tbaiyun

I will be very interested to see how this change will affect:

- accrual on Skyteam partner: will it be something similar to Delta applies to member whose address is in US (in FB case that will be France, or Western Europe) or something similar to Air Canada where you can only get MQD on AC issued tickets

- members from KQ, SB, RO: as we cannot compare the same revenue level, travel pattern for someone who lives in France and for example who lives in Romania or Kenya, this move will probably drive those three companies to leave FB and start their own program? Or should they have a different currency calculation system, using Leu or Shilling?

I think this is a universal problem of AF/KL, they really tend to make things more and more complicated by saying it as simplification...

Stanbury

Fully agree with this point. I am concerned about this re-qualification via segments question in general terms, (as in will they keep that possibility), but also about whether there will be any change in what constitutes a "qualifying flight" -- especially, in my case, domestic flights for overseas residents.

Devil, details, of course. Has there been any official communication from FB (or AF) regarding these changes? Or is that a silly question!

tigertanaka

I am FB Gold & currently sat on 43 FB segments for the year. I am currently putting my travel in the direction of BA in an attempt to reach gold (broadly equivalent of FB Platinum).

Now obviously nothing has been announced (and there will be winners and losers with any change) but I'm now thinking of getting in 17 more segments before the year end to hit FB Platinum (and therefore a soft landing to Gold in 2019 if I ended up needing that).

Sjondorn

So far DL has no problem when in with FB, despite me earning most of my miles from DL flights and then redeem them on AF / KL flights

GUWonder

With DL as the model, expect massive negative award chart changes from the program and expect for the program to be way more about elite status than about award flights. This doesn't mean any general improvement in elite status benefits, rather expect rather less for having paid more.

Meneer Guggenheimer

Me as a Dutch FB are very happy. We pay more for flights and I am Platinum for life!

Ditto

But paying more doesn't necessarily mean you get more miles than before, e.g.:
AMS-CPT-AMS in U give 100% earning today, or ~12K miles (+ elite bonus)
But it "only" costs ~2000€ or ~8K miles if indeed it will be 4 miles per € spent...

GrayAnderson

This is an "interesting" development...particularly from the credit card spending side of things: Right now the EUR/USD exchange rate is hovering at about $1.17/EUR...so if I buy an AF ticket with a CSR card I'm going to get about 3.5 miles per Euro off of the card (which I can then convert to FlyingBlue...or to elsewhere) versus the 4.0 "base" miles for a status-free flyer.

(One thing that stands out: How will mileage earnings be handled through other programs [e.g. DL flights in FlyingBlue or AF flights through SkyPesos]?)

caliform

As it stands via the AFKL Amex I get 2 miles* for every euro spent, so adding Platinum 8X I suppose I would earn 10 miles per euro spent? That's easily 35,000+ per SFO-AMS run, about double of what I get in award miles now.

Fine with me!

* 2 level miles and 2 award miles

Sjondorn

How did you get AFKL Amex in US?

GRUflyer

I believe they could do it.

However, they should increase the multiplier to match those of other airlines.

I would assume, something around 10x would be more appropriate for Platinum than 8.

AA, UA, DL, JJ/LA all offer around that much or more for their elite flyers.....

SkyteamEP

The only requirement is a French bank account for the AF Amex.

ptownca

Which is less difficult than say the UK. I have kept AF Gold 5 years via segments/spend on DL + AF AMEX while living in the US. I was resident in France and still have a house there. You get bonus segments in FB just having the card.

TLDR: Own property in France and an AF AMEX is possible. You do need a minimum income in France though.

Ditto

If you spend 3500€ on an LAX-AMS, even on the cheapest Z fare you still get:
7000 miles from AMEX
~5600 miles in seat * 2 * 125% = 14000 miles
Elite bonus - 11200 miles

This all sums up to ~32K award miles, not sure how you ended up with half of that?

delanotre

referring to this forum, "Deplacements pro" has a last minute view, in french:
http://www.deplacementspros.com/Flyi...ue_a44992.html