Air France KLM continues to evolve their Flying Blue program with some small changes that will be effective as of March 28, 2023. Overall the changes are relatively minor and for the most part I see them as a slight enhancement to the program. The changes are as follows:
10% discount on first checked bag
The first enhancement to the Flying Blue program is for base level Explorer members who as of March 28, 2023 will now receive a 10% discount on the fee for your first checked bag. This of course is only applicable if you are checking baggage and travelling on a fare that does not included checked baggage. For example, all Flying Blue Reward Tickets out of Canada include your first checked bag so this would discount would not be applicable. Nonetheless even if you are only planning on flying either airline just once, now it makes sense to join the program to get that discount.
New Silver Elite Member benefits
Silver Elite members will now be able to select premium paid seats free of charge the day before departure. Currently Silver members only receive a 25% discount when selecting premium paid seats.
Silver members will also now enjoy a guaranteed 25% discount on lounge access up until the day before departure. However they lose that discount access if purchasing lounge access at 24 hours or less before departure.
New Gold Elite Member benefits
Gold Elite members will now be able to select premium paid seats including Economy Comfort free of charge three days before departure. Currently Gold members receive a 50% discount when selecting premium paid seats.
A new logo
While this doesn’t affect members in any way, based on the email from AF KLM we can expect them to roll out a new Flying Blue logo:
Wrapping it up
Air France KLM has taken another step in their pledge to make their Flying Blue attractive to a wider range of travellers and these latest updates confirm that. The 10% discount for your first checked bag will get lots of people to join the program just so they can save a few Dollars or Euros on their travels. And for Flying Blue it grows their database of potential customers to market seat sales and other deals to!