Loyalty programs: partnership between Air France-KLM and Etihad Airways

To the point Air France-KLM and Etihad Airways today announced a new partnership between their respective frequent flyer programs.

This agreement follows on from the memorandum of understanding signed between the two groups last September, offering over sixty additional destinations worldwide.

This partnership enables members of theAir France-KLM frequent flyer program, Flying Blue, and those of theEtihad Airways frequent flyer program, Etihad Guest, to collect and spend miles on the program of their choice, the two airlines announced in a press release.

If you travel on codeshare flights offered by Air France or KLM and operated by Etihad, you’ll earn XP and Elite mileage bonuses. On the other hand, the flights offered and operated by Etihad will allow you to earn miles, but not XP.

How do you credit your flights to your Flying Blue account?

Simply :

send your request to the Flying Blue Customer Service Center ;
submit your application up to six months after the date of your flight;
provide your boarding pass and electronic ticket confirmation.

Here are the details of the Etihad awards (by cabin and booking class in %):

Cabin The Residence – P : 400 % ;
First class cabin – F, A: 275% ;
Business class cabin – J: 200%; C, D: 175%; W, Z: 130% ;
Economy cabin – Y, B: 100%; H, K, M, Q: 75%; L, V, U, E, G: 50%; T: 25%.

Review: these two loyalty programs are American Express Membership Rewards redemption partners.

In other words, if you’re a frequent user of the Flying Blue program and don’t want to spread your points too thinly over too many programs, this gives you more opportunities to fly Etihad with your Flying Blue miles, and also to collect them when you fly with this airline.

For example, you could use 43,500 Flying Blue miles + CAD 165 in fees and taxes for a non-stop flight from Toronto to Abu Dhabi in economy class. At the time of writing, this same flight costs CAD 1,808 on Google Flights!

This also opens the door to a whole host of other flight possibilities to be booked with Flying Blue miles, between Europe and the Middle East as well as to other destinations served by Etihad worldwide. At present, it is not possible to book Etihad Airways first class with Flying Blue miles, but this may change in the future.

Note that Etihad is also an Aeroplan partner, and the program is also a transfer partner with Membership Rewards points, so it’s worth comparing availability and prices in points and miles with both programs to see which is more advantageous. We recommend that you use Expertflyer to search for award flight availability.

The inaugural Air France flight between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Abu Dhabi international airport, capital of the United Arab Emirates, took place on October 29. This daily flight is operated by a 324-seat Airbus A350-900.