AirMiles.

AH online is not a place I like to go grocery shopping anyway. And offline shopping wont work unless you pay with FB amex, which of course, is not accepted at AH.

I doubt we will see many Dutch supermarkets (if any) as I believe only the Bas accepts credit cards.

Gajan

I doubt we will see many Dutch supermarkets (if any) as I believe only the Bas accepts credit cards.

Gajan

There's also the very small Marqt chain (2*Amsterdam, Haarlem, Den Haag) which only accepts cards for payment - all 4 accept Amex.

Some C-1000 branches (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/15343605-post4.html) may also accept Amex. In fact, 3 branches - in Delft, Aalsmeer and Kampen (http://www.americanexpressavenue.nl/Search?source=Search&skey=c1000) - accept Amex.

There's also the very small Marqt chain (2*Amsterdam, Haarlem, Den Haag) which only accepts cards for payment - all 4 accept Amex.


Marqt is actually a pretty decent store but in my opinion it is not main stream, i.e. it is my impression that it has select clientèle.

C1000 accepts CC's but not sure about AMEX.

Re: C-1000:

In fact, 3 branches - in Delft, Aalsmeer and Kampen (http://www.americanexpressavenue.nl/Search?source=Search&skey=c1000) - accept Amex.

(Click the link, takes you to the Amex "Kartaccepterende bedrijven" page listing for C-1000).

Quite a surprising bounty of UK retailers, in fact. I guess FB is quite a force in the UK..

Possibly a UK company that is running the service for them?

Marqt is actually a pretty decent store but in my opinion it is not main stream, i.e. it is my impression that it has select clientèle.
Marqt has some great products - but I would definately struggle to do all my grocery shopping there.

Possibly a UK company that is running the service for them?

Possibly - though I think it may be www.loylogic.com that is running it, the same company that runs Delta's equivalent scheme, amongst many others.

However, I think the large number of UK retailers is due to the fact that the 3 (now 2!) main UK airlines have all had similar online stores for many years, so that the market there is extremely familiar with the idea:

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club "Shops Away" (http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/frequentflyer/fcpartners/shopping/shopsaway.jsp)
bmi Diamond Club Online Shopping (http://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-gb/loyalty-programmes/diamond-club/earning-miles/online-shopping.aspx)
British Airways Executive Club eStore (http://www.britishairways.com/travel/eshop/public/en_gb)

Its a great idea and a good way to earn miles. Currently I am booking all my hilton stays through the VS shopping site - so I get VS miles for the $$ spent then I get the Hilton miles and double dip back into VS...

Also get points for itunes and ACCOR mainly. Have had issues with Hertz - they give the shopping miles but then say it is invalid sinc eI got shopping miles to also get "nornal" miles.

Possibly - though I think it may be www.loylogic.com that is running it, the same company that runs Delta's equivalent scheme, amongst many others.

just to correct that information, ICLP (http://www.iclp.ch/) - their Zurich office run that webshop ;)
it has been said at the AF DO in CDG in april that FB partner with ICLP.

Yes indeed!

Press release on the ICLP website here (http://www.iclp.ch/newsroom/iclp-news/air-france-klm-flying-blue-programme.aspx)

Used the FB store a couple of times - weeks ago - but no miles yet. Did anyone receive any points for purchases?

Used the FB store a couple of times - weeks ago - but no miles yet. Did anyone receive any points for purchases?

For me it depends on the store. Bol.com I get the miles, but it takes about 3 months for the miles to be credited. I also tried it via Pixmania, but no luck so far. I send an e-mail I didn't get a recognition for my purchase.

Blokker and ITunes also works fine. Now I wanted to try UPC, but the link isn't correct anymore. I send an e-mail to FB, but it takes weeks for them to respond. It almost sounds like they hired one intern to do everything for whole site, since it takes soooo long for them to verify or fix anything in the site. :rolleyes:

Yep I got the full 28 miles from Wehkamp.nl. :p

Bol.com I get the miles, but it takes about 3 months for the miles to be credited.:rolleyes:

How did you manage to do that?

How did you manage to do that?

When signed in to your Flying Blue account, click through using the links on the FB store to get to the individual online stores. YOU MUST USE THE LINKS PROVIDED AT THE FB STORE. Getting to the online store by any other means will not give you the miles.

Then complete your transaction online, and wait for about 3 months.

Used the FB store a couple of times - weeks ago - but no miles yet. Did anyone receive any points for purchases?

I spent a whopping EUR 13.something at bol.com two weeks ago and after the book was delivered got the following e-mail from "Flying Blue earning online support":

Graag laten wij u hierbij weten dat Bol.com ons heeft geïnformeerd dat u op 21-09-12. een aankoop bij hen heeft gedaan. Het aantal Award Miles dat u hiermee spaart, moet eerst nog door deze webshop worden bevestigd.

Wat betekent dit precies?

Dit betekent dat de webshop heeft erkend dat er een transactie heeft plaatsgevonden, maar dat de nadere details nog niet zijn bevestigd. Zodra de transactie volledig door de webshop is goedgekeurd, worden de Miles op uw account bijgeschreven.

Hoe lang dit duurt, verschilt per webshop, maar meestal neemt het 60 tot 120 dagen in beslag. U kunt er uiteraard op vertrouwen dat wij deze Miles na goedkeuring van uw transactie(s) zo spoedig mogelijk zullen bijschrijven.

In short: it will take 60 to 120 days to add the miles to my account. ROFLOL, good thing I don't need them urgently for an award ticket. :D

In short: it will take 60 to 120 days to add the miles to my account. ROFLOL, good thing I don't need them urgently for an award ticket. :D

Not the fastest shopping portal ever. It took them a minimum of 90 days to deposit the miles in my account for bol.com purchases, and the number of miles was very inconsistent across my purchases.

I like the initiative, but as with a lot of FB related projects, it simply feels a bit amateur and poorly executed / thought through.

Hi,

I bought stuffs via the site on July 14th, on Fnac.com (French residents). The transaction has been aknowledged but the status is still "pending" more than 3 months after while they say only 120 days max are needed.
I find it very annoying!
Moreover, i used it to buy on iTunes, the transaction was not recognised so i made a reclamation i never received an answer. I think FB should work on its store because I'm not sure i will use it again in these conditions.

Not the fastest shopping portal ever. It took them a minimum of 90 days to deposit the miles in my account for bol.com purchases, and the number of miles was very inconsistent across my purchases.

I like the initiative, but as with a lot of FB related projects, it simply feels a bit amateur and poorly executed / thought through.

But the thing is I shopped at bol.com already and a lot of people use the Apple Store for music purchases, so although it doesn't always function or you have to wait for 3 months....in the end it's just extra.

I did find out I could renew my UPC contract and just by doing it via FB Store, instead of going straight to upc.nl I will get 3600 miles....I will see them in about 5 months but still :D