Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue is reducing fuel surcharges it charges for economy awards and charges only the long haul fuel surcharge for premium economy, business and first class awards that include connections. You can read more about this on Flying Blue’s website here.
Edit Apr 25: The current and the new award charts are available on my post here.
There is no change in number of miles required for base level economy awards. There is, however, rise of 25% to 33% in number of miles required for premium economy, business and first class awards.
The new award chart goes into effect on June 1, 2013, but you can book under the old award chart schedule until December 31, 2013, by calling Air France-KLM’s contact centers.
The new chart applies to promo awards that can only be booked online starting from June 1 onwards.
Elite awards on Air France cease to exist on June 1, 2013.
Economy Changes
The number of miles required for the base level economy award won’t change. There will be additional availability at number of different levels. There are no examples of these variable amounts, however, that are likely very high.
Seems that the “carrier imposed fee” is charged at 50 euros per way. This same 50 euros includes the connecting flights as well.
It is unclear if this 50 euro fee includes all Air France-KLM’s destinations or if there is a higher fee for other destinations.
Premium Economy Changes
Premium economy only applies to Air France, as KLM doesn’t have this product.
The “carrier imposed fee”seems to be set to 110 euros per way and includes the connecting flights as well. The number of miles required for an award is 33% higher on the example above.
Business & First Class Changes
The “carrier imposed fee” stays the same and is not reduced on this award type. Flying Blue will introduce business and first class awards at variable number of miles required. There are no examples about how may miles will be required for this type of award in the future.
The only benefit is that there is no fuel surcharge collected for the feeder flights. None of the two examples are for direct flights and thus seems that you would always save money that is not going to be the case.
The number of miles required for these awards is 25% higher in the future than currently. It is unclear, if there are going to be awards that are more than 25% more expensive. Flying Blue hasn’t released a new award chart.
Conclusion
It has made no sense to redeem for economy awards using Flying Blue miles due to very high fuel surcharges that Air France & KLM both charges. After this change, it may make sense at some markets and when they have economy promo awards
The number of miles required for premium economy, business, and first class awards will go up. On the examples that Flying Blue has listed on their website, the rise is between 33% to 25%. It is unclear, if some awards go up more, as they haven’t released a new award chart.
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Hmmm… my first impression is that I think this is a good thing. I have a lot of miles on FB that I never use because it’s just been crazy expensive I think… But the proof is in the pudding as you say, so we’ll see whenever I sit down and check for an award flight whether it is good or not. 🙂 Still I have to say that one of the best programs has to be EB. My last award in eco+ ARN-EWR r/t was 305SEK, which is about 40 euro I guess. My airport cab cost more than the whole trip. 🙂
This is only good if you use your miles for long-haul economy awards. Those are not usually a very good use of miles.
Hmm.. maybe that is the case, but I just want the surcharges to come down to reasonable prices. Based on your examples above, sure the amount of miles has increased for a biz ticket, but it’s more reasonable in surcharges. Still a lot compared to for example SAS, but one can at least use it without feeling it cost as much as a real ticket.. 🙂 I am of course biased in the sense that I would just want to use all my miles I have racked up. I managed to get me and the wife a r/t ARN-JFK on AF in F a few years ago without paying through the nose, but I still have a couple hundred thousands miles left to use.
I never fly KLM/AF nowadays, but I used to be a platinum member many years ago and I recall it was easy to earn alot of miles. Maybe that has changed over the years after I’ve switched to mostly *A.
Personally, I don’t think that there should be any other “taxes and fees” than the actual taxes levied by the government for “free” award tickets.
I am doing a more comprehensive piece about these fuel surcharges shortly.
I agree totally. I also read somewhere that KLM has introduced more booking classes hat can be upgraded with miles, so that might be a way to actually use ones miles as well. The way it was before with only full price eco was upgradeable made it useless I think.
Klm actually has premium economy. Wonder why it isn’t available for awards.
Isn’t that Economy Comfort?
Probably, it’s like 10 first rows of economy on the long-haul fleet. With extra legroom, better food and other advantages. I thought they sell it as premium economy. But i may be wrong.
“Flying Blue hasn’t released a new award chart.”
yes they have, bottom of the page here, where it says
New award and surcharge schemes
View new long haul award scheme
View new carrier imposed international surcharge scheme
http://www.flyingblue.com/long-haul-award.html
Yes.I know and I am working on an update that will be up in about an hour.