Goodbye chance to redeem two prize tickets for La Premiere

Flying Blue is one of the best loyalty programs active in the aviation market. Not only because thanks to monthly offers, it allows you to Flying business class in Canada even at less than 29k points, but mainly because it is very generous in terms of award seats and although the pricing is dynamic it allows very cheap tickets to be redeemed to many routes.

More difficult to redeem a La Premiere award ticket

Premiere is one of the best first-class experiences in the world and, shortly, thanks to the installation of the new cabins on board the AF fleet, it will become even more beautiful. However, it is also one of the most exclusive cabins in the world since, at the moment, there are fewer than 80 seats on the entire Air France fleet. Nothing compared to the numbers of Emirates or British Airways.

The exclusivity of this cabin has always prompted Air France to make expensive and difficult to book using points: difficult but not impossible. 

From January 1, however, things will become even more complicated and above all, we will have to say goodbye to the possibility of booking two tickets on the same flight in La Premiere.

From 2023 only one award seat available per flight.

The announcement made today by Flying blue communicates two changes.

1. Starting January 1, you will need to be at least Platinum to book this award ticket, whereas until today you only needed to be Gold.
2. From the same date AF will guarantee the release of only one seat per flight. As a reminder. the few 777/300s with the La Premiere cabin have only 4 first-class seats.

Booking a ticket

There are three options for booking this ticket:

1. Pay cash
2. Using miles
3. Getting an upgrade

If you have no budget problems, the easiest way is to use your own American Express Platinum to book a ticket that costs an average of 8,000 euros, but can easily cost more than 13,000 euros one way.

The second option is to use the miles. Obviously you need to have a fair number of Flying Blue points: On average, a ticket costs no less than 200/230 thousand points each way. However, it must be remembered that Air France gives this opportunity only to those who own at least The Gold level in the French/Dutch loyalty program..

Then there is a third possibility, which is to get an upgrade, obviously not free, using FB points or paying. The first option is open until 24 hours before departure of the flight: again there is the sword of Damocles related to the class with which the ticket was purchased, as well as Gold status. The cost is 75k FB points, but only triggers if the business class ticket Was bought in class C,D and J. The other possibility, on the other hand, opens up 30h after the departure of the flight and allows at check-in for all business passengers to pay cash to get the upgrade, again of course if there are seats available.

In conclusion

Air France's choice is bad news for the reward travel world, but it is understandable. Not only are there few seats available, but with the installation of the new cabin it will become even more sought after. Raising the level of loyalty required is the right choice, albeit a unique one in the global frequent flyer scene. I hope at least that the tightening in the rules will be matched by a decrease in the points required to book a ticket. That would be the right compromise.

• Flying Blue
• the premiere