Why would I want this if I don't fly enough to earn status? And why would I want this if I have status? The only real benefit is the extra miles but that's extremely unlikely to be worth the pricetag.

And of course I expect that the additional promo rewards for FB Extra members will mean that the last remaining decent promo offers will be removed for those who don't subscribe to this nonsense.

I'm only in the loyalty game for status, not for miles, but I wish FB was more focused on being loyalty program that cares about AFKL's passengers and less focused on the credit cards and other upsell crap.

even 10% on reward bookings is limited to two tickets

Interesting that the Flying Blue Extra T&Cs have been in force since April, although the programme was only launched in November!

Also interesting is the locations where the 2 or 4 lounge access vouchers may be redeeed:

Yeah, this leaves me confused about whom it is aimed at. Some things here that jump out to me are:

• 10 extra miles per 10 EUR spent. Even that seems like a pretty poor additional multiplier given that Plat is 8x and Ulti is 9x, so we just get a boost of 1 mile more.
• Exclusive promo rewards. This is potentially problematic. I can see promo awards for non-subscribers starting to disappear over time.
• 10% Discounts on upgrades and reward tickets are pretty paltry, and limiting it to just two reward tickets makes it quite poor.
• 20% extra XP could be interesting to som people I guess? But if you manage to get status anyway, does this make sense, and spending 699 to do that? Seems odd. Also, is it just XP or UXP as well since the 20% boost only applies to AFKL flights?

EDIT: I'd love to see what these exclusive promo rewards are actually like. Does anyone know if they are already live? I'm somewhat tempted to sign up just to take a look, but I have no idea how one would use the right to withdrawal in that case. Nvm, it appears the contact us page has to be used to exercise the right of withdrawal.

To be honest, I think if it's going to be problematic, it will be for those that buy these packages.
Who's to know how many "exclusive" promo rewards will be available?
I wouldn't be surprised if it is just one or two additional destinations to otherwise unattractive destinations, i.e. places that are struggling with loads.

(Having one or two additional Promo offers to second or third-string regional cities in the AF/KL European network would fulfill the description of this "perk", but are unlikely to set your pulse racing)


Tbh, I think this is the only useful feature, and then only for a motivated flyer who knows what they are doing and who is attempting to climb through the status levels A.S.A.P in a single year. If you can fly a lot, and stick to AF/KL, it's a handy booster that will assist you in gaining status.

And it's only for XPs, of course. UXPs only come into play if you're Platinum, and you'd be crazy to be a Platinum and pay for either of these packages. The T&Cs also only mention XPs.

This is exactly my feeling. Especially since they don't openly advertise what these are. If they truly wanted to make this an attractive exclusive club that people would want to join, then they need to really start throwing some great promos exclusive to this program and announce them openly. Otherwise, it's really not enticing.

Agreed. As Plat, and even Gold, it barely makes sense. Perhaps if you need the boost to get to Gold, it might make sense. Of course, if UXPs were in play, €699 seems to be good value to reduce 20% earning requirements. Basically 750 UXP would get you 900 UXP, for a €699 spend, i.e. 150 UXP for €699, which is great value and exactly why UXPs won't figure there (I hope).

EDIT: Btw, if the 10% discount on reward tickets was for every redemption I make. I'd potentially consider buying in.

Agreed, all seems extremely minimal.
Better off with a miles subscription if you'd want miles & buying SAF if you'd want to boost status or donating miles.
Was kinda excited for the prospect but this is just not it.

Would have been happier to see Abonnements extended to KL, SAF bundles (e.g. x % per flights incl. XP), etc.
As for cash discounts; Something like Iberia/Santander might even be more worthwile.

All in all, fairly confusing product.

Also notablel; on quite a few routes, especially intra-europe, FB miles prices are simply not competitve.
E.g. Iberia is frequently for 8k or now even 4.550k economy or less than 12k EuroBusiness.
Same with other flights and destinations.
If anything, things like this only incentivize me more towards non-branded Amex/Rev. Especially when looking at this combined with the French Amex changes.

EditL just did the calculus. If the main motivator would be the XP, then 700.- SAF = approx 70 xp.
For 70 xp as the 20% bonus, you'd need to fly 350 xp regardless.

So this what we are getting for the additional 156 € annually on the french AMEX AFKLM card, they give us the the Flying blue extra essential package. A big disappointment... In summary I am only getting half a mile more per 1€ spent on AFKLM because the other benefits are really of no use for a platinum member... exclusive promo rewards is for sure not gonna be that interesting (hoping to be surprised), 10% discount on upgrades before check-in opens, these advance upgrades are rarely available...I don't remember the last time I found availability and usually if I want to fly J I will try booking it since the start.

This truly feels like something that is built to be marketed as an add-on to credit card programs, rather than something for most sensible end-customers.

Of course, we could all be wrong, and FB might decide to overhaul the benefits of each status so much that the subscription will suddenly look very attractive. �\_(ツ)_/�

As expected, this is hardly an attractive option for status holders. It also doesn’t compensate for the lost benefits or the increased annual fees resulting from the “enhancements” to the co-branded Amex cards.

I'm not sure what you mean there, and not sure why SAF is mentioned. The T&Cs are unclear but I am assuming the 20% applies only to XPs earned on flights, and not to XPs earned from SAF donations - but I could be wrong. Safer to assume the worst, if you are actually considering paying for these options, in the absence of any clearer indication

Considering earning XPs only from flights, and ensuring you could do all the flying mentioned below exclusively on AF and KL during the 12-month period for which your Extra subscription is active, you would be able to:

• Get from Explorer to Silver for 83XP (83.3333*1.2=100); a "discount" of 17XP - (note: rounding here down to the nearest number, which is not exact)
• Get from Silver to Gold for 150XP (150*1.2=180); a "discount" of 30XP
• Get from Gold to Platinum for 250XP (250*1.2=300); a "discount" of 50XP

• Get from Explorer to Gold for 83XP+150XP = 233XP ; a "discount" of 47XP
• Get from Explorer to Platinum for 83+150+250 = 483XP; a "discount" of 97XP
• Get from Silver to Platinum for 150+250 = 400XP; a "discount" of 80XP

(I've not done calculations for getting to Ultimate - because you don't get a 20% bonus on UXPs)

Of course, if you were looking to get to status ASAP you would also most likely buy SAF for those additional XPs (to which the 20% does not apply); the more you're willing to "invest" in SAF, the quicker and easier you can get to status, which further erodes the "usefulness" of the 20% bonus on flight XPs)

Getting what is in effect a maximum of 97XP (the "discount" when going all the way from Explorer to Platinum) for €699 may be considered worthwhile (but you'd likely be able to amass more than that number of XPs by judicious purchase of XPs via SAF donations). If, however, you only manage to fly enough to get, say, from Explorer to Silver - for a "discount" of a paltry 17XP - you have really, really paid well over the odds for this package.....

Actually, it works out a little better than in my previous post.

Because they say in the T&Cs that "Additional XP will be rounded up to the nearest whole number", and because so many of the XP values are not whole numbers when increased by 20%, 9 of the entries in the 16-entry XP earning table are rounded upwards.

Here is the XP earning table, with the values increased by 20% shown in red. For those that are not whole numbers, I have rounded these up to the nearest whole number, shown in green.

Domestic Economy flights end up with a 50% earning bonus - 2XP goes to 3XP (rather than to 2.4 XP) - with smaller additional bonuses above the nominal 20% for the other green figures

irishguy

I meant that if you would buy 700.- Euro worth of SAF, you'd get around 70 xp.
If you would pay for Extra, you would need to fly at least 350XP worth of flights to get that same 70 XP extra (simply did 350*0.2).

My point in that was that if you'd want to speed up requalifying, it would seem that flying less but adding SAF might be more interesting than the 20% extra xp when needing to requalify.
Let's say the goal is 300xp.
300/120*100= 250 (+ 50 xp bonus)
Alternatively when buying SAF, you only need 230XP (+70 xp via SAF).

I do agree that this is by far the most interesting aspect of the deal, Especially when you know you'll be flying enough regardless or are aiming for Ultimate, but it is not necessarily as interesting if the goal is Platinum or lower.
Am weary of the promos, and even more so as to what it means to the current promos

Just would have hoped that Extra would be something that would be genuinely interesting for most types of customers. E.g. different 'packages' for Explorer, Silver, Gold/Plat or an evolution of the abonnements which AF has.
Lounge access on arrival would be more interesting for Gold/Plat, whereas lounge access in general is a tangible benefit for explorer/silver.
Upgrade vouchers for Plat, free normal seat selection for explorer etc.
Low season fares/jokers for award flights etc (although that would be nice to have more with status)

You really have to fall into a very specific sweet spot as a Platinum for this to make sense. I currently have around 350 XP worth of flights booked for the coming months. On paper it looks interesting because it gives you 70 XP in this scenario, which is basically the same value you�d get if you bought that XP through SAF.

But the new 600 XP cap kills the deal for me instantly.

My Platinum renewal was last month and I�m already at 102 XP. I�ll add another 90 XP soon from non-AFKLM flights. That alone puts me right up against the cap. So the extra XP from this program becomes useless without a UXP.

I can see the value for Platinums who barely hit the threshold each year. For everyone else it escalates too fast. Introducing a cap and an XP accelerator in the same year feels contradictory.

Great recap, you can just round up all of the partial XPs - Terms and Conditions are mentioning that.