Qantas and Air France – KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) have announced a new partnership which offers new opportunities to Qantas Frequent Flyers.
Under the partnership Qantas Frequent Flyers can access reward seats, earn Qantas Points and receive tier benefits across the entire Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) network.
The addition of Air France and KLM fulfills the announcement made earlier this year to allow redemptions on more airlines.
Earning Points
Qantas and Air France – KLM have had a codeshare agreement covering selected routes since 2018. In addition, customers were also able to benefit from reciprocal lounge access.
However, to date, you have only been able to earn Qantas Points when flying on the QF flight number. The new agreement means that you can now earn Qantas Points on Air France – KLM flight numbers. Unfortunately, this does not extend to awarding Status Credits – for those you still need to fly on the QF code,
Qantas have updated their Frequent Flyer earn categories to include Air France and KLM.
Using Qantas Points on Air France, KLM
You can also use your Qantas Points to book award flights on Air France and KLM. These are limited to Economy and Business seats – there is no option for a First Class seat, The redemption rates are the same as most other partners, being included under the Partner Classic Flight Rewards table.
The ability to book award seats on Air France-KLM has been enables in the Qantas booking engine. While there are certainly fare options available, I found it could take a bit of hunting to find some redemptions. Here is an example.
In this example, the Business seat is available for 104,500 Points and SGD311.
Reciprocal tier benefits
Qantas Frequent Flyers with Gold status or higher will be able to access tier benefits. These include priority boarding, priority check-in and extra baggage allowance on any Air France and KLM operated flights.
One area that has not been extended though, is Lounge Access. The existing arrangements when flying on a QF coded flight will remain in place, however, there is new access being made available.
As a result, you will still need to make alternative arrangement if this is important to you.
Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth said Qantas Frequent Flyer was excited to welcome Air France and KLM to the program.
“Qantas Frequent Flyer is committed to building strong and strategic partnerships with flagship airlines to improve travel options and benefits for our members.
“Members will now have access to hundreds of thousands more reward seats in popular destinations including Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Barcelona and Athens, as well as new destinations across France, Italy and Northern Europe.
“Frequent Flyers used 10 billion Qantas Points booking dream trips across Europe last year. We know this partnership will allow our members to explore more of the continent and find reward seats more easily.”