Even though Flying Blue no longer sends physical cards to its customers, two exceptions remain: for lifetime members and Ultimate members.
It has been a year since Air France and KLM’s loyalty program, like other competing programs, stopped sending physical loyalty cards to its members, switching to a 100% digital model. The reason for this choice? An ecological concern of course and certainly without it being said officially a good opportunity to cut some expenses.
So what a surprise it was when I recently received my Flying Blue card in the mail. I knew that specific cards existed for Platinum For Life status holders but I thought they had suffered the same fate as the others and, honestly, I’d rather have all my cards in digital form in my iPhone than to fill up a full wallet. I had therefore neglected the subject a bit, especially since it’s been 5 years since I had the necessary number of XPs to obtain this status and while waiting for the fateful threshold of 10 years to be reached I didn’t think about it too much.
A rather premium packaging
And since many curious people have asked me this question, I’m going to take a few minutes to explain it all to you.
Unlike the physical cards that arrived in a simple envelope, here you receive a nice box.
Nothing to say it makes its effect. On the other hand, unless I become Ultimate, which is an impossible task given the thresholds to be reached, this is the last time that Flying Blue has the opportunity to write to me to mark the achievement of a milestone in our relationship, so they might as well do it right.
Once the box is opened you will find this:
– A thank you note from Ben Smith
– A Flying Blue Platinum for Life card
– Two Platinum for Life luggage tags
It all looks better and, I think, more qualitative at first glance than the previous Platinum for life packages I’ve seen. Indeed, the design of the card and the typefaces are more sober and more successful for my taste, the luggage tags attachments are made of metal instead of leather, and the note is signed by Ben Smith and not by the “Flying Blue team”.
A closer look shows that savings were made wherever possible.
For example, the luggage tag is now “simple” whereas before it was composed of two attached cards and you wrote your details between the two so that they were not directly visible. From now on, only one card and you write them on the back.
On the other hand we gain metal attachments which is however strange for a plastic card.
As for the card, since I was asked, it is not metal but plastic. The metal is logically reserved for the tiny thousand Ultimate members and given the effort required to achieve this status I think they should even be given a card in platinum encrusted with precious stones.
On the other hand, if I compare it to my previous Platinum Flying Blue cards, it is lighter, less rigid, in short, they have saved on the thickness of the plastic! If I have to compare it to my other cards it is thinner and less qualitative than my British Airways Executive Gold and much more qualitative than my SAS Eurobonus Diamond which must be made of the cheapest plastic and comes with unusable plastic ties because it must be 10 cents cheaper than leather ties.
Notice that the quality of the card roughly matches the quality gaps between the loyalty programs.
On the other hand, the Flying Blue is in my opinion the prettiest and someone will have to explain to me why British Airways doesn’t allow me to add its card to the wallet application on my iPhone. Stupid.
How do you get a Flying Blue Physical card?
I know that many people value this symbolic object that is a physical card, especially when they have a high status. Well, as I said in the preamble, since January 2022 Flying Blue no longer gives out physical cards, even platinum, either systematically or on request.
Ironically, Flying Blue no longer gives out physical cards for environmental reasons…except to its customers who fly the most! Go figure…
So if you want to get one, you have to fit into the two exceptions: become Platinum For Life or Ultimate.
Becoming Platinum for Life requires being Platinum for 10 consecutive years, which for me meant scoring 3000 XP over 10 years. The rollover mechanism that allows you to carry over excess XP from one year to the next actually allowed me to acquire it in 5 years and wait 5 years before getting the status. With COVID, 8 years would have been enough for me since the statudes were extended two years in a row.
A small relief since previously I had reached 7 years before becoming Gold again and having to start from scratch.
Today, since the redesign of Flying Blue operated in 2018 it is a little more complicated.
Before, it was enough for a customer who started from scratch to make his 300 XP within a year to become platinum. Today he will have to make 100 XP to become Silver, then 180 to become Gold and 300 to become platinum. While platinum status could be achieved in one year with 300 XP, it now requires 580 XP and is more likely to be achieved in 3 years than in one. Finally, the lifetime Platinum can no longer be reached by starting from scratch with 3000 XP but 3580 minimum which is almost 20% more than before!
Otherwise you have the Ultimate status which requires 900 UXP per year. UXP ? Yes, it’s like the XP but you only earn them by flying on Air France or KLM, not on partner airlines. And the rollover does not work for UXP. Try climbing Everest instead, it should be a little easier.
Bottom line
Only Flying Blue Platinum for Life and Ultimate members now receive physical cards. But this article, which is anecdotal to say the least, is above all an opportunity to point out how difficult these statuses are to achieve and why their holders see them as a small victory, futile perhaps, but a victory nonetheless.
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