fifty_two

Unless you are talking about the old days (i mean anything older than 8 years) , then i assume you might be right cause i wasnt there

If not then the main problem , as far as i remember , was to find which class you will have by booking a flight with a skyteam airline before purchase . Some made it easy , while others never provided such information before payment and we had to use a magic 8 ball to guess

I can explain, long story short , as long as you book a qualifying flight (means you fly on a revenue ticket and its a skyteam flight operated by skyteam airline) then you earn XP

For miles , they switched to revenue mode (more you spend more you get) , same as delta . However , its still the old method only if you fly with skyteam airlines and flying blue partners

Once you know its a qualifying flight , you just need 3 things to know how much XP you will receive =

1. is it a domestic or international flight ??
2. Is it economy , premium , business or first ??
3. what is the distance of the flight (if not domestic) to use the XP chart ?

There are small exceptions of course but i wont go over all the details cause it will be too long , but no real booby traps like those you can see with other star alliance competitors

The main idea was to make status a bit harder to get for those flying only cheap short european international flights in economy , while on the other hand rewarding customers flying premium/business and/or long haul flights (where the real money is made by airlines)

So it was made to simplify the process for customers , and It removed the burden of "what will be the booking class of my flight" and avoid troubles created by other skyteam airlines changing their charts base on their moods without prior notice

Hope its clear , if you have more question i can explain