Air France – KLM’s Flying Blue frequent flier program made an announcement back in November 2023 (read more here) about changes coming to the rollover of XPs (Experience Points) 12 months down the road (from November 2024).
The changes are now live for members whose membership year has ended, and some have been surprised by the number of lifetime years earned, rolled-over XPs, and up to 299 lost XPs.
You can access Flying Blue here.
Flying Blue’s Announcement in November 2023:
Flying Blue Starts Limiting Rollover XPs From November 1, 2024
What is happening to members right now?
Flying Blue members can no longer roll over unlimited XPs; they are capped at 300 (at the Platinum level).
Excess XPs are converted, but only this time, for the lifetime years at 300 XPs per year.
You can lose up to 299 XPs due to how conversion takes place:
Here’s my current XP and lifetime year situation:
Lifetime Years:
I have four Lifetime Platinum years.
Current XP Counter:
There are currently 708 XPs recorded on my Flying Blue account.
Upcoming XPs:
I currently have 81 XPs coming from flights in early January.
The XP counter then is 789.
This would be an awful situation at the end of my membership year (June 30) as it would mean that 189 XPs would be discarded.
Flying Bue deducts 300 XPs and adds one lifetime year (total lifetime year 5)
Flying Bue rollovers 300 XPs for the next membership year
This would leave me at 179 XPs. Because this is fewer than 300 that would result in additional lifetime year they are just canceled.
In my case, the ideal amount to end up at on June 30th would be 900. It would result in an additional lifetime year (then 6) and no XPs lost (the total lifetime year with the rollover after 12 months would be 7).
Conclusion
I don’t think Flying Blue thought this through well because it disincentivizes flying on Air France—KLM and their partner airlines when these XPs won’t roll over.
Also, the issue is that your Platinum years must be CONSECUTIVE to earn the lifetime status. I am sure that Flying Blue counts that there are gap years that lead to fewer lifetime Platinum members minted.
They should have grandfathered the existing XPs earned rather than leading some of them to be wasted (it is difficult to reach the exact number that results in no loss).
In my case, this entire Flying Blue participation is almost a mistake due to AeroMexico flights I took during the pandemic, which I had to credit somewhere. I started crediting them to Flying Blue, and here we are. I don’t precisely enjoy flying on either Air France or KLM, but they are not any better or worse than other legacy European airlines.
