Originally Posted by
ollyparkhouse
Many of many co-workers fly Air France/KLM, and I see them getting better rewards. it is miles based only, and depending on the miles you do in a year you change colour reward. BUT reward flights you pay in miles only and no cash.
That is not correct. You do hav to pay for taxes and fees on FlyingBlue just as much as you do with BAEC. On intra-European fares, however, they no longer charge surcharges so that you end up for most itineraries with quite low taxes, broadly comparable to what you would pay under the BAEC RFS system. For long-haul, OTOH, the charges are more substantial although slightly less than BA as AF and KL tend to have lower fuel surcharges.
Some live outside France, and are rewarded extra for being loyal (I get nothing from BA for being loyal living outside of the UK).
The only "reward" for residing outside France is lower qualification threshold. BA used to do the same with lower qualification threshold for residents of continental Europe but abolished that several years ago.
To be honest, I find the BAEC programme still more attractive than the Flying Blue one as the earn/burn rate on BAEC is still much better than in Flying Blue, even though Flying Blue is zone-based rather than segment-based for redemptions.*
The problem with BA is less the FFP, even though it has undoubtedly deteriorated, than the airline itself.
*
: That said, if it is status rather than earn/burn which is your focus and you fly mostly deep-discounted economy tickets, then Flying Blue might make sense as it is possible to achieve status purely by segment right up to the the equivalent of BAEC Gold (Flying Blue Platinum) whereas qualification by segment with BA is only up to silver.