Air France-Qantas: Another step towards the end of alliances?

On Monday, December 9, 2019, Air France-KLM Group announced a new partnership with Qantas, even more advanced than the existing one.

The press release issued on December 9, 2019

While Delta is the majority shareholder of Virgin Altantic (which is not in SkyTeam) and LATAM (which was previously in Oneworld) and the recent setbacks for Kenya Airwaysthis news confirms that the three existing alliances, namely SkyTeam, Star Alliance and Oneworld have little future in the eyes of the airlines.

Deciphering this new partnership, a bit tepid.

Mutual benefits

With the new partnership, members of the Flying Blue frequent flyer program will be able to earn experience points (XP), a new status earning metric, on flights marketed and operated by Qantas, according to the same scale as that of the SkyTeam airlines

The traditional XP earning scale will be applicable to flights marketed and operated by Qantas

As for earning miles, it will be based on the Qantas booking class:

First–F, A: 150%
Business – J, C, D : 125 % ; I : 100 %.
Premium Economy : W : 110 % ; R : 100 % ; T : 75 %.
Economy––Y, B : 100 %; H : 75 %; K, M : 50 %; L, S, V : 25 %; G, N, O, Q : 20 %

Reciprocity in earning miles is also valid on Qantas frequent flyer programs, as Air France is considered a full partner.

So let’s test a domestic Australian flight on Qantas, to see how many XP and miles earned, for example, a Sydney-Melbourne on a long weekend:

The price is correct, a little above 150€ for the weekend (prices like we do not make any more on Air France…). The ticket is booked in class O. So 25% Flying Blue miles and 4 XP (2 for each leg as these are domestic flights).

Expensive award tickets

In terms of award tickets, our strategy at TravelGuys is pretty clear: the amount of taxes is so high that it’s only worth it in Business class.

So let’s try to use our Flying Blue miles on a long domestic flight, in this case between Sydney and Perth.

Sure, the flight is long, but asking for 43,000 miles for a domestic flight in Business is staggering (and all flights are like that, so I assume that’s the minimum amount). For your information, SAS only charges 45000 for a transatlantic flight in Business.

In Economy, it’s more decent in miles but still quite high.

Fortunately, the amount of taxes is quite low.

Not at all sure that using miles on Qantas is a good deal for Flying Blue members.

Poor benefits linked to the statuses

One could imagine a broader partnership on the statutes, but it will not be, and the benefits are limited to soft benefits, requiring few means.

Air France-KLM, in its press release, limits itself to a terse sentence: “Flying Blue Elite customers will also benefit from additional advantages when flying with Qantas, such as priority airport services or a more generous baggage allowance.

On its website, Qantas is more loquacious, and specifies that the benefits do not include access to the lounge for Elite+ passengers for example.

Bottom line

Although a little lukewarm, this partnership between Air France-KLM and Qantas marks a real material turning point for the airline alliances, impacting French passengers in full force.

Qantas also has a similar partnership with Emirates… And one could envisage, in the long run, a certain transitivity… Maybe? The future will tell.