Extra XP for CO2-offset and donations
 

The measure announced earlier this year of extra XP for offsetting carbon emissions has now gone live, with info here: https://www.flyingblue.com/en/news/sustainability

• As of 9 March 2022, your donations to charities that support causes, such as providing quality education, preserving sea life or reducing poverty, are rewarded with XP.
• Via Air France’s Trip and Tree and KLM’s CO2ZERO programmes, you can already use your Miles to participate in reforestation projects. Starting from 9 June 2022, you will also be rewarded with XP.
• Starting from 9 June 2022, it will also be possible for you to gain XP when you choose to purchase Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) to help Air France and KLM achieve a better energy mix, reduce their CO2 footprint and get closer to their decarbonation targets.

"We are pleased to let you know that participating in sustainable actions with Flying Blue will get you 1 XP for every 2,000 Miles spent*. On top of Miles, your contributions to reforestation projects or to the purchase of Sustainable Aviation Fuel can also be made with cash while being rewarded with XP as well."

For now I don't see how many XP you get for the cash options.

Hmm, would be perfect if I could also claim XP for CO2 reduction donations I am doing somewhere else :)
If the XP for Cash on CO2-off comes through, it will be the way to buy status though if they offer options which are not tied in to actually buying a ticket (and compensating that CO2). Not sure if this will be appreciated by frequent flyer customers.

That would be an interesting thing, provided there is a partnership and a verifiable link.

I have asked about the XP for Cash option and also tried myself on a booking, paid 21 euros for the SAF+Reforestation option. For now nothing happened, no change in the XP estimation of the trip nor any crediting, so let's see. In theory it should give XP for both SAF and Reforestation based on what is written on the FB website. And again in theory it might be something like 1 XP for around 10 euros spent (a rough approximation of 2000 miles based on their calculation).

I also donated 2000 miles to a charity and got immediately 1 XP credited to my account, so that works well (plus it has a dynamic calculator that tells you how many XP you gain based on how much you want to donate).

From the Flying Blue XP page
Donating for one XP comes at the 10€ / XP rate.

Furthermore, French tax payers can deduct the donation from their income. (66% of the donation)
Meaning the "price" of the XP comes down to 3.4€ / XP, which is even better than any XP run.

I have an annual payment plan for the CO2-reducing charity organisation of my choice to kind of lump-sum cover my travel CO2. If that could be converted to XP at 10€ to 1, it would be a nice addition on the journey to PTFL. And such donations are also tax relevant in Germany, feels like double dipping (and don't we love it).

One wonders, what with all the indulgence-selling, if some fellow named Martin will stick 95 theses to a door in Tremblay :D

I hope not, as a good Catholic I prefer to cleanse my soul clean with cash, wash away all my travel related sins, so I can fly premium class all until the afterlife begins (and be granted lounge access there)

Don't forget the Skypriority coupe-file /shorter queue.

The miles option is somewhat less interesting as 2K miles typically is considered to be worth more than 10 euros. At 33 euro for 4XP that is just over 8 euro's per XP and the cheapest one. Of course, if you can deduct these from your taxes that will make it a lot better. But that will depend greatly on the tax rules which obviously will differ.

So I've set up an example XP run AMS-BLQ. Outbound via CDG, return direct.

So that would be 15XP in Eco. At 290 EUR or thereabouts for an arbitrary date but probably doable for under 200. in Biz, 60 for 565.

Unfortunately, KLM does not give details in the CO2 options, only says whether you earn XP.

The four options and their presumed earnings go like this:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...609ea307f4.png

At 10 eur per XP, it's not super great value but good enough, considering you don't have to actually travel and spend time and accrue additional costs.

I will probably be taking advantage a couple times a year to give me buffer. If how the current situation is any indication, I need not be looking forward to a large amount of company travel, as I was 2.5 years ago. Consequently if I am to earn Gold, I am comparatively cash rich but time poor. Oftentimes, the answer would have been J class, but this is more flexible.

So the KG of CO2 is based on the route and class of service. The price of the underlying ticket does not really matter it looks like. This also means that, in order to make this most efficient, you will need to find a flight that in distance results in a fee closest to the 10/19/33/469 euro figure. Not expecting them to do fractions/rounding...

Playing around with some routes these are actually quite high thresholds. Long European flights don't really qualify at all, not reaching the minimum amounts quoted.

You will need a ticket to be able to buy the compensation, right? Question is, what happens if you don't fly that ticket - will they also refund the compensation (and potentially remove the XP from your account if those are credited at purchase)?

Yes, you have to have a ticket. I expect if you don't fly it you forfeit all XP. Either way it would be a losing value proposition. You can't buy an intra-eu return for under 140 EUR anymore I don't think. The only way would be to not refund the CO2 compensation and keep the XP which I don't think will happen.

Interestingly, on short flights like AMS-DUS, the cheapest option that claims to earn XP is 1.72. That would be fun to check.

Not sure whether it has already been said but this only applies to regular XP, no UXP winable by this means...

The Lufthansa deal in Q1 (?) was better tbh.

I think overall it’s quite a balanced approach. It gives an incentive to offset carbon emissions through gamification, but it also doesn’t keep the door open for abuse. Overall you get a small but in time important XP bonus while also donating to some environmental projects, which is a win-win.

At least the Air France charity “A Tree for Life” looks quite solid in its approach, for KLM I didn’t do too much research. For SAF I’m more conflicted, it’s a form of dumping costs on us, but at least for now it’s voluntary, later on it might be directly embedded in the flight price more and more. And the XP sort of compensates that in a way, otherwise it would feel like donating money to a corporation.