bodory

I would add (4) : quickly empty FFP accounts and reduce group's liabilities.

irishguy28

While I agree that all airlines most likely want to keep the outstanding balance of miles to a minimum, they have reduced their liabilities indeed, but not in the way you suggest!

By vastly increasing the number of miles necessary for redemptions, they have, at a stroke, reduced their liability by reducing the purchasing power of the outstanding balances.

Offering discounts such as via the PromoAwards certainly does entice people to spend their balance - but for existing members who remember the old rates from a few months ago, suddenly being asked now to pay an amount of miles for Premium Voyageur that a few months ago would instead have almost got you a Business seat, it doesn't really entice one to spend as much as it used to (or, only in a perverse way - if I don't burn my balance now, I'm going to get shafted again by a further future devaluation!).

I would previously have never dreamed of redeeming miles except on PromoAwards - which puts me in a dilemma now, as the new Promo Award levels are comparable to the old "regular" redemption levels, so my miles are therefore almost unspendable!!!!

To be honest, I think that Amex MR transferees are the main customers for Promo Awards now. They've not had to earn Flying Blue miles the hard way, and with no long-standing affiliation with AFKL, they may not even be aware that the redemption amounts have just gone up. But they're still being driven here by the blogs who tell them it's a good deal.

SeamasterLux

The last 200k miles I've had were because of my expenses on AMEX. I'm well aware of the redemptions amount having gone up. Problem is that I have a FB AMEX and that the French AMEX s*cks big time in terms of redemption with other partners.

irishguy28

I know that European Amex holders earn MRs less quickly than, say, their US counterparts (1€ > 1$, so you have to spend more in Europe to earn the same as a US member), while the transfer rates are usually far more beneficial for US members, who also seem to get frequent bonus offers for transfers, etc.

Is this what you mean, or are French Amex MR cards restricted in even MORE ways, such as certain partners not accepting transfers from French cards??? Or do you mean that you can't participate in MR when you have the Flying Blue card (which is why I ditched my FB Amex several years back. Even though the "earning" may be slower with a regular Amex, the ability to transfer to a multitude of partners is far more beneficial than being stuck with FB miles only).

SeamasterLux

- Yes it's what I mean
- Very few partners accept the French AMEX as redemption options, I wouldn't be able to transfer to LH or TK or TG or EK for instance
- Having a FB Amex limits it to basically Accor or Flying Blue + a few other useless programs

irishguy28

I wasn't aware of that. Ouch.

Given your name, why not take out a Luxembourg-issued card? Or are they subject to the same/similar restrictions?

SeamasterLux

Worse... no AMEX in Luxembourg

The country that has one of the banking infrastructure in the world doesn't offer AMEX programs, just amazing.

irishguy28

I had no idea!!!

Perhaps a German Amex would have been better then. Or Belgian!!!

bodory

That is precisely my thought.

QED : they will necessarily reduce their liabilities at the end because either we will have spent our miles or the remaining ones will have pretty much been devaluated.

Being a rational person, I do prefer spend my miles at current (promo) award ratio than keeping them waiting for a better ratio that is very unlikely to happen.

SeamasterLux

Wise, I actually emptied my account from 400k to 20k left.

Bought a RTW J ticket + 2 O/W to/from Asia

irishguy28

I would be very interested to hear your experiences in both planning, and actually booking, a Skyteam RTW ticket with Flying Blue miles.

Could I make a huge imposition and ask if you would consider writing your experiences and any advice/insight you might have in the whole process? I think that deserves a brand new thread of its own.

Merci!

SeamasterLux

It does deserve a thread...

I might do that right now actually

EDIT: thread started

Concerto

They don't even permit low cost carriers to land in Luxembourg!

Seriously, I think the only partly decent use of miles left are the 50% economy class awards, despite the high taxes.

flyertalker00143

wrong post

irishguy28

That's the current offer, and includes a 50% discount



This is where your observation becomes inconsistent!

Not only is it a different offer - for the forthcoming period which is not yet bookable - it is available on both AF and KLM. And this time, the discount drops to 25% as compared to the current 50%.