What Is Air France-KLM Flying Blue Ultimate Status?

Ultimate customers are invited to attend events with AFKL management and they have the opportunity to provide input on potential changes or improvements to products and services.

Imagine flying that much on a Skyteam carrier

Spock noted that "wanting" is more desirable than "having."

Now 3 years Ultimate. Each year, it improves. You didn't mention specifically the big non-Schengen lounge for Ultimate in Amsterdam or the section in Schengen (smaller, but exclusive). Also good to know: on European flights in Embrears, you often get bumped up to BC on Economy tickets pro-actively.

Yes, and in some markets AF-KL regional management even invite some AF-KL Platinum customers who are short of Ultimate status along with Ultimate status holders. But if they change anything based on customer input at these meetings, it’s not common.

Great resume of the program. I managed to get to ultimate very quickly within 9 months and the welcome was warm. On flights, the staff are almost swooning over you and the assistant service is really nice and useful. I’m not sure who needs or wants to invite “8” people into a lounge. And gifting platinum to somebody is nice, but at the end its me doing the traveling not them. I went for it to get the vouchers. As every airline CEO who has a first class SHOULD know (i don’t think they do)…the only things we really want is: zero fuss if there is a problem and…to fly first when we can’t fork out the cash for it (but we still fork out for biz). When I read the fine print of Ultimate 2 months ago I was disappointed. , I realized that people actually knowing my name was nice but not worth the effort, as the only benefit I wanted were the vouchers (and first class lounge and car service)…biggest letdown was to find post-ex that the vouchers were for upgrades from eco to biz…I imagine that nearly 100% of ultimate members already fly business, so this is completely useless. I gave my feedback just a month ago, and was delighted to read yesterday that the vouchers can now be used for LP!! Very well done. I am Hon circle (even harder to earn than ultimate) for 13 years and it’s very hard to pry me away as it’s exactly what you say: access to F lounges in at least 5 airports is priceless, as is car service and virtually anyhting is zero problem. But the hard product and delays on the Swiss and German side have become unbearable, especially on LH. This change with the Ultimate vouchers really starts to level the playing field for me. I am very impressed by everything with AF so far. A month ago I would say “meh”. Now I say yeah…
a few more tweaks and I would consider dropping HON circle. So I’ll keep it going for another year for sure.

This is also the case for HON circle… alas, the one person who should be listening…Carsten Spohr is…not there. So while the marketing managers become very excited about “upcoming changes”, the message of “keeping it great the way it was while innovating to become even better” goes on deaf ears.

Ben, are there some estimations of how mamy Ultimate / HON circle status members AF/LH has?

My military flying days ended a couple of decades ago, my professional civilian passenger days started thereafter. However, at the behest of my masters who dictate my seat class and airline, I am at a disadvantage when it comes to airline points programs, status knowledge, etc. Ben’s blog has filled many knowledge gaps, furthermore, made me blatantly aware of the fact that when I become a leisure only traveler, points and status will be unattainable.
Parting with hard cash will be my only means of enjoying enhanced customer experiences.

I think that the assumption that ultis will always be flying in business is a bit naive. There are definitely some people with frequent work travel which is mostly restricted to Y within Europe and premium economy long haul, a few senior managers who are contractually entitled to fly in the highest class available (so can't use the P upgrade because they're already there!), and there will also certainly be some small business owners etc flying on a mix of classes depending on price, route, and schedule (e.g. going out in business on Tuesday for a bunch of meetings, returning in Y on Friday and taking advantage of the weekend to recover).

That's all academic for me as, beyond the fact that Ulti would be really hard for me to achieve, the huge devaluations of FB miles (85k for an one-way to Central Africa is ludicrous) have turned me off the programme for good and I now only really use it for the Accor double-dipping facility. I've always been happy with the treatment I have received over the years as a silver/gold elite in FB and other Skyteam schemes, so I still think that it can be a good choice for those who fly too much to prioritise maximising the value of redemptions.

Don't let your experiences with DL and KL cloud your judgement.

Some Skyteam airlines actually are very good. Take a business class flight on China Airlines and come back to tell us you didn't like it. Garuda, VN and even Saudia (politics and lack of alcohol aside) are hugely underrated too.

AF may not be the greatest airline in Europe, but they're better than their two major competitors. Flying Aegean or THY is a lot more pleasant, but it unfortunately only works from/to/within the Balkans and Near East.

Due to my leisure travel so far, and remaining this year, I will be reaching FB Ultimate in October as will my partner. I was looking forward to what was available in addition to Platinum and with the improvements this has been enhanced in a good way.

The redemptions are much of a muchness as if you get a good offer with the sales each month then it works out if you can be flexible like we can.

Overall, FB works for us here in the UK when we have both AF & KL from out local airport, so along with the Accor double dip we are currently happy. The improvement we would like to see is being given status with Accor through FB status.

Yes, there are some Ultimate flyers who got it from being mostly economy class and/or premium economy class flyers and maybe 0-2 long-haul business class trips.

Since it can be done without hitting a specific spend amount, it’s actually far more achievable than what is required to hit a comparable level with the legacy major airlines which have a spend amount requirement for such kind of level.

With EC 261/2004 compensation payouts included and advance booking on one of my more frequented short-haul routes via CDG, it’s possible to get Ultimate for something like $7000-$11,000 or even less in spend in a membership year.