Flying Blue, not a mistake this time: there is a (small) devaluation
For the past few hours, discussion has been re-exploding on industry forums regarding a possible devaluation of award tickets [...]
KLM
Air France
SkyTeam
For the past few hours on industry forums it has been Re-exploded discussion regarding possible devaluation of Flying Blue award tickets, after what Had been a false alarm on New Year's Eve., I have strong doubts it is a new system error.
Flying Blue award tickets become more expensive
In this article:
I don't like click baiting, nor do I like to make controversy about nothing just to make clicks. This is a devaluation, unannounced and therefore even more odious, in light also of what had happened in recent weeks. However, if the increase in points required to redeem tickets remains in that order, it is bearable and especially understandable.
In recent years FB has made great strides, and Today it is the best loyalty program, Has also reduced ticket costs And with monthly offers he is always very generous. Today, however, comes this cold shower, which we must be honest is not icy cold.
For example, if, until yesterday, the cheapest tickets to fly to NY from Italy, net of offers, cost 20k miles, today the price has risen to 25k.
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Same with business, the same ticket that cost 50k FB miles yesterday costs 60k today.
The increase is spread over the whole network, this means that a business to Asia or South America has gone up from 70 to 85k, while on Flyertalk they also discuss increases in La Premiere which however, I do not notice at the moment.
Flying Blue devaluation
This is hurtful, especially because it was not announced. Now the good Ben Lipsey, CEO of Flying Blue, might again step in and say "oops, we did it wrong again," but I highly doubt that will happen.
It is a depreciation and no one saw it coming, precisely because FB in recent years had behaved differently and very fairly toward customers.
The increase, however, does not compare to those we have seen in recent months made by many carriers, so we can see the glass half full and admit that it could have been worse.
At the moment I don't notice any changes with partners, just yesterday I looked for 4 business tickets to Japan in August and I had found Etihad at a cost of 440k, which today dropped to 430k
In conclusion
This is not good news, now let's wait a few hours to see how things settle down and we will better understand how painful this devaluation of Air France and KLM's loyalty program will be.
