Gajan

As discussed in the past, Flying Blue has been researching the possibility to reduce the long-haul fuel-surcharge.

Starting June 2013 there will be changes implemented:

1. Increase of the number of upgradeable booking classes to 8 (amount of miles required is fare dependent);
2. The amount of the fuel-surcharge will decrease;
3. Miles required for economy remains at current rate (for base level);
4. Miles required for business increases slightly;
5. Just as for short-haul there are a number of tiers available at different rates, resulting in the fact that there are more fare classes available (rather than booking flex tickets).

Awards can be booked under the current rules until the end of the year



Information can be found here: http://www.flyingblue.com/news/1397/...l-flights.html

Flying Blue is interested to hear your initial thoughts.

JOUY31 & Gajan

olivedel

Hello guys,

Thanks for the heads-up. I think these changes are in line with the recent changes operated on the short/medium haul market.

However, I am a little bit worried by the "slightly" wording about the increases of Business awards... Slightly already means 25% for the KUL example mentionned in the link you referenced...

Also, big applause for the FB communication team: communicating clearly is always better!

KLflyerRalph

Will there be an increase in upgrade awards too?

Gajan

What we understand is that more classes will be upgradeable. The number of miles required will depend on the booking class.
The higher booking classes will see a reduction of number of miles currently required, the lower booking classes will see an increase in the number of miles compared to current levels.

erik123

Will all business awards go up - or just some? Are there any that will go down?

Oxymore

Thanks for the heads-up! While I enjoy the idea of the actual possibility of upgrade awards without buying full-fare and while the surcharge looks much more reasonnable now, I must say that my usual use of miles was for long-haul business, and 25% raise is a bit of a shock. When I saw "slightly", I expected 10% or so, which I would have happily accepted given the reduction in surcharge. But 25% is brutal. (And also, it means that F awards will be so crazily priced [in comparison with LH/LX for example] that I doubt anyone will ever enjoy them, but maybe that's what they want).
There is also no mention of the 'promo@awards'. I hope they won't be enhanced away, because this gave great value to the Flying Blue program. If they are, then I may actually consider jumping ship for skypesos...
So, all in all, I don't look at it as such good news, until I get a confirmation that promo@awards are here to stay, and until we get full details for the upgrade awards.

NickB

I would not necessarily assume an increase in F award levels, which are already priced at flex levels.
There is:

orbitmic

As usual, Flying Blue tries its very best to stab its most frequent passengers in the back and shows that it only cares about people who fly AF and KL least rather than those who fly AF and KL most.

(1) There is nothing "slight" about a 25% increase in the number of miles required to get the CHEAPEST business class awards which were already the most expensive of any major programme in Europe.

(2) With the introduction of new bands, as has been the case for European flights, most business class awards will in fact increase far more than those 25%.

(3) As always, Flying Blue just sacrifices its really frequent flyers (those who have enough miles to buy Business class awards) in order to improve the life of their less frequent customers (those who will only buy economy awards)

(4) In order to ensure that we do fully understand how much they hate us, they also remove Flying Blue elite awards.

(5) They further stab their frequent flyers in the back by ensuring that our earn/burn ration becomes even further worse than any other Skyteam airline I can think of, including on AF and KL's own flights in the travelling classes that matter.

(6) F awards were already a complete rip off, now it is outright theft.

When you put together (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), and (6). Flying Blue is about as good at keeping the value of our currency as the German government during the Weimar Republic and ensures that it "virtually" spits at the face of every platinum and gold customer they have although at least, this time, they have the honesty of spelling out the insult several months before implementing it, for which I give them credit.

Beyond that, however, they also ensure that they remain significantly worse than M&M and vastly worse than EC and entrench their status as serious contenders for the World's Worst Frequent Flyer Programme. They live in their little world of delusion and do not really deserve the time that we are spending commenting on their decision.

Oxymore

Oh, sorry, I read it on my mobile phone and missed this part. This is good news, provided they keep it at mostly 50% rather than 25% (since raising the number of miles by 25%, then offering a 25% discount wouldn't look right, I guess...)

They increased the F award level if you look at the chart they published.

parisquebec

What are the 8 classes eligible for upgrade?

NickB

Thanks. MY turn to miss things : I had not noticed the chart, just the couple of examples they gave. Now that I have, I fully undertand orbitmic's ire.

Oxymore

And I must say I share that ire. Under new pricing, a premium eco award from Europe to the US is now the price we used to pay for Business! And taxes aren't that lower... So, we pay 100€ less and spend 12,500 more miles per way. I guess it shows how they value their miles.
Now, didn't it seem ridiculous to them at some point when they wrote their figures for F awards? 260,000 miles one way from Paris to Seoul, that's more than half a million miles for a round-trip.

I completely share orbitmic's analysis, when he says that this will mostly impact their high-end customers, the ones that have enough miles to buy Business awards. Do they really prefer customers who will fly with them in discounted Y once in a while and redeem Y once. They seem to be the only ones really benefiting from this new (late) April's fool.

ScotFly2000

On the trip I am currently on I could have flown with BA or EK but chose KL just so I could get the award miles. If I had flown BA I would have had a much better seat. If I had flown with EK I would have had a direct flight on my outbound and the times would have suited me better (home a day earlier).

I feel like I have sacrificed enough chasing my target. Each time I go to London for example I have to fly from EDI, even though it doesn't suit me. Once I have enough miles for the awards I want I think I'll be finished with them. When I'm back to zero again - where's my incentive to start collecting more when they pull a stunt like this?

Business Awards
- No decreases in carrier imposed international surcharge amount (Thanks for appreciating my loyalty)
- Carrier imposed international surcharge now includes connecting European flights (Ah, in fact you want more money?)
- Increase in Miles needed for an award (Yeah because I prefer earning than burning)
- More Classic award availability with varying number of Miles required (meh)
- More Miles upgrade possibilities to Business Class (Already flying in J - how do you think I got enough miles to be upset about the first 2 points)

Goldorak

Please refresh my memory (I'm getting older so getting also confused with FB terminology ) : elite awards were the ones you could book for 20 or 25% more miles, right ?
If yes, this means that the new classic award will correspond to the former elite award level.

Despite this suppression of the elite award, is there still extra inventory for elites/elite+ in the classic award scheme ?

irishguy28

From the FB website:


Elite Award The Elite Award is reserved exclusively for Flying Blue Silver, Gold and Platinum members. This award ticket is available for 115% of the Miles usually required for a Classic Award in the same cabin class. The Elite Award is exclusively available on certain AIR FRANCE long haul flights.*

* Reservations for award tickets can be made based on the availability of specially allocated seats. Please bear in mind that airport and security taxes and carrier imposed international surcharges on long-haul flights are not covered by your Miles and must be paid separately.