Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Traveling For Miles has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Traveling For Miles and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
Air France and KLM are both currently offering free date and/or destination changes on all bookings made before 31 March and vouchers for voluntary cancellations for travel through 30 September, and now Flying Blue (the loyalty program for both airlines) has announced an update to its rebooking policy for reward flights.
Flying Blue Reward Flight COVID Policies
Waived Change Fees & Cancelation Fees
Flying Blue is waiving change fees and cancelation fees on reward tickets or Promo reward tickets under the following circumstances:
- If a traveler’s reward flight has been cancelled by the airline
- If the travel date of a traveler’s reward flight or Promo reward flight is on or before 30 September 2021 and the request is made before departure of the first flight in the booking.
Any fare differences will have to be borne by the traveler.
Rebookings
Travelers wishing to rebook their reward flight or Promo reward flight are permitted to change their travel dates and/or destination.
- For a change in travel date, flights booked on Air France, KLM, and partner airlines will be rebooked into the same booking class as the original booking.
- For a change in destination, Flying Blue members can use the full value of their original ticket for new bookings with Air France, KLM, Delta Air Lines, or Virgin Atlantic but any changes in the taxes due or the number of miles needed for the booking will be borne by the traveler.
Flying Blue’s Strange Policy For Missing COVID Test Results
With multiple nations around the world now requiring proof of a negative COVID test before a passenger is allowed to travel, Flying Blue has put in place a policy for members whose COVID test results don’t arrive in time for a flight that they’re due to take….but the policy is more than a little strange.
Where a Flying Blue member doesn’t receive the result of their mandatory PCR test in time and is therefore not permitted to board their flight, Flying Blue says that the fare difference between different booking classes is waived if:
- The Flying Blue member contacts customer service “within 48 hours before [their] flight departure; and
- Travel is only delayed by a maximum of 4 days or until the next available flight (if the next available flight is more than 4 days away).
The thing that I don’t understand here is how a traveler is meant to know 48 hours before departure that they will not have their COVID test result before their flight is due to leave? Doesn’t this require some sort of psychic ability? If anyone knows what Flying Blue is trying to indicate with this policy please let me know in the comments section below this post.
Bottom Line
Flying Blue has now brought its rebooking/cancellation policy in line with the rebooking/cancellation policies of Air France and KLM and is now waiving change and cancellation fees for all reward flight bookings for travel through 30 September 2021. With numerous global airlines now offering waivers through the end of the year (at the very least), this isn’t a particularly generous move but I suppose that it’s better than nothing.
