Air France-KLM, fresh off announcing that they will implement a GDS surcharge on April 1, 2018, has announced that they are making changes to their loyalty programme, Flying Blue, on the same date, which will see the programme simplified and enhanced.

"With Flying Blue, we are enhancing the travel experience for several million passengers while at the same time creating value for our group.” said Jean-Marc Janaillac, chairman and chief executive officer of Air France-KLM. “The programme has become an essential travel companion and the common foundation for all Air France-KLM’s airlines to provide optimum service quality for customers. Adapted to simplify our members’ experience and increase our attractiveness, the new Flying Blue programme will support our commercial offensive as well as our strategy to personalize customer service."

Flying Blue will see three major changes when the programme changes take effect on April 1, 2018;

Mileage Accrual - Customers will earn Miles based on a combination of their membership level and the amount spent for the ticket, not for distance flown. The number of Miles earned will no longer depend on the distance flown between origin and destination. Rather, for the equivalent of each Euro spent, Ivory members will earn four miles; Silver members will earn six miles; Gold members, seven miles; and Platinum members, eight miles, on flights marketed by Air France (AF), KLM (KL), HOP! (A5), or Joon (JN).

Customers will also earn Miles when purchasing ancillaries such as additional baggage, on board à la carte meals, or Economy Comfort seats (on KLM).

More Flexibility to Spend Miles – Air France-KLM will no longer limit the number of award seats available per flight and all seats on any Air France, KLM, HOP!, Joon or Transavia flight can be booked using Miles, or a new Miles & Cash option.

The number of Miles needed to redeem for a ticket will be based on origin, destination and flight date, much as it is today with standard airfares. So periods of lower demand will require less Miles, while periods of higher demand will require a higher number of Miles.

And effective in June 2018, members will also have the option of combining Miles & Cash to obtain an award ticket, and up to 25 per cent of their award ticket can be paid in cash.

Simplified Qualification Process – Flying Blue is introducing Experience Points, or XP, which will be earned and used to determine a member’s level. Level Miles and Qualifying flights will no longer be used to determine a member’s status.

Members enter the programme at the Ivory level, moving to Silver at 100 XP; Gold at 180 XP; and Platinum at 300 XP, when earned within a 12-month period.

The number of XP awarded will be calculated, regardless of existing membership level, on the type of journey (domestic, medium haul, or long haul); distance ( in the case of long haul); and the cabin class booked,. For example, for a one way domestic short haul flight from Paris to Toulouse in economy, all members will earn 2 XP, a long haul flight from Toronto to Amsterdam in Business Class will earn 30 XP, and a long haul flight from Shanghai to Paris in La Première will earn 60 XP.

Existing Level Miles and/or qualifying flights in a person's account on March 31, 2018 will be converted into XP as follows:

- 1,000 Level Miles = 5 XP

- 1 qualifying flight = 7 XP

Note: For customers with both Level Miles and qualifying flights, the higher of the two numbers will be awarded.

Flying Blue members will have 12 months to gain the number of XP required to reach or maintain a level. In the case of an upgrade to another level, the qualification period will restart, and members have 12 months in which to earn enough XP to maintain that level or jump to another level. For Silver, Gold and Platinum members, all XP gained beyond the threshold will be carried forward to the next 12-month running period.

A Smooth Transition –On April 1, 2018, all Flying Blue accounts will be automatically updated to the new programme and the balance of Award Miles as of March 31, 2018 will remain unchanged when the new programme kicks in on April 1 2018.

Customers will be able to keep using all functionalities of their account as they do today. In addition to these changes, members will retain many of the best benefits of the current Flying Blue programme, including:

- The same privileges currently available for Ivory, Silver, Gold and Platinum members

- Various options to spend Miles on Promo Awards, upgrades, additional baggage allowances or à la carte meals;

- Miles can continue to be earned and redeemed with many Flying Blue partners, including WestJet, Delta Airlines, Marriott, Hilton, Avis, Hertz and more.

"Meeting a customer’s expectations by being simpler and more personalized was a key driver in this two years project for reinventing Flying Blue.” added Frédéric Kahane, vice president of Air France-KLM's Flying Blue loyalty programme. “We aim to have Flying Blue as a leading airlines loyalty programme by listening to our customers and adapting the programme."

Flying Blue has 15 million members and 39 airline partners and more than 100 non-airline partners.

On the Flying Blue website, customers can access complete details of the programme, including the benefits of the different Ivory, Silver, Gold and Platinum levels explained through videos and tutorials, and all the ways to earn or spend Miles.

For more details on the upcoming changes to the programme, visit the Explore Further section of the site.