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Qantas has expanded its partnership with Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to include reciprocal access to reward seats, benefits for eligible frequent flyers and points earning across their respective networks.
The new agreement between the three carriers, announced on Monday, builds on an existing arrangement that was established in 2018, with members of Air France/KLM’s Flying Blue and Qantas Frequent Flyer now able to earn points on any eligible flight operated by the three carriers.
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Further, eligible frequent flyers would receive benefits such as priority boarding, priority check-in and extra baggage allowance.
Qantas Loyalty chief executive Olivia Wirth said the airline’s frequent flyer members would have access to “hundreds of thousands more reward seats”.
“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,” Wirth said in a statement.
In May 2018, Qantas reinstated a codeshare agreement with Air France for flights between Australia and France via Asia that was dropped in 2012 when the Australian carrier forged a global alliance with Emirates.
Under the new agreement that covered up to 200 codeshare flights a week depending on the time of the year, Qantas placed its QF airline code on Air France’s daily nonstop flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Hong Kong and Singapore.
Similarly, Air France added its AF airline code on Qantas-operated flights from Singapore to Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, as well as from Hong Kong to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. It also had its AF code on Qantas-operated domestic flights from Sydney to Adelaide, Canberra, Cairns, Darwin and Hobart.
There was also reciprocal lounge access.
Then, in October of the same year, Qantas forged a similar partnership with KLM, adding its QF airline code on KLM’s daily Singapore-Amsterdam flight.
KLM also placed its KL airline code on Qantas-operated services from Singapore to Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
As part of the new arrangement, KLM’s Bangkok-Amsterdam and Qantas’s Bangkok-Sydney services have been added to the codeshare network.
“We are excited to forge close ties and extend our partnership with Qantas further,” KLM chief executive Pieter Elbers said in a statement.
“It will help to drive tourism and economic and cultural exchange between The Netherlands and Australia, by facilitating reciprocal leisure and business travel.”
Air France and KLM are owned by the same parent company.
