As a loyal KLM flyer I have come to view the increasingly shrinking benefits of the FD program to be a good motivater to change my airline allegiance.

Having maintained my Gold Elite status for over six years with pure personal travel, as I do not travel for Business purposes, I see any shrinkage as a direct assault on a product that I personally pay for.

For many Elite members who gain their Elite status due to Business travel, open tickets, full fare economy and the like, I would imagine that in many cases, their company pays for their Business travel, in turn, paying for their Elite status.

Living in Amsterdam makes KLM a logical choice, but recent expansions by american carriers (including Continental) are providing a more competative product with less "painfull" level miles earning restrictions.

I will just have to wait and see how the final FF program materializes before I make any more financial contributions tot he KLM fund.

Unfortunately they knew, as KLM immediately modified the terms and condition of FD (online, click on the blue links in article 2.1.1):
Ticket types not eligible for mileage accumulation
You cannot earn Miles on the following types of fare:
KLM
Award travel tickets (class W/D)
Competitively priced low-cost promotional fares (class N/E)
Tickets partially or fully paid for using Air Miles (class G)
Travel industry reduced rates
Free or non-revenue tickets
Military or government tickets
Other fares that are from time to time declared by KLM to be ineligible for mileage accumulation. You will be notified of these fares when they become applicable.

I didn't exactly know FD advantages (in despite I have some 1500 points there) but it could be somewhere not bad to have for F+ red cardholders
a level higher than red. I flew in 2004 more than 200 000 qm (id the years before) and I must admit if i have no more advantages than, somebody who flies for 60 000 , I'll share the flights in more than one companies in the future. The question is does platinum level on the new FFP offer more than red or does the new red offer less than the past one ?

I probably didn't make my point too well...:

The announcement made in FD News was that the only fares that don't qualify for miles are certain special promotional fares (their announcement actually said "some", not "all").

What seems to have happened is that regular non-flexible fares have been put into the E/N fare bucket.

The people who run FD are not the same people who put fares into the system. In fact the people who run FD aren't even the same company.

The people who run FD don't know anything about how fares are loaded into the system (they don't need to, it's not their job). The people who load fares into the system don't know anything about FD (they don't need to, it's not their job). And it seems that on this occasion there has been a distinct lack of communication between the two departments. The FD people think that only "special promotional fares" are booked in E/N. The fare people don't realise that by putting (non-promotional) seats in the E/N bucket they are depriving passengers of miles. A typical case of one hand not knowing what the other one is doing.

Until the end of last month, KL ran a "Dream Sale" promotion in the Scandinavian market. Ticket were booked in V class, and outward travel had to take place before June 13.

In an e-mail dated January 11, the "CRM Executive KLM Customer Relations Elite Nordic" assured me that the only the Dutch market "Take-Off" fares were booked in E/N class, and added that KLM Nordic had no mileage restrictions whatsoever on published fares.

At the beginning of this month, the Dream Sale fares were suddenly replaced by "New Europe" fares, booked in E/N class! Ostensibly a "promotion", but without an end date and, in the case of an CPH-AMS ticket, 9% more expensive than a Dream Sale ticket.

Johan

The thing that I see is that e/n ticket classes have now replaced most of the lower cost tickets promos' .As Aviatrix said.. perhaps this is Ill advised KL staff uploading the wrong fare types onto fare classes ....

The fact that AF give all af ticket classes ( execpt some domestic things ) to earn miles , is this e/n thing only a stop gap ploy of FD to save a little bit of revenue untill the merger .

Save revenue by driving away your passengers?

And what Johan was told about E/N fares only applying to the Dutch market seems to confirm my suspicion about the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing...

I'm currently both a member of F+ and FD, does anyone know what will happen to my accounts when the new program is launched? Will they just be merged? Or should I start spending in one account, and earning in another? In that case (and I hope not) which should I choose, FD or F+?

You will know april 06th. The new program will be introduced on a press conference in Paris that day.

You are the first one to give a specific date of April 06. Where did you get this info? Any other info leaks?

I feel sorry for you FD folks.... I've got a post box thats open for "rent" if any of you want to move to WorldPerks... at least we still have MH

And give up free access to a few lounges on the day of a flight and a crack helpdesk that's only an international phone call away? Are you mad?

Oh, wait...

If we do actually lose MH as a partner then I will either have to bring forward finishing the CRWWJ30 which currently includes some long hauls on MH, or, horror upon horrors, start using my Enrich account again. Anyone who thinks FD is difficult should try having an Enrich account with MH .

April 6th it is then....or is it ?

Is this in honour of my Birthday ?

Just wondering from across the pond here in the states...

NWA/KLM have always been hailed as having once of the most efficent and intergated worldwide alliances... As a result of the new AF-KLM, does NWA not have any opinion as to what goes on with KLM? I would think these changes would greatly concern thier most important partner...

-Vincent