It’s not official yet, but it will be soon: Air France and KLM will launch a new status for their frequent flyer program, Flying Blue. An update on what we know about it.
Yes, we are writing a lot about Flying Blue at the moment, for once!
Closing the huge gap between Platinum and Ultimate status
As we said a few days ago :achieving Ultimate status is very difficult and requires a significant investment : the qualification threshold of 900 UXP is 3x higher than the threshold for Platinum status and requires flying only on Air France and KLM to obtain these UXP.
The step between the two statuses therefore leaves many passengers in the middle of the road. The new status (or super-status, like Ultimate) is therefore intended to fill this gap.
Qualification at 600 UXP for little benefit
So it will be somewhere in between, 600 UXP for this new super-status (whose name is not yet known), and for slim benefits. KLM has been running an experiment for a few months, made official earlier this week to bring just one additional benefit to Platinum members who get 600 UXP over a rolling year: the possibility to use the Travel Assistant team already available to Ultimate customers.
All this for that?
Yes, so much for that… Well, yes and no. By creating this new status, Air France and KLM are massively devaluing the statuses below: Platinum, Gold and Silver. They are, in effect, copying the mechanism adopted by the world’s leading hotel chain, Marriott, which has created two statuses above Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador. As a result, the focus shifts back to the two highest categories, with the “Platinum Rednecks” now in 3rd rank of priority. The price of fame for Flying Blue?
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