Flying Blue to Give Frequent Flyers Another Free Status Extension

Air France and KLM’s frequent flyer programme Flying Blue has again decided to give its members another free status extension in 2021 if they don’t manage to requalify this year.

Pandemic

Due to the ongoing corona pandemic, many frequent flyers are literally being grounded as lockdowns, closed borders and a collapse of both international business and leisure travel brought global aviation to a halt.

Last year, almost all major airlines in the world helped out their frequent flyers by giving them free status extensions.

This was also the case with Air France/KLM’s Flying Blue programme, which granted members a one-year status extension if they did not manage to gather the required number of points (XP) necessary to requalify on their own strength.

Another extension

Flying Blue has now announced that they will take the same support measure this year by again giving its members another year of status irrespective whether or not they manage to reach the requalification threshold.

To be precise, elite members with a qualification period ending between March 2021 and December 2021 will continue to maintain their level for a further period and have their surplus XP protected.

The Flying Blue communication reads: “We hope that this year will bring new opportunities to travel with us again. To at least give you peace of mind about your Flying Blue status, we are renewing our promise to maintain your current level for a further period, so you can enjoy your benefits whenever the time is right.

“Additionally, we are extending our previous surplus XP support measure, to give you the same head start as you had before.”

A full overview of Air France/KLM’s loyalty measures can be seen here.

Loyalty

The measure is of course great news for frequent flyers who for whatever reasons still cannot travel this year. In the end, it’s a win-win situation for both the loyal customers of Air France and KLM, as well as for the airlines in question.

After all, you do want to keep your most loyal customers who bring in most money.

If you do not take such measures as an airline and if these travellers were to lose their status, they could very well decide it’s not worth it anymore to fly Air France/KLM after the corona pandemic.

These valuable costumers could then use the situation to change loyalty to one of the main competitors of the French-Dutch airline group.

Lufthansa

It will now be interesting to see what other European airlines will do. The Lufthansa group previously announced that the members of their Miles&More frequent flyer programme would earn double status miles during the entire year of 2021 in a gesture to help them requalify.

Such a double miles promotion does make sense from Lufthansa’s perspective, as the airline does give something for free, but also expects something in return, namely its loyal customers to buy some tickets.

On a short-term basis, this makes sense as it means extra business for Lufthansa and some much needed cashflow.

But while it will definitely help some members out, such a double miles promotions will be useless for people living in countries with a full lockdown or those working for companies which haven’t resumed business travel yet.

I’m therefore curious whether or not Lufthansa will in the end come with a similar extension measure as the one announced right now by Air France/KLM as it seems like a better choice on a long-term basis.

In the same way, I’m also curious if Air France/KLM’s Flying Blue programme might still come with a double XP/miles promotion as well, as in the last half of 2020 they did run such a promo campaign as well next to the promise of protecting all frequent flyer statuses.

British Airways

Currently, British Airways has granted a 12 months membership extension to its Executive Club members who have a Tier Point collection end date of July 2020 through to June 2021.

I wouldn’t be surprised if BA would extend this further beyond June 2021 given the UK’s stringent travel restrictions.

In short

Air France/KLM’s loyalty programme Flying Blue will again give a full one year status extension to all members who will not manage to requalify this year.

This is a sensible move as it will be much appreciated by the customers, who in turn will hopefully remain loyal to Air France/KLM when the corona virus pandemic has finally ended.

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