Your Cheapest Air France Award Just Lost the Lounge

Air France and KLM’s Flying Blue programme moved its award tickets onto a three-tier structure for new bookings made from September 8, splitting redemptions into Light, Standard and Flex fares. The entry-level Light award keeps the mileage price that used to buy a full award ticket. What it no longer keeps is what came attached. Light awards carry no changes, no refunds and no advance seat selection in economy, premium economy or business. Economy Light and Premium Light also drop the checked baggage allowance, and Business Light no longer includes lounge access.

The design is why the change has drawn more comment than a straightforward price rise would have. A conventional devaluation raises the number of miles on the chart and is visible to anyone who looks at it. This one leaves the cheapest number where it was and moves the benefits up a tier, so a member comparing today’s price with last month’s sees no difference until they reach the airport without a bag allowance. Getting back roughly what a redemption used to include now means booking the Standard fare, which costs more miles than the old single price did.

The changes apply only to travel on Air France and KLM metal. Partner awards booked through Flying Blue, which is one of the more useful things the programme does given its access to SkyTeam and beyond, price as before. Elite members are also largely insulated: Flying Blue Platinum and above keep their status benefits regardless of which fare bundle they book, so lounge access and baggage travel with the member rather than with the ticket. Everything already ticketed is honoured under the conditions it was sold with.

For anyone sitting on a Flying Blue balance, the practical response is to price the tiers against each other rather than reaching for the cheapest line. A Business Light award that excludes the lounge, a checked bag on some fares and any possibility of a change is a different product from the business award the same balance bought in August, and on a long-haul itinerary with a connection the difference is not academic. The other response is to look harder at partner redemptions, which for now remain the part of the programme this restructuring did not touch.

Sources: The Points Guy, Prince of Travel