What would be a better time to sneak in an award devaluation than Christmas Day to ensure as little negative coverage as possible?
Air France – KLM’s Flying Blue has significantly increased the miles required for most partner awards by up to 100%, as discovered on a FlyerTalk thread (access here).
You can access Flying Blue here.
Air France – KLM Flying Blue has made several negative changes lately.
They decided to stop wards XPs (their version of tier points) for non-SkyTeam airline flights, arguing that this is industry standard (not correct):
Air France – KLM Flying Blue Partner Airline XP & Award Mile Earnings Change On April 1, 2024
The airline also stopped rolling over excess XPs, which can come handy for those who wish to get lifetime status with the program. This negatively affects many members who may not qualify for the lifetime tier due to this change.
Air France – KLM Flying Blue Caps Rollover XPs
Air France – KLM recently mortgaged its Flying Blue program by taking loans backed up by its future revenues:
Air France – KLM Mortgages Flying Blue For €1.3B
Air France and KLM are also trialing Buy-on-Board on select European flights when other airlines have already scrapped their buy-on-board programs:
Air France & KLM Buy-On-Board Trial Begins On Select Routes Mid-February 2025
Air France & KLM’s Platinum customer service over the phone is very poor quality:
Whine Wednesdays: Air France Platinum Line Connects To “Cluelessland?”
KLM also calls prison-style meals “luxury”:
KLM Calls Prison Style Food “Luxury Meals”
There are quite a few examples shared on the FlyerTalk thread about these devalued awards, such as:
- Qantas domestic awards from 5K to 10K miles
- Malaysia Airlines short-haul flights from 6K to 10K miles
- Delta short-haul awards from 7K to 10K miles
- AeroMexico short-haul awards from 5K to 10K miles
Conclusion
Why couldn’t Flying Blue and Mr. Lipsey, head of the program, give a proper advance announcement of these changes, like any respectable airline would, to allow members to use their miles with the existing rates before they are devalued?
It is borderline criminal and certainly highly unethical to push through changes like this on Christmas Day, but isn’t this something we have come to expect from Air France – KLM and its Flying Blue?
Most Flying Blue partner award rates, especially in business, were outrageous compared to what other airlines charged before this latest devaluation.
Perhaps the Lying Blue leadership doesn’t understand how easy it is for members to NOT convert banking and credit card points to a dishonest program.
The main goal of Flying Blue has recently been to be a competitive program for credit card points to miles conversions for North American members (easiest money?), but obviously, you have, at some point, money going out as well when people start using them.
It seems that they need to show better year-end figures. One way to achieve this is to lower the value of outstanding liabilities (miles). You can accomplish this by decreasing the future cash outlay associated with them. Flying Blue can then take a positive non-cash charge.
This only works for so long until members of this program simply say ..ck it and walk away.
