Originally Posted by
tuonopepper
Also jumped to FB in the recent status match, also regional based. I understand FB is not as easy to stack up rewards but that's not the most important thing for me, the airport benefits are, addituonally on KLM metal the ability to pick 'economy my comfort' seats which give that extra leg room, then avoiding LHR is also a plus. Requal for platinum is 300XP, single economy SH sector is 5XP, net a return trip is 20 (with a stop) so 15 SH economy returns. My average flight cost has been £300, so cash cost of platinum requal is £4500.
I'd say the offering on KL and AF has been consistent, I'm starting to hate KLs cheese sandwich, lol, but at least you can get a brew! AF often have the A220 on the CDG/MAN flights and thats a really nice plane to fly.
It's quite easy to hit status with economy SH, and there's generally a few decent bus class fares kicking about. XP point runs do seem to be a thing and the IT/app is way better than BAs. SAF purchases also get XP points and i ditched Barclays Avios for AMEX Gold to credit to FB.
All in i haven't seen any negatives yet (I'm sure there will be some - lack of upgrade vouchers etc as no direct card alliance, though both AF and KL sent me viuchers on my birthday and at Xmas) and am happy I switched when I did so +1 for FB.
I agree with all of that. I would add that to me, AF long haul J is generally a clear step above CW, that I like crew a lot (I do on BA too), that CDG is not the hell hole it used to be years ago and is now a significantly better place to transfer at than LHR (though not nearly as good as some others like ZRH, MUC or even AMS most of the time), and that in my experience, AF is much better at keeping free middle seats for me even as a lowly Plat for life than BA (and for Ultis, which is the equivalent of GGL, it is a published benefit) and much better at transfer escort (even for non status) in case of tight connections. Another big advantage of FB is rollover qualifying miles, so in particular for people who are not much above a level, whatever you accrue above the qualifying threshold can be carried forward making your requalification a lot easier (so if you need 300XP to qualify but accrue 450, you start the next year at 150 and only need to accrue 150 more, or if you accrue 350 inew XPs in the second year, you'll start the third year at 200, etc all of which will end up counting towards your life time status after 10 continuous years of platinum.
The main downsides compared to BA since you are asking is that it is the same lounges for everyone. I find them better than Club lounges but less good than F lounge and even more the CCR. Even Ulti wouldn't give you access to better lounges (just reserved area within the main lounges). The upgrade vouchers are only for Ulti and fewer than GUFs and reward miles accrual is not great. Food within Europe is poor on both AF and KL. I also like OW partners (JL, CX, QR) a lot, more so than ST ones, and rewards can be expensive due to dynamic pricing though entry levels are actually cheaper than BAs for long haul these days if you can get them.
Obviously, BAEC as we currently know it has great advantages or many of us would not have stayed so long, but there are certainly decent alternatives outside of OW and as
https://loyaltylobby.com/2024/07/04/...ue-integration Oliver2000 correctly stays, a major advantage is that for AF or LH you "are" ex-EU in the UK so typically get far more affordable discounted J deals as well as far more competitively priced connecting European itineraries.