In what can be seen as a great move for those who fly Transatlantic
in Economy Class but not a great move for those in Premium Economy or Business Class
Cabins, Air France KLM is making changes to their Intercontinental award tickets that will come into effect sometime in June.
Economy
- For Economy Class
redemptions they are reducing the Fuel Surcharge to a flat EUR50 each
direction from the previous 147 EUR (Round trip fuel surcharge will now
by 100 EUR, previous was 296) - For Intercontinental Award tickets
that include a connection Europe (ie Montreal-Paris-Milan) the
connection no longer has a separately charge fuel surcharge as it is
included in the above rate - There will now be more award
availability for Economy Class tickets however they will be at varying
mileage amounts (think Aeroplan)
Premium Economy
- For Premium Economy Class redemptions they are reducing the Fuel Surcharge to a
flat 110 EUR each direction from the previous 188 EUR (Round trip fuel
surcharge will now by 220 EUR, previous was 376) - For Intercontinental Award tickets that include a connection Europe (ie
Montreal-Paris-Milan) the connection no longer has a separately charge
fuel surcharge as it is included in the above rate - The mileage required for Premium Economy Class is increasing (this is the bad news)
- They have increased the amount of booking fare classes you can upgrade to Premium Economy from using miles
Business Class
- Fuel surcharges are not changing
- For Intercontinental Award tickets that include a connection Europe (ie
Montreal-Paris-Milan) the connection no longer has a separately charge
fuel surcharge as it is included in the above rate - The mileage required for Business Class is increasing (this is the bad news)
- There will now be more award
availability for Business Class tickets however they will be at varying
mileage amounts (think Aeroplan) - They have increased the amount of booking fare classes you can upgrade to Business Class from using miles
Complete details on the changes can found here
Loyalty Lobby has put together a great post detailing how many miles will be required pre- and post- changes. For those of us in Canada here are the changes on flights from Canada to Europe (see LoyaltyLobby for other routes):
– Premium Economy goes from 37,500 Flying Blue one way to 50,000 Flying Blue Miles
– Business Class moves to 62,500 from 50,000.
– First Class (where available) jumps to 162,500 from 125,000
As you can see these are some significant increases for those flying in the premium cabins! A round trip flight in Business Class will now cost 125,000 Flying Blue Miles instead of the current 100,000. Which means when they run their Flying Blue Promo awards the discounted round-trip will now be 62,500 instead of 50,000 (still a pretty decent deal but sad to see the devaluation nonetheless!)
The true winner in these changes are Economy Class redemptions as the mileage amount required has not changed and in fact have become cheaper with the new 50EUR each way fuel surcharge.
What are your thoughts on the changes? Chime in below!