Much speculated, more information can be found here:
https://www.afkl.biz/trade/s/news-de..._NL&country=NL

And in English:
https://www.afkl.biz/trade/s/news-de...934&country=NL

Alright, so long story short, out of the two rumors:

No more hand luggage = was true
No more XP = was not true

....hopefully?!

Premium experience indeed; we Flyertalkers saw it coming !

At least they admit in the press release, that some people are bringing too much stuff � bord which leads to delayed d�parts and slow embarquement, � la am�ricaine. I wonder why they decided to just "test" it on some destinations first ? Furthermore, this will only slightly alleviate the problem, as passengers with too large/many carry-ons en correspondance from non-affected flights will still cause the same issues, feels like unfairly penalising passengers originating from certain destinations.

I tried a bunch of dates from the routes they say this would be available on, but no basic fare was offered even after 9 September 2025. Perhaps still takes time to load the data up.

I see a fare now (but only on the AF website for now):

No XP is true. See below:


The no XP makes it clear this was not really about saving on-board space. Well, this will push the Ulti chasing crowd to buy the Light fare at the least, but I can see PFLs going to the Basic fare. It's also odd that you can now earn XP on Transavia, but take a flight on AF/KL without earning XP. That is kind of shameful.

On another note, the same flight shows up as 105 EUR on KLM in light, and 95 EUR on AF. So maybe, at least for now, the light fare is actually cheaper?

This might all soon change again! https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2...uropean-travel

Hopefully (if the management has any sense, which, is not always a given) they looked at the destinations where potentially a largest time saving could apply, i.e. the destinations where there is a lot of non-status pax flying HBO. With that goal, it seems like the selection of destinations is reasonable based on my experience of the KLM flights to such.

I have taken a sample of PRG.

The week before the change goes into effect, I can get a long weekend ticket for ~170 eur in Light. It's a G fare, fare component is 51 EUR.
Two weeks later, on the same days of week, G fare is available in Basic for ~160 eur, of that 40 EUR being the fare. Light goes up to ~200 EUR, of that 80 being the fare.
No mention of any difference in XP or miles earning.

So a very slight decrease if you are able to make use of the Basic fare, but a significant increase if you want to stay with Light. For status pax, Basic and Light are in practice equivalent.
My expectation is, that AFKL hopes that leisure pax will look at the decision between paying for a carryon and paying for a checked bag, and will go for a checked bag, especially if they can get larger groups like families to go from 3-5 carryons to 1-2 checked bags, it's a big win for overhead space.

Nope.... take a good look at the news and see the size of the 1 small bag included...

In fact I am pretty sure that this regulation proposal was the catalyst that started the whole thing in AFKL.

Oh bollocks. That does not show on mobile (I wonder what would happen if I demanded to be given my XP based on the fact that I was never told I would not get them).

Considering light will go up by 30 EUR in my case, this is a real bad value now for me to keep to FB. Switching over to EB seems like a smart decision from where I am sitting (as long as that lasts)

See my screenshot above. There are no XP to be had from Basic fares. So for those chasing status, this fare is definitely not a useful one. Mileage earning remains the same as before.

Nvm. You saw. :-)

Ouch! That is a very steep increase. A 10 EUR increase per direction is something I'd even call ok. But this would quickly change the value by a lot.

I still can't believe that Transavia will earn XP but AF/KL will have fares with no XP.

Not true, the text clearly says: Under the new rule, travellers would be allowed to bring one cabin bag measuring up to 100cm on board their flight, as well as an under-the-seat personal item with a maximum size of 40x30x15cm at no additional cost.

So it's a price increase. Fine .

I'm sorry but I don't understand the reasoning. I'm not quite the expert on how strong the LCCs are in the markets (FRA has none), but wouldn't cost-oriented leisure flyers continue to fly those LCCs anyway ? Easyjet even allows changes with a fee, something neither the AF/KLM Light nor Basic fare within Europe offer. It's not like AF or KLM are really undercutting the LCCs like U2 or FR as far as I know with these basic fares. So you have a product offering that is as poor, or slightly poorer than the LCCs at a price that is about the same. So what's the appeal ?

Yeah, I did not obviously check multiple options, but considering that the differences between classes stay fixed in medium-haul eco normally (and indeed standard remains Light +30 and Flex remains Standard +60), I expect same to be true in all cases - Light will become Basic + 40. All this for a simple return on non-stop direct flights.

Combine +40 for light with the base fare going down by 10, the cheapest XP earning ticket went from 170 to 200.

All this while I can get the cheapest fare class on Transavia, on a good day for barely more than just the difference between Basic and Light, and still earn XP... not a good showing.

I thought I'll be topping up my miles for a bit longer but I think instead it's time to get rid of them. I am travelling a lot less than I used to, but even when I did more, I still got at least half of my XP from Eco Light hops around Europe. Between miserly revenue based mileage earning and now no XP, there is no more place for me in the fold.

Frankly, as critical as I am about many aspects of flying in the US, this is one of the things they do better, both airlines and passengers: strict application of boarding groups, without merging them all in one. Passengers have understood the system, and most respect it (those that don't often get sent back, and AA now even has a system where the gate BP scanner makes a loud noise if a pax tries to cheat). Also, they are typically much more disciplined when it comes to the number of pieces of carry-on, many planes have the new cabins where carry-on suitcases are put in vertically and people do it. All that is much much messier in Europe - please give me US style boarding any day.

What, France has no LCC?? easyjet is very big, Ryanair not small either, nor is Volotea. And there is Air France's own LCC, Transavia. France is full of LCCs, and AF has stopped serving many routes because of that.

I would love to know how this is being measured: "With this test, Air France and KLM aim to investigate if bringing less baggage on board will positively contribute to a better travel experience."