There are quite a few changes at Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue loyalty program, and they’re both good and bad news. For example, we’ve seen stopovers introduced on awards, though we’ve also seen further restrictions on first class awards. Here’s the latest program change, which is intended to make the program easier to understand.
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Flying Blue introduces new rewards map page
The Flying Blue frequent flyer program has introduced a new dedicated rewards map page. As it’s described, this is intended to help members instantly discover where their mileage balance can take them.
Members have a couple of options for using this tool:
- They can enter the number of miles they have, and then see all the places they could go with those miles
- They can enter their origin, destination, and class of service, and see what starting award pricing looks like in a particular market
On the surface this seems like a pretty cool new feature, which provides a good visualization of where your miles can take you. The catch is that this map only shows the lowest possible pricing, and Flying Blue has dynamic award pricing, meaning that award redemption rates may often be higher.
So this won’t actually show you what’s available on a particular day, but rather just the lowest cost you can expect to pay for a certain type of award.
Flying Blue adjusts some award pricing
While the way these changes are communicated is potentially a bit confusing, let me note upfront that award pricing isn’t actually changing right now. Flying Blue made some minor adjustments to award pricing earlier this year, and is essentially acknowledging that in conjunction with the new rewards map.
Since 2018, Flying Blue has had dynamic award pricing, meaning that the number of miles required for an award ticket varied based on a variety of factors.
Flying Blue claims that to help members benefit from the program, entry level mileage prices have been “adjusted to more accurately reflect the actual value of the ticket and to accommodate a more transparent setup.”
Here’s how Flying Blue explains why this change is being made:
Because of the need for a more transparent pricing setup for our members, we decided to restructure our entire entry (starting from) Miles pricing. With the previous entry pricing setup, there was no link between the Miles price and the actual value of the ticket. As a result, the value of Miles also differed heavily per itinerary. With our new entry Miles pricing the value of the ticket is better reflected in the Miles price, with a clear pricing range per geographical area and per cabin.
Flying Blue specifically mentions that we’re seeing more attractive entry level pricing for premium economy awards overall, and for business class on intra-Europe flights. Meanwhile business class on long haul flights is experiencing varying pricing changes (for example, Los Angeles is increasing in price, while Dubai is decreasing in price).
Flying Blue has essentially reintroduced the concept of an award chart that shows the minimum number of miles required (these prices are one-way).
But then there’s a supplementary award chart that shows that in many cases the lowest price between certain city pairs is above that minimum.
So while I theoretically appreciate the transparency of having an award chart, that’s of limited use when you have dynamic award pricing, plus varying pricing even within the same region.
Meanwhile Flying Blue has adjusted its award zones, which has involved some places being moved to different regions.
The pricing changes we saw earlier this year were fairly minor, and didn’t materially change the value of the program, in my opinion. Ultimately Flying Blue remains the most useful SkyTeam frequent flyer program, thanks to the access it gives you to transatlantic award seats.
Bottom line
Flying Blue has rolled out a new rewards map feature, whereby Flying Blue members can easily see the starting award prices for all kinds of awards. You can either search by city pair, or just enter how many miles you have, and see where they can take you.
At the same time, Flying Blue has also confirmed that it has adjusted some award pricing. These changes actually went live some time back, but the program is now acknowledging those changes.
What do you make of these Flying Blue changes?
I put all my eggs in the flying blue basket. B of A offer got me 70,000 miles and 100XP Bought DFW-LIS PE for 1050 on the Amex promotion (20K bonus). Upgraded to Biz one way for 30K Miles, the other way for $430. 1500 plus 5k miles biz to Europe not bad. (50XP)
Bought 1 Biz ticket RT DFW DXB in April 3000. (114 XP)
Bought 2 Biz tickets RT DFW DXB...
I put all my eggs in the flying blue basket. B of A offer got me 70,000 miles and 100XP Bought DFW-LIS PE for 1050 on the Amex promotion (20K bonus). Upgraded to Biz one way for 30K Miles, the other way for $430. 1500 plus 5k miles biz to Europe not bad. (50XP)
Bought 1 Biz ticket RT DFW DXB in April 3000. (114 XP)
Bought 2 Biz tickets RT DFW DXB in June for 2300 euros each using a VPN. (108XP) - This will get me to Gold.
Used 70K miles for 2 RT DFW MRS in July economy. Hoping my Gold status will get me first in line to upgrade to Biz with miles.
So, one RT Biz to Europe, 2 RT Economy to Europe, 3 RT Biz tickets to DXB for 9 grand and 75K miles.
No way you can pull that off on AA at DFW for anywhere near that.
Nice to know that according to the Award Zones list, Australia and NZ don't even exist.
I see that despite Australia and New Zealand being clearly in the FB AsiaPacific zone, neither are listed in the countries list.
Also think it bizzare to see Greenland listed in North America! Denmark may take issue with that!
I had to read too far down the page to find this. Additionally, did anyone take notice of the number of miles required in the Asia-Pacific to Asia-Pacific zone on the award chart? Odd, no?
The person who made Morocco+Algeria 'Europe' has to go to jail.
Flying blue has been pretty worthless to me. With the exception of the monthly promo awards, I have never seen a booking that wasn't outrageously expensive.
I booked 4 people to Croatia and a return from Denmark for ~100k and $250 pp for next summer.
I did the same several years ago from the west coast to Sardinia and a return from Venice for *5* people.
FlyingBlue consistently has fair prices and amazing availability. Plus, you can take advantage of 25% bonus transfers from Amex and now CapOne.
So, I'm not sure where you can do better than that for travel to Europe in J.
As mentioned in other recent articles, I cannot find any awards below 70k biz one way from the US to/from Europe and looked at various routings from March-November next year. Yet I've an upcoming trip booked 10 months back from ATL to Warsaw that at 55k biz one way. Anyone been able to find any 55k availability?
I was looking in September/October for something east cost to Europe in September 2023 and I didn't see any 55k availability either. I could find 70k fairly consistently.
I few months ago I noticed fares in J for ~55k between IAD/ORD and WAW/Krakow for summer 2023.
Confusion all the way around. Fair enough. And time for an experiment. So I chose a random off-peak date to see what DFW-CDG in Economy costs. The "availability" mini-calendar said 70,000 miles one-way (not good!) but then when you actually click on it, the now "standard" lowest very off-peak price of only 20,000 miles one-way still shows up just as it has been showing up since roughly early September. The cash component seems as though...
Confusion all the way around. Fair enough. And time for an experiment. So I chose a random off-peak date to see what DFW-CDG in Economy costs. The "availability" mini-calendar said 70,000 miles one-way (not good!) but then when you actually click on it, the now "standard" lowest very off-peak price of only 20,000 miles one-way still shows up just as it has been showing up since roughly early September. The cash component seems as though (if memory serves) it might have gone up $10 and is now $97 one-way. You can make of that what you will. For me, it means all is not lost. In Economy.