Expiring millions of points and statuses. CHECK your Flying Blue account
Over the past 24 months, airlines have tried to protect loyalty program members as much as possible. Renewals [...]
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Air France
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Over the past 24 months, airlines have tried to protect loyalty program members as much as possible. Automatic status renewals, simplification of requirements, promotions to make it easier to reach thresholds to obtain/renew status.
All this, predictably, is coming to an end. Already last year almost all carriers had announced the end of automatic status renewals, which is understandable considering that due to covid many users who would have lost status in 2020 got 3 years of status even without doing anything. For this we have started a series of articles to help frequent flyers avoid losing points along the way.
Now, however, the divestment of a second parachute is approaching, or what many companies had put in place not for status, but for accumulated points.
We explained in detail How the expiration of points works and rules of each program, but at this stage covid measures are still in place that have effectively frozen the expiration of points. All of this is coming to an end, however.
The Flying Blue case
Today we are talking about one of the most popular programs in Italy with over half a million members: the frequent flyer of Air France and KLM. Flying Blue December 31 will cancel more than 1.5 million points to tens of thousands of passengers. Why. These users have not done any activity for more than 24 months.
Flying Blue rules
The points deadline is the nightmare of the reward traveler, or maybe it would be fair to say is A mortal sin on the part of the user.
Air France and KLM's frequent flyer program. gives, as a benefit to its elite users, a guarantee that their points will not expire as long as the status is maintained.
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Unfortunately, however, this does not affect simple members, that is, those who have the entry level "Explorer." In this case the points have a certain expiration date: 24 months since the last activity done.
Enrolled with more than one hundred thousand points expiring
We recently met with AF management at TTG in Rimini, Italy. and in the course of our chat it emerged that over a million points will expire at the end of the year to thousands of members.
Of course, in this cauldron there are those who have a few hundred or thousands of points, insufficient to redeem a prize ticket. What surprised me is to find that there are hundreds of users with more than 10/20 thousand FB on their card, points that could easily be used to fly to Paris or even New York, without paying anything but taxes.
To understand the amount of points that will be lost (to the happiness of the company, which will then have spent nothing) just think that there are three FB cards with over 100 thousand points, points that will disappear along with the New Year's Eve bangs.
A real waste when we consider that, thanks to monthly offers, it is possible to book an award ticket to fly business class to the Caribbean even with less than 35k FB points. Or that a ticket to New York, again in business, costs an average of 55k points each way.
How to save points
The beauty of the FB program is that it allows you to renew validity for another 24 months by simply "waking up" the dormant account with a new flight. Flight that does not necessarily have to be made with Air France or KLM, but with any of the Skyteam airlines or partners, e.g. Virgin Atlantic.
Please note NO flights operated by ITA Airways are currently valid. Unfortunately, as explained to us at TTG by the Italian company itself, At present, the accumulation of points is not yet possible on the other carriers.
It is also possible to save the bill by taking a flight with the low-cost airline Transavia, which flies from many Italian airports and allows you to accumulate FB points.
A second way is to obtain at least the Silver level, by doing so the expiration of points is frozen as long as you maintain the status. For example, if you are missing a handful of XP points to reach the Silver level you can Stay in an Accor hotel and take advantage of the promotion that gives 5 XP on your first stay.
What doesn't work to save points
Unfortunately, it is not possible to save points by moving the account via point transfer, for example, from Membership Rewards to Flying Blue points.
Nor do FB points accumulated through rentals, hotel stays or even point purchases count toward renewal. In fact, all these activities are categorized differently. There is no contrivance to "cheat" the system, one must take a ticket, even a super economy ticket, even doing one way.
How to use points
If you find yourself in this situation and have no flights scheduled, here's how to use your points and not lose everything for nothing.
- Give a Christmas card to some friends or relatives. The best way is to use them, then book one or more airline tickets for friends, relatives or neighbors. The fact that they expire on December 31 means that you have to use them by that date, not that you have to fly by the end of the year.
- If a family member has an active account, and perhaps a status, you can create the Fliying Blue Family profile e transfer expiring points. In this way, nothing is lost and you can use the points in the future.
- Shopping on Air France's dedicated portal where you can Purchase items starting from a few thousand points. Of course it is a practice we advise against, but if the alternative is to lose everything, better to have an extra pan than a bunch of nothing in your hand.
- Turning points into vouchers. Also via the AF website you can convert points into vouchers for use in AF's travel packages
- Transfer FB points into All Accor loyalty program points.
- Donating miles to charitable causes. Flying Blue has 21 partners-from the Red Cross to Unicef, WWF to the possibility of supporting causes such as Doctors Without Borders or donating the miles to help reforestation.
It is also possible to donate small amounts (starting from 500 points): depending on the amount of points you donate, it will be possible to accumulate XP points for status renewal. A valuable initiative by AF/KLM to reward users who choose to support charitable causes, unique in aviation.
In conclusion
It is hard to forget that you have a full piggy bank in a closet, but it can happen. So this article is meant to put a flea in the ear and maybe spark some forgetful people.
It could also be that the holder is no longer alive, due to covid or other reasons. In this case you can use the points if you have access to the account, unfortunately in this case the FB program does not provide the possibility of bequeathing the points to someone, as some programs do.
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