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UPDATE: This appears to be a short-term issue and not a devaluation after all. View from the Wing just reported that Program head and Air France-KLM Senior Vice President, Ben Lipsey, shared:
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.”
Flying Blue, the loyalty program for Air France-KLM, devalued the redemptions for partner awards by increasing the cost by up to 100%. The biggest increases have hit short-haul awards since these doubled in cost without notice yesterday.
Partner awards on airlines like Aeromexico and Delta Air Lines saw dramatic increases with costs rising from 5,000 to 10,000 miles in Economy Class and from 10,000 to 20,000 miles in Business Class. While these are steep increases, they are still far cheaper than redeeming Delta SkyMiles®. Other awards have increased in cost from 5% to 50%.
A FlyerTalk thread was the first place where these changes were noted. Some examples include:
- Aeromexico: Mexico City International Airport (MEX) to Oaxaca International Airport (OAX) increased from 5,000 miles in Economy and 15,000 miles in Business Class to 10,000 in Economy and 20,000 in Business Class
- Qantas: Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD) to Melbourne Airport (MEL) increased from 5,000 miles in Economy and 15,000 miles in Business Class to 10,000 in Economy and 20,000 in Business Class
- Delta Air Lines: Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) to New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA) increased from 7,000 miles in Economy and 18,000 miles in Business Class to 10,000 in Economy and 20,000 in Business Class
- Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK) increased in cost from 6,000 miles in Economy and 15,000 miles in Business Class to 10,000 in Economy and 20,000 in Business Class
- Etihad: award from Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport (AUH) to Seoul Incheon International Airport (ICN) increased in cost from 26,000 miles in Economy and 51,500 miles in Business Class to 28,000 in Economy and 55,000 in Business Class
Some of my fellow bloggers are getting upset by these unannounced devaluations, but I’m not quite as perturbed. Every loyalty program has increased the cost of awards. Delta started with raising costs to the point of ridiculousness. This caused the coining of the term “Skypesos.” United has followed and made its awards much more costly. Alaska has even made changes to its generous loyalty program, but still offers some of the best rates. American Airlines is one of the few that has not gauged prices.
The miles and points game constantly changes. While there are always sweet spots it is taking more work to find them. As the hobby has grown, more people have joined the fray. This has made less awards available and the airlines to increase the number of miles and points needed for these redemptions.
Anthony’s Take: Award devaluations happen and will continue to happen. These changes are not welcome, but they are to be expected.
(Image Credits: SkyTeam and Air France.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
