Air France-KLM and Etihad Airways have recently been cooperating, and today, the airlines have taken their cooperation to the next level by announcing a partnership between their loyalty programmes.

Flying Blue and Etihad Guest kick off cooperation.

Air France-KLM Group and Etihad Airways announced today a new partnership between their respective loyalty programmes following the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two airline groups in September 2023.

As part of this new partnership, members of Flying Blue, Air France and KLM’s loyalty programme, and members of Etihad Guest, the loyalty programme of Etihad Airways, will now be able to earn and redeem Miles in either loyalty programme when flying on Air France, KLM or Etihad. Reciprocal benefits for elite members will be announced soon and might include reciprocal lounge access.

Following the MoU signed earlier this year, Air France-KLM and Etihad Airways customers can now connect to – and therefore to earn and redeem miles for – more than 60 new routes covering destinations worldwide.

The partnership went live today after Air France started operating from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Abu Dhabi International Airport in October 2023.

Earning Miles for flights flown with KLM or Air France and credited on Etihad Guest

As per the Etihad Guest website updates, one can earn points for travel on KLM/Air France with Etihad Guest as per the following tables. The miles would be credited to your account two weeks after flying the flight.

Air France flights credited to Etihad Guest.

 

KLM Flights Credited to Etihad Guest

Burning Miles for flights flown with KLM/Air France with Etihad Guest

The usual distance-based chart applies to redeem Etihad Guest miles on KLM/Air France. However, it is not an online redemption for now, and you need to contact the Etihad Guest Service Centre up to 24 hours before your departure date for redemption.

Earning and Burning Miles for flights flown with Etihad using Flying Blue

The Earning of miles on Flying Blue is still to be notified by Air France/KLM. However, redemptions are already online. Look at how cheap the redemptions are, and the taxes are also not obnoxious.

I will follow up with a separate post about Etihad redemptions with Flying Blue miles later.

No Plans to join SkyTeam for now

I talked to Etihad’s CEO, Antonoaldo Neves, at the Dubai Airshow. During a media briefing, he flat-out declined that the airline had plans to join any airline alliance. So, we won’t be hearing about Etihad joining SkyTeam anytime soon.

Bottomline

Air France-KLM and Etihad have expanded their partnership to add frequent flyer reciprocity between the two carriers. More details about elite reciprocity will be announced soon. Award redemption for Etihad using Air France / KLM Miles has already gone online on the website of Flying Blue partner airlines, but Etihad Guest redemptions for Air France KLM will need to be done via the phone for now.

What do you think of the new Air France-KLM and Etihad Frequent Flyer partnership?

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