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Flying Blue, the rewards/frequent flyer program for Air France and KLM, has announced that it is restructuring how it prices up awards and that going forward, the lowest cost awards will come with considerably fewer perks than they do now.
Importantly, if you want to enjoy the perks you get now, you’ll have to use more miles.
This devaluation (make no mistake, that’s what this is) comes with less than three weeks’ notice and, we’re told, is all about giving travelers more choice and, presumably, nothing to do with making more money.
The changes
From 8 September 2026, all new reward bookings on Air France and KLM-operated flights will be sold in three fare options: Light, Standard and Flex.
Flying Blue describes Light as “the essential option”, Standard as “a balanced option offering a combination of comfort and flexibility”, and Flex as “the most comprehensive experience”, which we’re told also comes with “a lower mandatory cash contribution when booking your reward ticket”.
The changes apply to Air France and KLM-operated and marketed flights only. Reward tickets on partner airlines remain unchanged, and where an Air France or KLM flight is combined with a partner flight in the same itinerary, only the Standard fare will be available.
All booking classes are affected with the exception of La Première (P/F fare classes).
Reward tickets issued before 8 September 2026 are not affected, and Flying Blue says the conditions of the original ticket will be maintained when changes are made to an unused ticket.
Benefits linked to Flying Blue status, including additional baggage allowance and waived change and refund fees where applicable, are unchanged and will continue to apply on the day of departure regardless of which fare option is booked.
Flying Blue says the new structure “further differentiates the value of Flying Blue status benefits”, giving complimentary checked baggage for Silver members and enhanced flexibility benefits for higher tiers as its examples.
Where a service isn’t included in the fare selected, it can still be bought separately during booking, afterwards through My Trip (KLM) or My Bookings (Air France), or at the airport.
This is what the new booking options will look like and what they’ll offer:
Economy Class
| Light | Standard | Flex | |
| Checked baggage | None | One bag (up to 23kg) | One bag (up to 23kg) |
| Hand baggage | One item (total 12kg) | One item (total 12kg) | One item (total 12kg) |
| Changes | Not included | €70 (approximately $81) | Included |
| Refunds | Not included | €70 (approximately $81) | Included |
| Advance seat selection | Extra cost | Extra cost | Included |
| SkyPriority | Not included | Not included | Not included |
| Lounge access | Extra cost | Extra cost | Extra cost |
Premium Economy
| Light | Standard | Flex | |
| Checked baggage | None | Two bags (up to 23kg each) | Two bags (up to 23kg each) |
| Hand baggage | Two items (total 12kg) | Two items (total 12kg) | Two items (total 12kg) |
| Changes | Not included | €70 (approximately $81) | Included |
| Refunds | Not included | €70 (approximately $81) | Included |
| Advance seat selection | Extra cost | Extra cost | Included |
| SkyPriority | Included | Included | Included |
| Lounge access | Extra cost | Extra cost | Extra cost |
Business Class
| Light (O/Z only) | Standard | Flex | |
| Checked baggage | One bag (up to 32kg) | Two bags (up to 32kg each) | Two bags (up to 32kg each) |
| Hand baggage | Two items (total 18kg) | Two items (total 18kg) | Two items (total 18kg) |
| Changes | Not included | €70 (approximately $81) | Included |
| Refunds | Not included | €70 (approximately $81) | Included |
| Advance seat selection | Extra cost | Extra cost | Included |
| SkyPriority | Included | Included | Included |
| Lounge access | Extra cost | Included | Included |
The new fares will be available from 8 September 2026 across all Air France, KLM and Flying Blue booking channels.
Link to the Flying Blue announcement
What Flying Blue didn’t tell us (but we know)
Nowhere in the reasonably long press release did Flying Blue give us any examples of what we can expect the new award prices to look like. Now that the entry-level awards come with fewer benefits than ever before, will Flying Blue be charging less for these awards?
Of course not!
Head for Points has managed to elicit an example from Flying Blue to show what Business Class pricing between Paris and New York will look like from 8 September onwards, but before we get to that, keep in mind that right now, a Business Class award on this route starts from 60,000 miles + taxes/fees …
… and that the award booking comes with these benefits:
From 8 September, pricing for the three new award types will look like this:
- Business Light – From 60,000 miles + €527 (~$611) taxes/surcharges
- Business Standard – From 75,000 miles + €527 (~$611) taxes/surcharges
- Business Flex – From 110,000 miles + €262 (~$304) taxes/surcharges
So, the Business Light fare will start at the same cost as today’s Business Class fares, but will not be changeable, will not be refundable, will not include lounge access and will offer just one checked bag instead of two.
To get most of the benefits that you already get today, you’ll have to use 25% more miles than you do right now.
I wonder why Flying Blue didn’t mention this in the press release? 🙂
Thoughts
Clearly this is bad news, but what’s most annoying is the disingenuous nature of the press release which tries to make these changes sound like a positive move for Flying Blue members while, at the same time, being completely opaque about what the cost of these changes will be.
What makes this doubly disappointing is that this is all being done while Flying Blue is run by Tiffany Funk who spent years working alongside Ben at One Mile at a Time, and who is immersed in the miles and points world.
If anyone should understand how annoying it is to have a program spouting nonsense and treating its members like idiots it’s Tiffany, and yet here we are …
All of that aside, however, the key thing to note for anyone booking Flying Blue awards is it looks like you will not be able to change award bookings or get them refunded if you book a “Light” fare, so you had better be 100% certain that you’ll be able to travel before you book one of those.
Essentially, Flying Blue is going to be forcing a lot of people to pay more by booking standard awards, because most of us who use miles and points do so not only because these bookings save money, but because they give us flexibility as well.
These Light fares don’t appear to offer any flexibility at all and should come with some kind of health warning.
The thing we now have to wait and see is how these changes will affect the monthly Flying Blue Promo Awards. Will we have three levels of Promo Awards or will Promo awards only be offered as a Light fare?
If it’s the former, that’s bad. If it’s the latter, that’s a disaster.
Bottom line
Flying Blue has announced that it’s doing all its members a favor by changing how it prices award bookings.
Going forward, members will have the choice of Light, Standard and Flex award bookings where the Light fares start from the same price point that awards start at right now (a fact conveniently left out of the press release), but will offer considerably less than the same priced awards offer today.
Worse yet, the cheapest awards will offer no flexibility at all, so if a member books a “Light” fare with their hard-earned miles and then unexpectedly has to cancel, those miles stay with Flying Blue.
Still, the important thing to keep in mind is that this is all for the benefit of you, the members, because these changes have been introduced to give you “more flexibility for your travels” and “to better align with your travel needs” and have absolutely nothing to do with anything else.
