The relationship between the two French travel giants Air France KLM and Accor has not always been smooth over the last few years – but that page now seems to have been turned for good. While especially US Frequent Flyer Programs pioneered the concept of a close cooperation with one major hotel program, these cooperations usually fail to win big traction, mostly because they are limited to elite members and offer only limited mutual status recognition and benefits. However, what Air France KLM and Accor have now introduced has simply nothing do to with all that: All members of Flying Blue now earn 10 bonus miles per 10 EUR spent at Accor hotels (2-5 miles at lower brands) while Le Club Accorhotels (the program will soon be rebranded into ALL) members earn 5 bonus points per 10 EUR spent with Air France or KLM. Members need to link their account once (through either of the two programs). The same accrual rules as in the partner program apply, meaning for instance that bookings from third channels are excluded for Flying Blue accrual with Accor or that only flights operated by Air France, KLM or HOP! are eligible for Le Club Accorhotels accrual.

Qantas has announced major changes to its Frequent Flyer – but not a move to a revenue basis, which remains unpopular in Asia Pacific among full service carriers. Some Economy Class awards have already decreased while all awards in premium cabins and upgrades will increase on September 18. At the same time, Qantas has drastically increased the number of award seats on its flights, reduced its (unreasonably high) fuel surcharges on award tickets by up to 50% (which means that they still remain too high!) and will introduce several redemption only partners over the next couple of months in the form of Air New Zealand, China Airlines, Air France, KLM and Bangkok Airways. Other enhancements include the introduction of a lifetime Platinum status and a tier program for members accumulating at least 150,000 points per year across all activities, including with non-air partners.

While it is good to see that TAP Air Portugal has left its decades of limited commitment to the FFP topic by implementing many changes, this has now seemed to turn into a hyperactivity, not necessarily with the best outcome for customers. As such, award levels for TAP Air Portugal flights were changed to a fully dynamic pricing in its Miles&Go program in late June without any advance warning. While it is true that prices might be lower than before as a result (and that availability is better), the reality is that you will see a doubling of most prices unless you book 6 months ahead and don’t mind taking a connecting flight through Porto when using a flight such as from Paris to Lisbon, leaving you enough time to see all the beauties of the city during your stop-over. In many cases, award flights on Star Alliance partners are actually cheaper – capacity provided, of course. They continue to be priced on a fixed award table. But since this table is actually one of the least generous ones within the Star Alliance, it tells everything about the new prevailing award pricing on TAP if the TAP levels are even above them…

Oman Air will change the accrual logic for its own flights in its Sindbad program on August 01. The airline refrains thereby as well from moving to a revenue basis, but based the new system thereby on the brand groups of its fares. As a matter of fact, the differences compared to the current booking class system should be minimal, unless you use the cheapest Super Saver fares in Economy Class, where you’ll earn only 10% of miles flown going forward. While there is a certain logic to use branded fares, this only makes sense for customers booking over the Oman Air website since it is only there that these fare brands really become transparent. For any client using a different channel – what certainly doesn’t happen on an exceptional basis for a niche carrier such as Oman Air – it will be more or less a surprise how many miles are earned until one sees its account statement after the flight.

As always, summer in the Northern hemisphere is the best time to rack up loyalty bonuses at hotel chains targeting primarily business travellers. So, if you are in need of hotel stays during the coming weeks, it is definitely worth looking for and checking out the different offers. They include, without being limited to, for instance (running at least until August 31, but often even longer): Double points at Hilton properties from the second stay onwards plus additional bonus points (Hilton Honors), 1,500 bonus points per stay of at least two nights at Marriott hotels (Marriott Bonvoy), individual bonuses per member at Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG Rewards Club), 3,000 bonus points per stay at Radisson properties starting with the second stay (Radisson Rewards), triple award points and double status points at VOILÀ properties (VOILÀ Hotel Rewards) or a one-time 20 USD gift certificate for a stay at a Best Western hotel (Best Western Rewards). Happy holidays!