Flying Blue FAQ
 

Now that Flying Blue is upon us, I thought it would be appropriate to have an official thread with official information (no heresay please) on the new program that will help us all with the transition.

If possible, please try to keep such information here rather than in a new thread.

Thanks,

Derek
AF Moderator

I take the hint :)

This document may help those looking for information about AF/KLM loyalty
program, as not all information is in the same place. It is not
complete yet and may be inaccurate. Please PM me with suggestion to improve this FAQ.

As there have been several differences between the published benefits and the witnessed benefits by FT members, here is the colour code I adopted. In black in UNCONFIRMED information, published on KLM or AF websites. In green is information confirmed on this board by a FT member. In red are benefits either not available at all or often denied, according to FTers' reports.

1. Program levels


FB has 4 levels:

• Ivory, the basic entry level.
• Silver, reached at 30,000 status miles for France-based members, and 25,000 for others, or 15 qualifying segments.
• Gold level, reached at 60,000 status miles for French-based members, and 40,000 for others, or 30 qualifying segments.
• Platinum level, reached at 90,000 for France-based members and 70,000 for others, or 60 qualifying segments.

Segment are qualifying unless you live in France, in which case French domestic flights are excluded.

2. Elite benefits

A. Ivory members

None. What did you think?

B. Silver members

• Elite bonus of 50% of mileage flown
• Dedicated phone line
• Guaranteed seating in international flights booked 7 days in advance in full fare economy, on business days.
• Priority seating
• Priority boarding
• Priority on waitlist
• 5 kg of extra luggage
• Access to dedicated check-in counters where available
• Skyteam Elite status
• Extra inventory when booking awards (X for Ivory, X and W for elites)

C. Gold members

Same benefits as above, plus:

• Skyteam Elite Plus status except for US-based members, who are Elite ST, but treated as Gold members on AF/KLM flights/hub
• The elite bonus is 75%
• The guaranteed seat can be booked 24h in advance
• The extra luggage allowance is 10 kg
• Priority luggage delivery
• Access to lounges with one guest when flying a Skyteam flight
  Free Internet access in lounges has been denied so far at AMS.

D. Platinum members

Same benefits as above, plus:

• Everyone is now a ST Elite Plus
• The elite bonus is 100%
• The extra luggage allowance is 20 kg
• Status miles are reported on the next year if you earn more than 115,000 in a year, or 150,000 if you're based in France
• Holding Platinum status for 10 years earn a lifetime Platinum status.

The two last levels also gives various upgrades with hotel chains (good if available), and "free membership" with their loyalty programs (most of which are free or given to anyone who cares to join). Interesting to note:

• Upgrade at Sofitel, Radisson, NH
• [color=red]Intercontinental Ambassador (~ 150 dollars value)[color=red]
• Meridien Moments Gold
• 15% rebate at Hertz, with upgrade if avalaible
• Upgrade at Sixt if available

Note that at the moment, ICC is denying this benefit, and Meridien Moments is not telling. Error on their part or false advertising on FB's part, who knows, maybe it will be sorted soon...


2. How to get status miles?

Flying AF/KLM, Skyteam members and Kenya Airways give status miles, depending on distance flown and class of service. Flying other partners only gives miles counting toward award redemption but not status.


You also get status miles when paying with the AF American Express card, which must be linked, so far, with an Euro account based in France. The rate is 1.4 mile per euro spent with AF/KLM (including servair (duty free both onboard and in airports), as far as I could compute) and 1 mile per euro elsewhere.

Finally, you get 2,500 status miles when subscribing to an Abonnement card with AF, and 5,000 status miles when resubscribing. This card gives discount on full-fare domestic tickets in France, or discount on tickets on the COI (Carribean and Indian Ocean) AF routes, or both (in which case you get both miles).

3. Mileage earning with AF

A. Domestic short-haul flights

1,000 status miles in Y (full-fare economy and Abonnement)
500 status miles in W, E, A (discounted economy)
250 status miles in other fare codes.
N fare is reported not to get miles. X was reported as well, but it's not a published fare, it's an award fare...

B. European flights

The minimum mileage is 750 miles per segment. COS bonus is applied after the minimum mileage

According to the AF charts, you get 100% of mileage flown in any Economy fare, and 200% in Tempo Challenge (premium economy) and Affaires (Business), irrespective of the fare. Contradictory information have been presented, and confirmed by FTers based on actual credits, that you earn only 25% in N, and 50% in G and U. This information is still unconfirmed at this time.

C. Long-haul flights

Same as European flights, except the earnings are 150% for Alize (premium Economy on COI routes) and Affaires, and 300% in Première (First).

4. Mileage earning with other Skyteam members

The minimum mileage is 750. Usually, you earn 100% in Economy and 150% in Business, with the following exceptions:

• Aeromexico U and M fares are excluded, and travel from July 15th to August 15th, and December 15th to January 15th
• Continental E, EG, P, G, M and YN fares are excluded
• Alitalia gives a flat eanring of 500 miles in Economy and 1,000 in Business class for domestic flights. U and Z class are excluded, as well as flight AZ900-950 and AZ3xxx and AZ6xxx
• CSA E, Z, S, I, U, W and G fares are excluded
• DL N, O and R fares are excluded
• NW and Kenya Airways D and W fares are excluded, V only earns 25%, and free upgrades for elites
• KE gives 150% for First class, according to AF's website, and 300% according to KLM's. Mileage is restricted to First and Business class, and Z, W, Y and S economy fares. Exclusion dates of the Morning Calm program are applicable to mileage accrual in FB.

5. Mileage earning with airlines partners

The AF charts says that some fares may not be eligible for mileage earnings with partners. In any case, it's not status miles.

The standard rule is 100% in Economy, 150% for Business, and a minimum of 750 miles. This applies to:

• Air Alps, except that W, N, G and V fares are excluded
• Air Europa only in C, D, R, Y, M, B, K, W, X, O, U, V fares
• Air Calin, except between Wallis and Futuna
• Alaska Airlines
• Comair, except you only earn on South African domestic routes and X and U fares are excluded
• Horizon Air
• Avianca
• China Southern, except between France and China, and only in A, C, D, F, Y and W fares
• City Jet, except you only earn between Dublin and Malaga
• Global Pass
• Jet Airways for domestic flights, except between Jodhpur and Delhi and only in A, C, G, I, L, M, P, Q, S, T, U, V, Y, Z fares.
• Kenya Airways, except your miles are status miles
• Malaysian Airlines, except you also earn 300% in First, and you can earn only in A, B, C, D, F, H, K, M, Q, and Y fares. There are black-out dates, and you can't earn between Tawau and Tarakan, on domestic flights, and between Kuala Lumpur and France, Switzerland and Italy... an incentive to promote AMS, I suppose :(
• Malev, except on V and Z fares
• Maersk, except you only earn between Paris, Amsterdam, Aalborg and Billund, and not in I, R, X and N fares
• MEA
• TAAG, except you only gain miles between Paris and Luanda, and you earn 300% in First
• TAM, except you earn 200% in First, or 300% according to KLM website
• Ukraine International, except in A, E, G, I, O, U and X fares
• JAL offers conflicting information. 70% in Economy according to AF, 70% in Eco, 150% in Business and 300% in F according to KLM. I suppose AF only lacked the information about the front of the plane. There are a complex list of excluded dates, though, Caveat emptor! I guessed it's related to holidays in Asia...

The exceptions are the following airlines:

• Airlinair and Twin Jet, who offers set amounts of miles and operates only a few lines
• CCM, who'll probably use the same chart as AF's for domestic flights and fares based on what was done previously. To be confirmed.

7. Other earning opportunities.

8. Award redemption


Too bad, too much work, but I'll get back to updating the FAQ soon.

Elite Benefit:

[*]Extra inventory when booking awards

My cursory checking of award itins didn't seem to reflect this extra inventory...unless you count 'Open Skies' inventory (groan!)

Mileage earning with other Skyteam members

The minimum mileage is 750. Usually, you earn 100% in Economy and 150% in Business, with the following exceptions:

.[*]KE gives 150% for First class

Why is KE F COS bonus only 50% when AF is 200% and even non-ST partner MH is 200%

Is minimum mileage per segment or per one way?

• Malaysian Airlines - except you can neither earn nor burn on domestic routes, between Tawau and Tarakan or between M'sia and France/Italy/Switzerland
• Malev - except you can neither earn nor burn between Paris and Budapest
• TAM - klm.com says you earn 300% in First, not 200
• Ukraine International - except you can only earn and burn between Amsterdam and Kiev

Oh, and you forgot JAL

Richelieu - you are my man in the mix. Thanks for once again providing us with some great information and super starting point. :)

What the moderator said! ^

Ivory are booked in X, elites in X and W. It's the same as it was for F+, and it was confirmed by flyaircanada and by the very nice lady I spoke to today at FB about several questions I had. Plus, it was never infirmed in any published source (though inventory benefit is kept unpublished, even at the time of F+)

Who knows? Note that KLM's website states 300%, so it may be a blunder.

Per segment, as with F+.

Bad news for Malaysia Airline fans...
You cannot book awards for flights to and from Italy, France and Switzerland. AF and KLM are protecting their market.

For my economy class MIL-LON flight I was expecting 750 miles plus 750 bonus miles as Platinum...
I got

• 1000 miles (level miles but the old KLM distance was only 595)
• 500 gift miles
• 500 bonus miles

AZ900-950 no such numbers on Alitalia schedule

AZ3xxx : AF, DL, KL operated flights !!!!

AZ6xxx : no such numbers on Alitalia schedule

Example
HAM-AMS-MIL all KLM planes
AZ3837+AZ7719
nothing the first / level miles and bonus and ... the second ?

Some precisions according to information found in Amadeus
 

Amadeus page: GGAIRAF 2FBLUE broacasted to all the Travel Industry

0 status miles in N, X

Some booking class give less than 100% miles
G, U ==> 50%
N ==> 25%

Less than 100% for some booking class
G, U ==> 50%
L ==> 25%

Yes, it has been quoted before, esp. by flyaircanada, but AF is still maintaining that these are the official earnings, and that no fare doesn't give miles for domestic flights. I am waiting for direct observation (and I am sure we'll see some soon, to figure out for the FAQ. Especially since Volvic's flight gave a strange result...

I got my first FB miles yesterday as Gold, on a typical european route (ORY-LCY in C, operated by CityJet, booked under AF flight number).

• 1,500 miles for the ORY-LCY segment, posted on a single line
• no separate COS bonus (included in the 1,500)
• 562 FB Gold bonus (I was actually expecting 563 :D )

Everything is OK here but the FB Gold bonus is not that sexy. It turns out to look like a 37.5% bonus :(. I was expecting:

• 750 miles
• 750 COS bonus (=100% status miles)
• 562 FB Gold bonus (75% of 750)

Falco Peregrinus, I saw an other posting on my FB account.

• 750 miles
• 750 special club bonus (=100% status miles)
• 563 special club bonus (75% of 750)

It was in Economy so I undestand the first 750 miles,
I'm Plat, so I understant the second 750 miles (100% bonus)
But why did I got 563 miles ?
If Gold is included in Platinum ( :confused: ), I want also the Silver bonus ! :D

:D ^

I did a domestic flight this Monday in France and got something similar
500 qualifing miles
500 qualifing miles for full fare abonné
500 miles special club bonus (used to be 250 as rouge)
375 miles (75% of 500)???

My ticket was purchase prior to the FB official start up. My ticked also had the mention Gold on it whereas it should have been Platinum. I pretty sure it link to ticket purchased prior to the official launch of FB and a mix up in the system between former rouge and new gold/platinum