Yes, but not as a part of the new system, nor because of Covid. If we go far back enough, we can find all sorts of things that are gone since. Like I remember when OK Plus Silver got you into contract lounges.

In case you fly more than 24 segments per calendar year and dont care about miles , i can recommend UX Suma , as Air Europa left FB and created their own FFP

Besides few details which are , in my opnion , really useful if you fly a lot in long haul , for instance premium seats are free of charge with AF/KL/UX/KQ for platinuM , then gold level (either FB or UX) is enough compared to platinum

Status is easy to maintain once you reach it

And if IAG acquires UX, how long will they stay in ST?
Edit: just saw the takeover was withdrawn..

The bag thing is a downgrade for silver, but only if you fly to places where the ground handlers pay attention to the priority tag.
On the old system, if you flew 15 intra-Europe connecting flights in one year, you would hit gold after number eight or so (we'll say July), and then platinum at the end of the year. If you stopped flying, you would be platinum for fifteen months and gold for twelve.
On the new system, the same behavior would net you gold at the end of the year, and you'd keep it for twelve months, so quite a downgrade.
If you flew the same the next year, however, you'd reach platinum, and the downgrade effects would be less

From FB's perspective, the new system incentivizes behavior that is profitable to the airlines. For most people, there are a few reasons to buy a seat in intra-Europe J: in the airport, you get priority check-in, priority security, lounge, priority boarding, priority baggage. On board, you sit close enough to the cockpit to hear the cavalry charge when they disconnect the autopilot, you might get a light meal (and, on AF, it might be edible), an empty middle seat and some service.
At gold and platinum, you get all the airport benefits and many of the on-board ones. So, why pay extra?
Well, now these seats, where the airline's added costs are fairly minimal (a Caesar salad), are also the most attractive for the frequent flyer program.
Of course, premium cabins on long haul are also hugely profitable. So, for the people who do some traveling in Europe for work and only get paid to travel economy (which is the bulk of business traffic), the difference to the next level of status is often just a long-haul vacation flight in J. Premium economy, for that matter, earns pretty well too.
The roll over of excess points ensures that there's a reason to keep the premium purchases. We saw that their XP promotion drove people here into the premium cabins at a time when the airlines could really use the business.
So, I can see why they did it, and, as a solution, it's much more elegant than requiring a certain amount of money to be spent.

But, yeah, if you're planning on flying 60 segments in euro-Y a year, it can only be a downgrade.

Guilty as charged. Got 150XP out of AMS-CDG-BCN and back, thanks to a cancelled flight and original routing credit. Would have flown Y if not for the double XP promotion.

Yeah, right! As if we don't all know that you did it for the Wonderful Wanders Box and the Greta cutlery. :)

Johan

This is a late reply but I think for most people the amount of XP earned is not a real consideration. Maybe the incentive to take a long-haul J flight is a consideration for some, but probably not for many frequent work-fliers..

I rather think the opposite. While a very significant number of people still care about miles, nobody does anymore mileage runs but some people do XP runs. XPs are needed to reach/maintain status and many people care much more about status than miles.

Since miles are decoupled from status, there is zero reason to do a mileage run. You can just straight buy miles you need and it's cheaper, unless you find some really exotic high earning fare on a non-integrated partner.

I think people care about status but I doubt people will go out of their way to gain status is what I mean. Having corporate book with a certain airline, sure, but flying extra legs or paying 3x for a holiday... not so much..

Flyertalk is full of people doing such things ;). Of course, it's a minority of people but you would be surprised to see what some people are doing. There are some threads about that in most FT forums.

I'm totally 'guilty' of this. Signed up to FB in october 2021, became platinum in february 2022 thanks to xp runs.
lounge access, smaller queues at security and less risks of having to board your luggage on full flights by boarding first are perks more important than the award miles, for me at least.

Out of idle curiosity:

Those who achieve status via XP runs presumably do it that way because they don't fly enough to get there the regular way. In other words, they are not true frequent flyers (yeah, we can argue about the definition). Now these XP runs come at a cost, in both time and money. Lounge access can be purchased at most airports; priority lines may save time at security, but not always; and carry-on issues can be avoided by planning carefully and bringing as little as possible.

I'm probably missing something, but is it really worth the time and outlay, especially for those who don't really fly that often? The answer must obviously be yes for all those doing these runs, but personally I can't see myself spending a whole bunch of weekends eating out of Wonderful Wanders Boxes, just to enjoy Crown Lounge gloop, watch the SP security line being force fed regular pax right under my nose, and then getting to stuff my 25 kg steamer trunk in the locker right above my seat. (Hypothetically speaking, because I can't deny it: I've been PFL ever since that status was invented).

No offense implied or intended to anyone, just puzzled.

Johan

Perhaps they fly enough to be called frequent by any definition, but just missed the mark for platinum requiring one or more XP runs to get there. Though one could be content with gold in that case, unless one was wanting to go for the PFL.

Yes, PFL would be a good reason, bunkering up on XPs would be a hedge against coming up short one year before hitting ten. Otherwise gold should be good enough,l as you say.

Doing a single run when you are just short of making plat also makes sense, but judging by the mileage run thread, quite a few people are willing to spend numerous weekends taking long detours and flying many segments to and from whatever destination happens to offer the best value for money, crawling out of bed in the dead of night to catch early flights, and crawling back in bed in the next dead of night after arriving on the last flight of the day. To each his own, some may even find it enjoyable, but it is a thing I have a hard time getting my head around. And yes, once again, as a PFL with no need, desire or chance of reaching Ultimate, I'm in the comfortable position of being able to ignore XPs. I'm just an amused and bemused spectator.

Johan