Now Live: New Air France-KLM & Virgin Atlantic Partnership

As a FB Platinum I am sad to see the Clubhouse is not part of the deal. Seems like AF/KL time and time again take hits when it comes down to the treatment of their elites in their partnerships/JV’s . The same happened with Delta

Agree with Erikjan. Reciprocity looks different ... I wonder why AFKL always seems to loose in negotiating JVs.

I'm FB Platinum and was flying Delta in comfort+ from JFK to AMS (with a KL flight number) on Monday, and went to the Clubhouse to try my luck. They didn't let me in, but the agent told me that after today it would have been possible to enter. I'm a bit confused now about the benefits now. Can somebody explain?

Flying Blue Platinum have access to Virgin ClubHouse LHR. Gold just to the Qantas lounge.

Question:

Does this mean, if you credit to DL an AF/KL-marketed flight that is operated by VS, do you now get RDM/MQM/MQD? As I understand, under the old rules, you wouldn't get credits since VS is not part of SkyTeam. Am I right? And if so does this new partnership change anything?

Almost never fly out of Heathrow anymore because of UK's ridiculous Airport taxes. Frequently fly IN to Heathrow so if the above is accurate (which I am sure it is) then access to JFK Virgin Lounge will be excellent, more important being able to access Delta's best fares which frequently include sectors with VS and collect Flying Blue miles and XP will be fantastic. One thing that would be interesting to know is if the bar to VS Lounge at Heathrow applies to both departure AND arrivals lounges... Would be good to access Revivals Lounge at T3...

As an aside the Air France site still has lounge access on Virgin flights only available if you are flying Business class which doesn't make any sense as the ticket itself would give you lounge access in that case...

KLM Flying Blue site also makes no mention of lounge access for FB members on the basis of status. Can anyone point me to an airline source that confirms the situation?

LHR T3 Qantas lounge access isn't too shabby.

It is sad that Virgin Atlantic is removing what was the worlds best and widest premium economy product, for a much inferior product.
Few mention this when going on about (correctly) the huge improvements to the new Upper Class business Product.

Jan:

I am also curious about this. I had the reverse situation last year, with a VS coded KLM flight, and got 0 credit for it (my own fault for not reading the fine print on the Delta Partners earning site). I would hope that with the new joint venture, Delta would update their charts to include earning on VS coded AFKL flights and vice versa.

same question as Jan asked...I have an AF marketed but VS operated flight. Hope to credit to Delta Skymiles. Would this partnership change anything?

Have tried to add my flying club number to my current klm flight for later this year and it keeps saying it can’t add it. Presume that might change in the next couple of days??

The information regarding connection flights is still extremely sketchy from Virgin's end.

Anyhow, regarding the codes shown in the above chart for earning rates, I'm looking at an AF flight from Nice connecting in CDG to Tel Aviv, Looking at Amex Travel it's offering me G class for a flex ticket. there is no G however in the chart above?

@Richard Callis

I am the author of the original article this post is probably based on; https://insideflyer.co.uk/2020/02/elite-benefits-for-virgin-flyers-on-air-france-and-klm-and-vice-versa-all-the-details/ . I received the details and conditions of this VS-AF-KLM partnership directly from Flying Blue.

@TheFlyingDutchboy, excellent, just read your original article, one MASSIVE piece of good news for me is that "These benefits are valid GLOBALLY on VS-operated flight, so are not limited to the trans-Atlantic joint venture."

I live in Sao Paulo and VS recently started flying the GRU-LHR route which I thought would be out of the game, good to hear its not.

Also as @ChampagneSocialist said above the Qantas Lounge at LHR is hardly slumming it...

Most important I'll get my XP for this direct flight should I choose to fly it.

thanks for the info!

Right, so when redeeming with AF/KL Flying Blue, combining an AF/KL flight with a DL flight or a VS flight or a DL flight with a VS flight probably is not a problem.

I'm going to guess then that with VS, you are still limited to one partner: one can't glue on a DL segment to an AF/KL reward. That or it is additive pricing.

The Virgin site says KLM and Air France flights MUST be either Virgin or Delta-marketed. And the "how to book" says to book online via the VS website. So it looks like you can't just buy an AF/KLM ticket and get the miles (or tier points, which I am more interested in) credited to your Flying Club account. Can anyone validate that?

I understand that all benefits apply but I was wondering if someone can assist me on the below.

I've got Virgin Miles which I want to redeem an Air France cdg to dxb ticket.
I have a MEA Cedar miles ( sky team ) silver card, anyone knows If i'll get all the benefits? I would believe I do but Air France is unable to confirm.

Jad, I hope I am wrong but I do not think your MEA card will qualify you for benefits, that would basically mean Virgin was part of Skyteam. Would be useful to hear if you have a different experience to my expectations...

@ jad ghandour -- Yes, after ticketing you should be able to change your frequent flyer number on the reservation, and can then take advantage of SkyTeam perks.

Thanks for putting me straight Ben, I was forgetting that the Virgin miles would be putting him on AF metal, if he was flying VS to DXB then the MEA would not help... Sorry @Jad Ghandour for the misinformation.

Does anyone know when Flying Blue will acknowledge and put in the writing the benefits afforded to its Elite & Elite Plus members travelling with Virgin Atlantic? I'm very happy to see that Virgin has added Flying Blue Platinum/Gold onto their lounge access pages, however for other things such as extra baggage & priority boarding there is no official mention on anyone's website (be it KLM, Flying Blue, or Virgin). It would be nice to have something "official" to point to at the airport. I addressed this today on Twitter and KLM told me that Elite/Elite Plus benefits only apply when travelling with Skyteam carriers - they don't have a clue!

@Ben and @Richard, thank you both.

I booked my ticket with virgin so it's showing my virgin number. On the AF website it's impossible to amend it. Virgin offers the option to amend it on their website but only for AF or other partners so I guess the only way to do it is at the airport.

@Ben and @Richard. I just logged on MEA and was able to find my AF booking ! They allowed me to change my FF number online which Virgin and AF didn't allow and I went to check in for my flight and I see that my status is taking into account as it's showing sky team elite and the extra luggage so it works!

FB informed me that the lounge restrictions have been relaxed. Flying Blue Platinum and higher members do get access to the Virgin Clubhouse in Heathrow T3. Flying Blue Gold members can use The Qantas Lounge at LHR T3. Globally, the only remaining restriction is JNB.

I have KLM Flying Blue Miles and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles. Can I transfer one to the other?

Can you use virgin miles to upgrade a cash ticket on Air France?