Yesterday, we got to know about the devaluation of the Flying Blue Partner Award. This devaluation was not brutal but definitely unannounced. Now, there is an update.
Devaluation or Upward Pricing was a Temporary Fix
Ben Lipsey, the head of Flying Blue, shared on Flyer Talk (available via VPN from India) that it was a false alarm. A temporary partner award pricing was put in place due to some mistaken fares on partners. Here is what he said.
Sorry guys, false alarm. We were made aware of some mistake fares on partners (notably 1500/4000 miles for shorthaul Y/J on DL). Being Christmas Day, we didn’t have the active resources in place to fix the root cause so we put in a temporary fix which applied a minimum price on partners. We will do our best to correct the airline partner pricing as soon as possible. Apologies for the inconvenience.
The pricing he is talking about is Delta. Last night, I checked some forums on Reddit, where there were discussions about Delta’s first class bookable on short-haul flights for just 4K flying blue miles. So, to keep an check on it, a temporary fix was made.
Is pricing back to normal?
- The partner award pricing is back to normal. That is a positive.
- The upward miles for partner award was temprory fix for mistake fares.
- The minimum miles for routes that I checked are coming as usual.
- Pricing for Business Class flights are also corrected.
Latest Pricing:
Thoughts
- The rolling back of the temporary fix is a positive, more so the communication of why it happened.
- Yes, the frequent flyer program devalues gradually; however, any devaluation without notice is never great since the travellers are putting trust into the program.
- In the future, we may see better communication from flying blue, let’s see.
Bottomline
Air France-KLM Flying Blue has corrected partner awards, which were temporarily raised yesterday. This temporary fix was not precisely a devaluation but to check on mistake fares on certain partners like Delta Airlines. However, it is always better for the program and travellers if there is communication; otherwise, such changes could have lasting implications.
