Flying Blue Reviews 416

Terrible program, with this XP system that actually favor high carbon foot prints: froma provincial french airports, you get more XP flying to AMS then to your destination, than flying to CDG/ORY, as your flight to AMS count as international (5xp) vs CDG/ORY which only gives you 2XP! Way to go!
I'll add the fact that the threshold for changing status are the same as they were pre-covid and the massive policy change from companies worldwide to cut down travels. In short don't bother with their cards, unless you fly business very frequantly, it won't get you anywhere

Awful experience! I’ve operated a trip through Aeromexico (skyteam member) Mexico-cancun in business. Not only did I get downgraded to economy without any explanation but my flight never got credited either (tickets bought via Air France). I raised a complaint right after my trip with all supporting docs and never received the needed support up until today! The customer service (that is now externalised from my understanding) asked me 3 TIMES to send them a copy of my boarding pass (which I did) and no action was taken. This was September 21 and only today have they finally credited my miles without any compensation. I do not recommend sky team anymore.

I ordered some items from the flying blue store to use air miles that were about to expire. The website said there was a problem and I should contact customer services. I did, but that was seven weeks ago, and despite sending a number of email, nothing has been resolved - I've had a few email in return saying that they need to look into it, but that's all, and I don't seem to be even near receiving the goods. Truly terrible customer service.

Update on 23/01/2023: It's now been over 2 months and they are still not responding - seems like they've just abandoned customer service altogether.

Update on 20/02/2023: Flying Blue finally responded and recredited my air miles and told me I could reorder. I did this, and yet again got a message that there was a problem and that I should contact customer services, who are not responding to my emails. Worst customer service I've had from any company, they just don't seem to care!

Tried to spend my expiring miles. After hitting Checkout I get:
There was a problem redeeming your Miles. Please contact customer support quoting the following order number #xxxxx.
Tried to find contact email ... conveniently the link on their website does not work.

Update: About a week later I tried ordering the same item again and this time it worked. Further, I did receive a reply from KLM support about my issue .. 20 days later. Draw your own conclusions.

I am writing to express my frustration with Flying Blue's policy of resetting XP points at an arbitrary date each year. This means that even if I fly enough during the year to reach certain advantages or benefits, I can still miss out on them by a few days if I don't make it before the reset date.

I understand that loyalty programs often have expiration dates for points, but I think it is unfair to reset them at an arbitrary date rather than doing a rolling count as other loyalty programs often do (e.g. the Eurostar Club). This leads to a poor user experience, which is not what I am expecting from this loyalty program, and it creates confusion and makes it difficult for customers to know exactly when they need to fly in order to take advantage of their hard-earned points.

I strongly urge Flying Blue to reconsider this policy and count XP points with a rolling 1 year window, as many other loyalty programs do. This would provide more clarity and fairness for customers, and allow us to fully enjoy the rewards that we have earned through our loyalty and frequent flying.

Thank you for taking the time to read my complaint. I hope that Flying Blue will make changes to their XP point reset policy in the future.

Sincerely,

I don’t know how an airline can successfully operate with such a flawed system. Air France decided to cancel a flight Paris to Chicago after the flight was already completely boarded (you figure that one out - is someone drunk in operations?) which set off an absolute cascade failure of errors at the airline, which is clearly not setup at all for irregular operations. Hours upon hours on the phone and trying to communicate by chat, Delta’s own agents trying for over two hours to get a hold of Air France and being unable to do so, I was rebooked on several flights starting about 30 hours after my initial flight. Then, and this is why Flying Blue is to be completely avoided, they can only rebook you, even during IROPS, within very specific Flying Blue rules, so they have absolutely no desire to actually get you to the final destination at the soonest time, as EU rules require, but instead only according to internal rules that are designed to minimize their own expense. When you’re ticketed with Flying Blue, Air France doesn’t see you as a paying customer but instead as someone who should be groveling before them on a free ticket, who can only be tended to at their very relaxed leisure.

In the middle of the night in Paris, after the AF call center was closed and I still had not gotten everything sorted, I ended up reaching Air France in the US, but again- only Flying Blue can reissue a ticket, not their own ticketing desk or their own agents, only the magical Flying Blue team (again, because they don’t treat you like a human customer, but instead something to pump value out of), but guess what, Flying Blue has eliminated altogether any way whatsoever to get in touch with them in North America, to the bewilderment of even Air France’s own agents. Their call queue no longer has an option to speak to an agent. Each and every choice tells you to check their website and then hangs up. When the main reservation line attempts to connect you, the system just disconnects the call. When other airlines are surviving in large part because of their frequent flyer programs, Air France is treating it like a garbage collector. This is, in our modern era, how airlines fail, and honestly, if this airline wasn’t a national carrier, I cannot see how it could possibly survive with its current systems and policies.

Oh and the list of fun glitches: I cannot checkin online, no matter how many times I or the agent “offloads” me or tries to cancel check in and restart. I cannot select seats because I need to checkin first. The new flight is delayed but their flight times system is MANUAL. They were unable to see Delta’s delay until it was MANUALLY updated in their system, so they were never able to see how my updated ticket was even delayed so my now missed connection could be rebooked. Also, I was told on initial rebooking that it was IMPOSSIBLE to book me in any class but the one in which I was ticketed, even though I may have been willing to go to Econ from Prem Econ, and then upon rebooking, they reissued a downgraded ticket which needed to be fixed and reissued. In all, a mess.

Flying Blue is simply not a mature program with a real future outlook. Execs see it is auxiliary revenue when other airlines around the world are recognizing these programs as the emerging backbone of their business model. With this antiquated and rigid thinking, these execs are setting the airline up for failure.

I ordered from the Flying Blue store almost 1,5 months ago. Didn't receive my order yet. Send out multiple emails with the question when I receive it. No answer...

Your Order #41000159814
Placed on 7 Nov 2022, 10:15:51

Terrible loyalty programme and terrible website . First incident a few weeks ago I tried to alter a flight I had booked earlier in year using points and the website refused to let me do it and said I needed to telephone but I couldn’t find telephone number on website. I eventually found a number on google. I then had several tortuous conversations when agents refused to let me change without a fee even though I had booked it when covid booking conditions applied which meant I could change without a fee. Eventually I managed to escalate matter and a supervisor agreed I was right and let me change. Second incident - a couple of weeks ago in response to an email prompt I tried to donate unused miles to charity as my miles were due to expire but system kept glitching. Tried again today and same problem. Live web chat then informed me there is an IT problem and they keep reporting it but it hadn’t been fixed yet and so need to telephone if I want to do it.

Teachers are very helpful and hardworking.❣️❣️

Refusal to redeem points for flights. I had made 2 subsequent flights to Copenhagen with KLM with my new employer and could not connect my flying blue card to the flight when booking so I tried to redeem my points later, esp while I got all the time emails from flying blue stating that all of my points would expire by the end of the year. I sent numerous emails to flying Blue, called the help-desk and followed the redeem procedures but Flying Blue refused to redeem my points. The reason: although I could proof (via the e tickets) I had made those flights - the first name I used was not the same as in my flying blue profile...What a stubborn attitude for a few stupid flying blue miles!

Flying features is a best institute in all over the world 🌺💫 branch(Sangrur)

It was over a year ago that I started trying to use in the Flying Blue Store Miles that will expire on 31 Dec 22. It took 6 months for my details, which worked on GB's website, to be recognised by the FB Store. Don't believe that items can be returned, they can't from outside the EU. And although some items are shown as Cash & Miles that doesn't work. Attempts to contact the FB Store get a misleading response many months later. I'm glad that I've moved my loyalty from Skyteam.

Absolutely horrendous service . . .
I paid for a purchase 2 mths ago ; - they took the miles of my account yet we still haven't received our purchase. Nobody to contact and the (dead !?) BOT just bomb out after you've gone through the tedious process of typing out all your details every time .
Still no satisfaction . . .

I won 2 flying blue ticket with a contest for Nurses in Holland (in covid period). I booked my plane tickets but unfortunately i had a death in my family. I tried to to change my flight back home 1 day sooner to be home for the funeral. They could not do that they said... If i wanted to change it, i had to pay 850 euro per person for extra miles... I now had to look for other plane tickets myself which cost me 800 euros (the plane tickets cost flying blue 168 in the first place).

Horrible customer service... I wish i had never won.. would have spared me a lot of money and stress. I will NEVER use flying blue again.

Flying Blue is highly deceptive with respect to earning status. They claim you receive silver, gold and platinum status when you reach 100, 180 and 300 XP. The reality is different because after you reach a certain level they reset your XPs to zero so it's significantly harder to reach the thresholds because of the reset. They are not transparent about this on their website other than an innocent sentence buried in fine print about the reset to zero. Other programs that have comparable status regimes don't have resets when you reach the status thresholds. As such the program is significantly worse than advertised and their lack of transparency is shameful.

They lure you into their frequent flyer program with all kind of promises that they break later:

1) Their program pretends that with Silver Status you will be allowed priority boarding, but on all overseas flights that I took so far with them, they only had priority boarding for Business Class and the rest of the plane is boarded by seat position.

2) Their program pretends that with Silver Status you can purchase lounge access at the lounge. But so far I got told EVERY TIME I tried to purchase a lounge ticket that they will not sell that to Silver Status clients and that I only could get a discount in case that they WOULD sell me lounge access.

That is fraud in my understanding. Otherwise I could open a store for cars and advertise „All cars sold at a 99% discount, if you bring this Silver Coupon.“ … and then when people show up, I would be like: Oh, you only get the discount, if I would sell you a car, but I will not.“

This false advertising is probably illegal and someone should investigate.

I have not been able at access flying blue Given dozens of new passwords When I complain I am hung up on!!! The agents only know one thing to do. It is obviously a tech problem. They are the rudest customer service I’ve ever encountered. I am trying to buy miles. And the start telling me about flights. Inept. A robot Wd do better.

THE WORST AIRLINE. I bought a ticket for a flight taking off in 2 weeks and last week I check the flight and the ticket was never issued (even though I received a confirmation email).

I spend 2 days trying to contact Air France by phone and a rep told me they can reissue the ticket under a new number. A week later (today), I go to check the new reservation and it's disappeared. I have now been on hold for 3 hours trying to find someone who can help.

DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS AIRLINE.

They used to be the best and now they do not care about customers AT ALL. It has been a nightmare trying to book a flight with them.

After being a Flying Blue member for several years, I will NEVER fly Air France again.

So get this. On Jul. 3, I made reservations from Seattle to Geneva for four in March '23 for a total of 160,000 miles (+$1000) and tried to pay for it, but neither credit card went through. Weird. So I tried to rebook a couple of days later (July 5), and suddenly the number of miles required doubled. And when I tried to pay this time, just to see if my credit cards would work, wouldn't you know it? They worked fine. Hmmmm.... in this country that's called illegal. How do they get away with this? This whole mileage program is an insult and a rip-off.

Pure garbage. Try to contact them by phone, you will be on the line for literally hours without any answering. They solve their problems by not taking care of their customers. Simply pure garbage.