Flying Blue is the loyalty program from Air France and KLM. It was created in 2005 when the two airlines merged together and merged the Fréquence plus frequent flyer program with the Flying Dutchman frequent flyer program.
Kenya Airways, Air Europa, Aircalin and Northwest Airlines also make use of Flying Blue.
The frequent flyer program has four levels of membership. At the top there is the Platinum level (equivalent to SkyTeam Elite Plus), below that there is Gold (equivalent to Sky Team Elite), then Silver (Sky Team Elite) and the introductory level is Ivory (Basic).
Platinum, gold and silver are highly tradable precious metals. Ivory is not. It’s illegal to trade in new ivory. Elephants are hunted and killed in a horrific ivory black market.
The question is – should Air France and KLM be handing out loyalty cards which imply some sort of exclusivity, collectability and value in ivory?
It should be noted that Flying Blue cards are Natura Card’s by Selp. These cards are 85% made of yearly renewable resourcesand designed to be as green as possible.
In Pure Spirit
What do you think? Is it an overreaction to be concerned about Air France and KLM’s use of ivory in their loyalty program or are merged airlines really setting a bad example here?
Well, there will be a reduction in flyers in Air France and KLM due to the substantial devaluation of their Frequent Flyer program Flying Blue…..Ivory level is basically useless, miles disappear in 20 month of no use, unlike 36 with Star Alliance!!! This change just occurred on April 1st, 2009. Their gold level has been reduced since 2005, no access to lounges, were Star Alliance still maintains. There is a 750+ petition of their frequent flyers to Air France that can lead to the loss of potentially several thousand tickets per year! Priority boarding for their Elite members is sketchy at the best! For more information regarding the devaluation of Flying Blue, go to Flyer Talk dot com, and read all the dissatisfied flyers, they are truly Flying BLUE!!!!