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Air France-KLM Flying Blue recently added a host of new features and benefits to its top-tier Flying Blue Ultimate status. New benefits include complimentary upgrades on awards and cash fares, extra baggage allowances, and complimentary rebooking on the day of departure. But is this a status worth splurging for? Here's what you need to know.
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How To Earn Flying Blue Ultimate Status
To earn Flying Blue Ultimate status, you need to accumulate 900 XP (experience points) in 12 months. That is a considerable amount and is three times the XP required (300 XP) to reach Platinum, which is the second-highest tier. This means you will have to spend a lot of time and money flying in first or business class to reach Ultimate status. Consider that you earn Flying Blue XP per the table below:
| Travel Class/Distance | Domestic (within a country) | Medium (under 2,000 miles) | Long 1 (between 2,000 and 3,500 miles) | Long 2 (between 3,500 and 5,000 miles) | Long 3 (over 5,000 miles) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economy | 2 XP | 5 XP | 8 XP | 10 XP | 12 XP |
| Premium Economy | 4 XP | 10 XP | 16 XP | 20 XP | 24XP |
| Business | 6 XP | 15 XP | 24 XP | 30 XP | 36 XP |
| First | 10 XP | 25 XP | 40 XP | 50 XP | 60 XP |
Crunching the numbers, you would need to take 25 business-class flights from Paris to Los Angeles to reach the status, which is massive compared to the nine required to reach Platinum.
If you opt to fly La Premiere (first class), you only need 15 flights between Paris and Los Angeles to reach status. However, considering each flight will set you back well over $15,000, that is a serious capital investment to reach Flying Blue Ultimate status.
Related: How To Match Your Airline Status to Flying Blue
Flying Blue Ultimate Status Benefits
Flying Blue Ultimate members have a few additional benefits besides all the usual benefits associated with Flying Blue Platinum. However, the value of these and whether it is worth the extra expense of pursuing Ultimate status will heavily depend on your travel patterns.
Complimentary one-cabin upgrade
The four complimentary upgrade vouchers every calendar year are the most valuable of all the new Flying Blue Ultimate benefits. These are subject to the following rules:
- Vouchers are only valid for 12 months from the date of issue.
- The vouchers can be used on reward and cash fares.
- The member and traveling companions can use upgrade vouchers.
- One voucher is needed to upgrade from economy to business on short-haul flights.
- Two vouchers are needed to upgrade from economy to business on long-haul flights, even when there is no premium economy cabin.
- A short-haul or medium-haul flight connecting with a long-haul flight is considered the same itinerary and needs only one voucher, such as New York to Rome with a connection in Paris.
- Two vouchers are needed to upgrade an itinerary with two long-haul flights (i.e., New York to Paris, continuing to Mumbai).
- Vouchers can only be used on Flying Blue-operated flights, not codeshares.
- Vouchers are not valid for upgrade to La Premiere.
Four complimentary upgrade vouchers are a nice addition, but still seems a bit lacking considering the investment needed to reach Flying Blue Ultimate. Unfortunately, Flying Blue won't let Flying Blue Ultimate elites use certificates to upgrade to La Premiere.
Let's say you spend $4,000 per roundtrip to fly business class between Los Angeles and Paris. After 13 roundtrips, you'd achieve Ultimate status at a cost of over $50k in spending. However, it seems that's still not good enough to earn you a couple of first-class upgrades from business class.
Extra baggage allowance
Ultimate members now enjoy an enhanced baggage allowance on all flights. Effective immediately, Flying Blue Ultimate members can take two pieces of baggage on all flights, even when flying in economy.
Flying Blue Ultimate Assistant
Flying Blue promises unparalleled service with its new Flying Blue Ultimate Assistant. However, the details on how this works are still a little thin. So far, here's what we know:
- You will receive a metal Flying Blue Ultimate member card. Flying Blue notes that this can take up to eight weeks, which is surprisingly slow.
- The Flying Blue Ultimate Assistant's contact details are on the back of your card.
- Use these details for Ultimate Assistance in meeting your travel needs.
Until the ore is mined and processed to make your metal card, you can find a digital copy of your card with the relevant contact details in the Air France or KLM app.
Complimentary same-day rebooking
Flying Blue members can now request a complimentary same-day change to an earlier or later flight. The changes are done via the Ultimate Assistant subject to the following conditions:
- Requests can be made up to 60 minutes before departure.
- Changes are made at the segment level per the direction of travel.
- The change cannot alter the itinerary, including connections.
- Changes only apply to flights on the same calendar day and will apply to all travelers on the booking.
- Flights extras such as seat selection are not guaranteed on the new flight.
- Changes are prohibited once a bag is checked.
Mileage overdraft
Another handy feature of Flying Blue Ultimate is the mileage overdraft feature. The new feature allows you to “borrow” up to 20% more miles than your mileage balance. This lets you secure an award booking immediately and pay off the outstanding balance later. You can borrow up to 100,000 miles per calendar year using the mileage overdraft benefit as an Ultimate member.
On the one hand, it is excellent that Flying Blue will let you borrow up to 100,000 miles per calendar year. On the other hand, it is worth remembering that Flying Blue miles are not difficult to come by. Flying Blue is a transfer partner with several major flexible points currencies. So, if you are a few miles short of a redemption, you have plenty of options for quickly boosting your mileage balance.
For the overdraft feature to be handy, you would have to be out of nearly every point imaginable. This is hard to conceive, considering you likely have spent over $50,000 on airfare to hit Ultimate status.
Additional Flying Blue Ultimate benefits
In addition to the main benefits, Ultimate members also receive the following benefits:
- Earn 9X miles per euro spent on Air France and KLM flights or 8X miles per euro on qualifying partner flights.
- Dedicated check-in without lines.
- Immigration and security fast-track (where available).
- Complimentary access to Air France and KLM lounges for the member and up to eight guests.
- Ability to bring two guests into the La Premiere lounge at CDG T2E when traveling in La Premiere.
- Gift Flying Blue Platinum to one person.
- Receive a complimentary Hertz Platinum membership.
- Complimentary access to all newspapers and magazines and a curated music list in the Air France Play App.
Our Take
Considering that it costs three times the XP to earn Ultimate status than Platinum, it is hard to see the benefits of aiming to earn Flying Blue Ultimate status. The concrete rewards of this status seem nowhere near three times the value.
Even the most prominent feature, the upgrades, have limited value as you cannot use them to upgrade to confirm upgrades into La Premiere. While this may seem like a reasonable restriction, it makes less sense when you factor in that Platinum and Ultimate members can potentially receive upgrades to La Premiere by virtue of status.
This creates a weird situation where an Ultimate member can't use their voucher for an advanced upgrade to La Premiere. But on the same flight, a Platinum member could be upgraded from business to La Premiere just through their status.
There is some value to having in a minimum baggage allowance on all flights and complimentary rebooking. However, these are not stellar benefits that would make Flying Blue Ultimate status attractive enough to be worth chasing. In the long run, Flying Blue will have to increase the rewards at this tier if it wants members to chase it. Although, in all likelihood, it may choose to devalue the benefits of Flying Blue Platinum instead.
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