Flying Blue is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs for redeeming miles, as the program is useful for redemptions in premium cabins on Air France and KLM, as well as for travel on SkyTeam and other partner airlines.
Flying Blue has just revealed updates to its award pricing. Essentially, awards will come in three “tiers,” matching what you’ll find on revenue fares. For most people, this will translate to a meaningful devaluation… though if it’s any consolation, I feel like the changes could’ve been worse? Flying Blue Platinum and Ultimate members are also largely spared from the worst of the changes.
Flying Blue’s three award pricing bundles: Light, Standard, Flex
For new bookings as of of September 8, 2026, the Flying Blue program will introduce award tickets in the choice of three fare bundles — Light, Standard, and Flex.
These changes will apply exclusively to travel on Air France and KLM, and not to travel on partner airlines, where pricing remains unchanged. All existing tickets will be honored under current conditions. Furthermore, the new pricing tiers don’t apply to La Premiere awards (which are limited to Platinum and Ultimate members anyway). In the interest of being thorough, I should also mention that these changes are specific to bookings through Flying Blue, so if you book Air France or KLM through other programs, nothing should change.
Before I get too deep into this, let me clarify that Flying Blue has a low “saver” level of award pricing in a given market, and then dynamic award pricing, for situations where that space isn’t available. For example, a transatlantic business class award ticket could cost anywhere from 60,000 miles to 700,000 miles. The idea here is that the variable pricing applies to a particular award seat, where you first find the award space, and then choose your fare bundle.
In other words, if you find a saver level transatlantic business class award seat for 60,000 miles, you can then choose whether you want to book with Light, Standard, or Flex conditions. What’s essentially happening is that the current cheapest award type will become the “Light” fare, and then if you want the “Standard” fare (which includes similar things to what award tickets previously included) you’d have to redeem extra miles.
Here’s how the program describes the three award fare types:
- Light: the essential option, ideal if you travel light and are looking for a streamlined experience; this fare does not include checked baggage or additional flexibility services
- Standard: a balanced option offering a combination of comfort and flexibility
- Flex: the most comprehensive experience, with full flexibility, included benefits and a lower mandatory cash contribution when booking your reward ticket
To hit on a couple of key points, Light fares don’t include changes or cancelations for most travelers, so the tickets have no flexibility. Meanwhile the Flex fares include a major reduction in carrier imposed surcharges on long haul flights, so they’re useful for those who want to minimize fees, though you won’t necessarily be getting a great value per mile, compared to the cheaper fares.
Here’s the good news — Flying Blue elite benefits continue to apply on these tickets, and that includes baggage allowance, seat assignments, lounge access, etc. Flying Blue Platinum and Ultimate members even get waived change fees on award tickets, so as a Platinum member, this will have limited implications. This applies to all people traveling on the same booking as the elite member, so everyone would get lounge access, a full baggage allowance, etc.
The perks for these fares varies based on whether you’re traveling short or long haul. Just to give some examples, take an economy short haul award from Berlin (BER) to Barcelona (BCN) via Amsterdam (AMS), where the lowest award cost would be 10,000 miles.
If you didn’t have elite status, you’d get three tiers of award pricing — 10,000 miles for Light, 13,000 miles for Standard, or 17,000 miles for Flex, and you can see all the inclusions below.
Meanwhile if you booked that same award and had Flying Blue Ultimate status, below are the benefits that would be included.
As another example, let’s look at a business class long haul award from Paris (CDG) to New York (JFK), where the lowest award cost would be 60,000 miles.
If you booked that same award and had Flying Blue Ultimate status, below are the benefits that would be included.
My take on these Flying Blue award pricing changes
It goes without saying that this is a devaluation, plain and simple. The more inclusive entry level award fares will become “Light” fares, and if you want more things included, you’ll need to pay more miles. That’s pretty black and white.
That being said, a few thoughts come to mind:
- I’m not surprised to see these changes, because with Air France-KLM increasingly introducing branded revenue fares, I figured this was also coming to awards eventually
- This greatly increases the incentive to go for elite status, because as a Flying Blue Platinum member I not only get access to more award availability, but I can keep booking the “Light” fares, while still getting most of the same perks as before
- We’ve seen a ton of award devaluations over time, so in the scheme of things, I have to say that Flying Blue still has attractive pricing, especially when you consider the ease with which miles can be accrued, transfer bonuses, etc.
- Comparing Flying Blue to its European rival Miles & More, there’s still so much more value; I was in disbelief recently when I booked a Miles & More award ticket and learned about the change fees, which were in some cases close to $1,000, and that says nothing of the much higher carrier imposed surcharges
Admittedly with loyalty programs we’re programmed to expect devaluations. So when I learned that Flying Blue was making changes, I have to say, I had a slight sigh of relief when I actually learned about the changes, because I was expecting them to be worse.
Bottom line
For bookings as of September 8, 2026, the Flying Blue program will be introducing branded fare bundles for award tickets.
The idea is that the current entry level award pricing will remain, but it will be for Light fares, which will come with fewer inclusions than before, including not offering flexibility, seat assignments, etc. If you want similar inclusions to what you had before, you’ll need to book the more expensive Standard fares. Flying Blue elite members continue to receive their elite perks, so Flying Blue Platinum members and above are largely spared from these changes.
I’m of course not happy to see a devaluation, because those who value the same perks as before will end up paying significantly more miles.
What do you make of these Flying Blue award changes?
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