Lucky and TM Travel World have mentioned that Air France/KLM Flying Blue is offering a status match from most competing airline programs, including up to their Platinum level. The proof they ask for is for you to upload a scan of your elite membership card.
Here’s Troy’s explanation:
Lucky mentioned this offer, which you can get status match to up AF top status Platinum tier. you must include proof of membership in another customer loyalty program that includes the status name and validity period.
It can be any program on earth except SKYTEAM members
offer valid until March 31st, 2011
I had seen this and thought about blogging it, I didn’t. And then I saw Ben post it, so I emailed him the following thought..
I thought about the Flying Blue status match…I thought “Ah, if I had Flying Blue status I could redeem miles for Air France first class.” [They only let their elites do this, and don’t offer saver seats even then if I recall correctly.]
And then I thought, “Oh, yeah, Air France first class sucks.” [Ok, not compared to coach!]
And then I thought further, “And it’s still a ton of miles.”
So I decided against the match.
Is there ANY reason that I want Flying Blue status, considering that it’s unlikely to make me want to actually, you know, like fly on a Skyteam airline?
You don’t even get Delta lounge access on domestic itineraries as a FB Platinum as far as I know.
As Ben observed in his own post on the subject, of course, if you have competing status (even free bmi Silver status) you can become a Flying Blue elite and get complimentary checked bags. That’s something!
And there is the value that Flying Blue offers 50% discounts on specific route awards that if you’re willing to take advantage of those routes, perhaps by flying to or from a less than desireable airport, you can get a decent bargain.
And for folks in DC like me, Air France goes A380 for their afternoon Paris flight in June, and award availability on that flight is amazing.
But that’s a pretty limited case of usefulness. Still, I pass it along in case your situation makes it worthwhile to match over to Flying Blue. Me, not so much…
I don’t understand, it’s free status! Isn’t it like your rule for free miles?
I mean, is there a downside I am not seeing? It seems to me the only cost is to scan and mail, really not much…
@Benjh Sometimes hotels/airlines only allow a status match once in a lifetime, or once in so many years. I can not tell you each case and what it is, but you may blow your chance with Flying Blue if you take it just to take it. Obviously there are ways around it in the future, but that is your decision.
An example, last year or so Budget had a free trial silver preferred program with US. Now with US you can only do this program once every two years. So if you took it just to take it, and then for whatever reason started flying US a year later and wanted to do the challenge, you would be out of luck.
Cheers.
elite status with fb gets you preferred access to the 50% promo awards…for a 15% redemption premium.
What beaubo said.
Also, one could use this to get a status match in another FFP (say, one’s a *A Gold and wants to switch to another *A FFP – you could do this via FB but not directly)
Or one could use this to save some orphaned FB miles from expiring. (I, for one, am sitting on some 50K which I could actually use for a one-way flight in J if I see a Promo award I like)
I have a *G expiring this year, as does my wife. We match to Flying Blue top tier, and then we are well placed if there is another Star Alliance status match next year.
@Derek, Thanks for the info. Yeah the once in a lifetime thing might make it less interesting, although this is a “special offer” so no word if it would count.
As for me, I just moved to Europe, so even though I don’t plan on flying AF or KLM too much, it’s as good a time as any. I’ll be flying a bit of CityJet it could come in handy there…
Why did you “think about posting” the offer but not post it initially? You really didn’t explain that (unless I missed it).
@mark didn’t seem worth posting at first!
Anybody has any idea how long it takes for Flying Blue to come back to the request? I have used my QF Platinum to status match to Flying Blue Platinum last Thursday but have not yet heard anything, not even an acknowledgement of receiving my request!
I did get an e-mail yesterday. KLM told me I get Silver – matching my Silver from BMI. Took about 12 days, I think.
Well I did the status match application thing, and today I was awarded Ivory status. Wow.
@Mike Ivory is non-status, did they reject your application or have they just not processed it yet?
I applied for status match on March 31, haven’t heard anything so far :-(… waiting for a response from customer service.
Got an update from customer service.
“We have been informed that given the success of this campaign, it may take 6 to 8 weeks to handle requests. After this time period, members are requested to consult their accounts on our websites to check if they have been upgraded as well as print a copy of the new card.”
🙁