Originally Posted by Falco Peregrinus
I believe Frequence Plus assumes that every French resident normally gets 20.000 miles from domestic routes and COI routes (Caraibes - Ocean Indien), that other nationalities members don't fly. This is not a realistic hypothesis.
Well, French resident who get to Rouge or Platinum level with mainly domestic flights are mainly business travellers who'll want flexible tickets and don't stay on week-ends. Those will be very profitable for AF, and I don't see the point of penalizing them, especially considering the fare discrepancy on short-haul flight. SXB-NTE-SXB in S in EUR 580, but can sell as low as 180 with restrictions and a WE inside... I could understand a higher threshold for France-based traveller if there were mileage earning opportunities on domestic routes, but cheap fares are already not yielding any miles, and high fares are very profitable for AF. I nest my tickets whenever I can because there is no way I can justify paying full fare only to get some miles... It's cheaper to discard the tickets if I must cancel than paying full fare.
I am really waiting the details of the mileage earning inside France on FB. Right now we earn:
- 500 qualifying miles as it's the minimum mileage
- 500 qualifying miles as class of service bonus (S/Y)
There is no mention on the FB document that was posted earlier about the domestic earning opportunities... If they lower the minimum mileage as they did with European flight, it will be even harder to get those "20000 miles", and another incentive to go for cheaper fares.
For those who don't know, there was even a small "domestic/colonial apartheid" for COI residents. They had (still have?) to fly more to get their FP Bleu status (not sure for Rouge...). This distinction goes on with the new FB rule stating that the lowest fares on COI flights WON'T earn miles. I guess this will make COI residents VERY unhappy.
I can tell you they were unhappy with AF already... Mainly for suddenly dropping price when competition emerged, after complaining for years that these lines were unprofitable (justifying a very low quality of service on those routes, both for Eco and Business..)