Air France KLM Just Put A Real Points Expert In Charge Of Flying Blue

Most loyalty programs are run by people who understand spreadsheets better than members. Flying Blue just went the other way, tapping someone who has spent years on the member side of loyalty: helping travelers understand points, search awards, and navigate the programs from the outside. That is rare — and very good news for a program that is already one of the strongest worldwide. Tiffany Funk is the new Head of Air France KLM Flying Blue.

Air Canada’s Mark Nasr and Scott O’Leary have described “the inmates running the asylum” at Aeroplan, where real travel and mileage geeks found themselves in charge of loyalty and set out to put together a program that worked for members while still working financially. So you got the elimination of fuel surcharges from the awards, stopovers, and more airline partners than any other program.

I don’t think anyone would arrest Tiffany, she’s no inmate, but she spent years managing Ben Schlappig’s One Mile at a Time blog and award booking service, and she co-founded the point.me award search tool.

A sometimes commenter on this blog, she’s known for:

• Advice to treat irregular options like the zombie apocalypse: you keep moving or die.

• Coining the term “Snack Towers of Sadness”

  

• Being extremely knowledgeable about the intracacies of every loyalty program, while remaining eminently reasonable and a good person with good values. She cares deeply about doing the right thing and how decisions affect real people.

I’ve been wondering what would be next for Tiffany since she announced she’s be leaving point.me last month.

Flying Blue was run by Ben Lipsey, before he was promoted. Ben is a frequent flyer nerd himself. He started out on FlyerTalk and connected with Air Canada’s Ben Smith for an internship. He eventually got a job there, and in 2018 went with Smith over to Air France KLM as the CEO’s Chief of Staff before heading up loyalty.

Lipsey drove Flying Blue profits by reducing award redemption rates and re-introducing an award chart after the program had eliminated it. He understands how the program fits for loyalists, refreshing their U.S. credit card as a tool for status.

Overall, Flying Blue is one of the best frequent flyer programs in the world and it’s tough to argue any within the SkyTeam alliance come close – reasonable redemption rates, easily accessible points, and good premium cabin award availability for its own members (given the number of U.S. gateways, and that if space isn’t available at the lowest level then it’s reasonable at the next price point up).

Hopefully Tiffany can help simplify status-earning in the program. I need to check the terms myself every time I write about moving from one tier to the next. And hopefully she’ll suceed in some of the ongoing battles with revenue management faced by every airline frequent flyer program – selfishly I want to see business class transatlantic awards offered regularly as part of their monthly ‘promo awards’ (and not just from Canada).

Incidentally, the early FlyerTalk-to-loyalty and airline product pipeline is strong. In addition to Lipsey, Air Canada Vice President of Inflight and Air Canada Rouge Andrew Yiu began on FlyerTalk as “Empress” until switching to his real name for his username when he got hired on by Air Canada in 2005. And Air Canada’s Vice President of Loyalty and Product Scott O’Leary was the Continental Airlines representative (“CO Insider”) on FlyerTalk. I’d also add that former BoardingArea blogger and Point.me team member Gilbert Ott now works in loyalty at oneworld.

I often cover moves within leadership of loyalty programs, but this is one I’m genuinely excited for – both for Tiffany as the next step in her journey, and because she is clear-headed and understands loyalty very well from the perspective of both members and business. The program couldn’t be in better hands. I somehow feel much better about my burgeoning Flying Blue balance than I did even this morning when I last updated my accounts in Award Wallet.