Percentage of Status holders on KLM/AirFrance flights
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2021
Posts: 94
Percentage of Status holders on KLM/AirFrance flights
Long time lurker, first time poster. Thank you all for the insights and advice that Ive found invaluable over the years.
Question (which Im sure isnt simple to answer): What percentage of passengers on a KLM or AirFrance typically would be expected to be status holders (also curious of the split between platinum ultimate, platinum FL, platinum, gold and silver). I realise this must vary hugely depending on the routes but I wonder if theres a rough estimate on long v short haul, standard business routes (AMS-LCY etc). Perhaps this is a ridiculous question to post but Ive often wondered about it.
TL;DR: How many flying blue status holders would you expect per KLM or AF flight?
Question (which Im sure isnt simple to answer): What percentage of passengers on a KLM or AirFrance typically would be expected to be status holders (also curious of the split between platinum ultimate, platinum FL, platinum, gold and silver). I realise this must vary hugely depending on the routes but I wonder if theres a rough estimate on long v short haul, standard business routes (AMS-LCY etc). Perhaps this is a ridiculous question to post but Ive often wondered about it.
TL;DR: How many flying blue status holders would you expect per KLM or AF flight?
#3
Join Date: May 2009
Location: AMS
Posts: 2,069
Anecdotally, from having seen the lines where silver is separated out from skypriority (as opposed to being asked to queue after SP but in the same lane, which is never done): silver seems to be a surprisingly small group.
#4
Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 775
I think most Silver status holders aren't aware of their benefits. My colleagues at work are only aware once they hit Gold.
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 14,352
I doubt you will get an accurate answer here, or anywhere else.
Here's one single data point: a month or so ago I wrote to KLM to point out that having to wait 45 minutes in the single SkyPriority check-in line was a bit excessive. They responded that they had checked with the station manager, who said that they had opened just one priority desk because there were only 19 status pax booked on the flight (738, so 189 seats and it went out nearly full). That comes to a bit over 10%, but out of those, some of the pax traveling in J may not have had any frequent flyer status whatsoever, and others may have been members of various other SkyTeam programs.
Johan
Here's one single data point: a month or so ago I wrote to KLM to point out that having to wait 45 minutes in the single SkyPriority check-in line was a bit excessive. They responded that they had checked with the station manager, who said that they had opened just one priority desk because there were only 19 status pax booked on the flight (738, so 189 seats and it went out nearly full). That comes to a bit over 10%, but out of those, some of the pax traveling in J may not have had any frequent flyer status whatsoever, and others may have been members of various other SkyTeam programs.
Johan
#6
Join Date: Nov 2008
Programs: Flying Blue, Diamond Club
Posts: 788
It costs nothing to ask a cabin crew to check the number in their Ipad of a said flight.
#7
Join Date: May 2015
Location: RBA / TBS
Programs: AF Gold / A3 Gold / Accor Gold / Hilton Gold / TP Silver
Posts: 2,787
Definitely AFKL has such data , about all skyteam FFP members who entered their ID in the booking , however i (and maybe others here) dont know what they do with these information , we would need an insider source
Two ways you can guess/estimate by yourself the number of elite/elite plus pax in a flight
.
Otherwise i've seen such information many times , when i board early and discuss with the purser , to ask
.
Two ways you can guess/estimate by yourself the number of elite/elite plus pax in a flight
.
- those who are in KL SP queues but are not seated in J
- those who are in AF boarding group number 2 or 3
Otherwise i've seen such information many times , when i board early and discuss with the purser , to ask
.
- if emergency seat will be free
- if seat near mine will be free
- how much for last minute upgrade to Y+ , PE , or J
Last edited by fifty_two; Oct 1, 2021 at 4:42 am
#8
Join Date: Jun 2020
Programs: FlyingBlue
Posts: 2,473
Definitely AFKL has such data , about all skyteam FFP members who entered their ID in the booking , however i (and maybe others here) dont know what they do with these information , we would need an insider source
Two ways you can guess/estimate by yourself the number of elite/elite plus pax in a flight
.
Otherwise i've seen such information many times , when i board early and discuss with the purser , to ask
.
Two ways you can guess/estimate by yourself the number of elite/elite plus pax in a flight
.
- those who are in KL SP queues but are not seated in J
- those who are in AF boarding group number 2 or 3
Otherwise i've seen such information many times , when i board early and discuss with the purser , to ask
.
- if emergency seat will be free
- if seat near mine will be free
- how much for last minute upgrade to Y+ , PE , or J
They are human, usually very work-centered, and happy to share anything about their industry. No need to trick them or peek over their shoulders, genuine interest is usually enough.
A data point: this is a question I asked from time to time over years. On short hauls, Gold+Plat was between 5-10% of cabins. That shouldnt have changed much if SP lanes lengths are to be trusted.
#9
Join Date: Sep 2014
Programs: Flying Blue Plat, Air Europa Silver, IHG Plat, Accor Plat
Posts: 1,011
A number I have heard from a KLM purser is 4% of the passengers, providing 25% of revenue. Not sure how accurate that is, or who is included in the 4%. I imagine they meant Elite Plus.
#11
Join Date: Jun 2020
Programs: FlyingBlue
Posts: 2,473
That sounds about right. The average FF spending around 10x as much as random flyers must be the right order of magnitude
#12
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: CW
Programs: Marriott titanium, KL/AF FB Ulti
Posts: 651
I asked the purser on board AMS-NCE a couple of days, ago, she came back with the number of 97 status pax on a 737-800 (186 seats). I told her that would be quite a lot, she came back later to clarify that she could only see the total number of "FF", meaning anyone enrolled in the frequent flyer program (she didn't know if that was only Flying Blue or also SkyTeam partners). She manually went through the pax list afterwards and estimated some 20+ Flying Blue / SkyTeam elite or higher members on board. Just one data point of course.
#13
Join Date: May 2015
Location: RBA / TBS
Programs: AF Gold / A3 Gold / Accor Gold / Hilton Gold / TP Silver
Posts: 2,787
#15
Suspended
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 123
Let me start by trying to explain when and where the general public gets to see loyalty statistics.
1.) Some airline loyalty programs are or were run as separate businesses. So they filed their own financial statements/annual reports and such. In it, they published things like the number of elites, how much they fly and so on. As an example, LH M&M used to be run as an independent entity until 8 or 10 years ago.
2.) Sometimes airline loyalty programs are put up for sale. Detailed statistics are usually published to convey the value of the program to potential buyers.
3.) In bad economic times, some airlines put up their loyalty program as collateral. In doing so, they have to disclose details about the program. This happened last year with AA, UA, and DL.
4.) On occasion, airline's top management elects to share details about their loyalty programme with the public. Could be during an investor conference call or during a loyalty conference.
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Without any proof or citations, I believe when such numbers are leaked, they are much, much higher than the 4% you suggest. Of course, it depends on the airline, the route, the day of the week, season, and so on. But overall, I'd say among major network carriers, one in four or one in five passengers transported was an elite of any kind pre-covid. So it could be an own elite, an elite with the alliance, or an elite with a non-alliance partner (such as VS in case of AF/KL).
I have also heard loyalty execs claiming that the shares of elites has dropped considerably with covid, as leisure travel has rebounded more swiftly than business travel. (And, of course, elites are by-and-large business travellers.) However, even today, expect at least one in eight or one in ten flyers to be an elite.
Lastly, note what drives up the share of elites on any given flight is the fact that elites travel more than non-elite program members and flyers not even a program member. To illustrate this: Suppose I tell you (I'm making up these numbers) 5% of FB members are elites. I also tell you 20% of the passengers on any given AF/KL flight are elites. That is not a contradiction per se as, once again, elites travel more than other passengers.