Air France-KLM Flying Blue: How to earn and redeem miles, elite status and more

Air France and KLM shaped the Air France-KLM Group and shortly after launched a joint loyalty program referred to as Flying Blue.

Although award availability might be unpredictable because of dynamic pricing, Flying Blue remains to be well-liked with vacationers due to its record of credit card transfer partners, profitable Promo Rewards and saver-level award seats. In case you’re trying to redeem your bank card factors and miles with Flying Blue, here is the whole lot you might want to learn about this system.

Associated: How to find the cheapest redemption rates using Flying Blue miles

Flying Blue program overview

Flying Blue is the joint loyalty program of Air France, KLM and Transavia. In case you’re a Flying Blue member touring on one among these airways, you may add your Flying Blue member quantity to earn miles and expertise factors for elite standing qualification. When you attain elite standing, you should utilize your advantages on these airways and reciprocal advantages on different associate airways.

However simply because these airways use Flying Blue as their default program does not imply you are restricted to incomes on these flights. Most associate airways that can help you earn Flying Blue miles, reminiscent of Delta Air Traces and Virgin Atlantic, are a part of the SkyTeam alliance. Nevertheless, Flying Blue has many nonalliance companions, together with:

• Air Corsica
• Air Mauritius
• AirBaltic
• Aircalin
• Bangkok Airways
• Chalair Aviation
• China Southern Airways
• Copa Airways
• El Al
• Etihad Airways
• Gol Airways
• ITA Airways
• Japan Airways
• Malaysia Airways
• Oman Air
• Qantas
• Transavia
• Twin Jet
• WestJet
• Winair

Observe that there could also be restrictions concerning the flights you may earn or redeem miles inside these partnerships. Evaluate the airline’s associate web page on the Flying Blue website earlier than you intend your travels so you understand what to anticipate.

Flying Blue elite standing tiers

Flying Blue gives 4 elite standing tiers: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Final. You’ll be able to qualify by incomes expertise factors.

Flying Blue Silver

Silver is the bottom tier of Flying Blue elite standing and requires 100 expertise factors. It comes with some fundamental advantages, together with:

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• The flexibility to earn 6 Flying Blue miles per euro spent
• Free customary seat choice
• Precedence check-in, baggage drop-off and boarding
• SkyTeam Elite advantages (essentially the most notable SkyTeam Elite profit is a free checked bag on all Flying Blue and SkyTeam associate flights)
• Most well-liked waitlist standing on flights operated by Air France, KLM or SkyTeam companions
• One further checked bag on Air France and KLM flights
• Most well-liked standby standing
• Additional legroom availability 24 hours earlier than departure (on Air France and KLM flights)

Flying Blue Gold

Gold requires a further 180 expertise factors. You’ve entry to the Flying Blue Silver advantages and:

• The flexibility to earn 7 Flying Blue miles per euro spent
• Entry to SkyTeam lounges on worldwide flights operated by a Flying Blue or SkyTeam airline (legitimate for you and a visitor)
• SkyTeam Elite Plus (advantages embrace SkyPriority boarding and fast-track immigration)
• Precedence baggage dealing with
• Additional legroom availability 72 hours earlier than departure (on Air France and KLM flights)

Flying Blue Platinum

Flying Blue’s Platinum standing requires a further 300 expertise factors and contains all Gold advantages. Nevertheless, it sweetens the deal by upgrading some advantages and including others, reminiscent of:

• The flexibility to earn 8 Flying Blue miles per euro spent
• Entry to a Platinum Service Line for devoted assist
• Waived charges when altering or requesting a refund on reward bookings
• The flexibility to e book La Premiere, Air France’s first-class product, with miles
• Two further checked luggage on Air France and KLM flights
• Miles overdraft on award tickets (as much as 50,000 miles)
• Additional legroom availability on the time of reserving (on Air France and KLM flights)

When you maintain Flying Blue Platinum for 10 consecutive years, you could have the standing for all times.

Flying Blue Final

As of 2024, Flying Blue additionally has a top-tier standing degree referred to as Final. It requires a whopping 900 expertise factors in a yr and gives all of the Platinum advantages, in addition to:

• The flexibility to earn 9 Flying Blue miles per euro spent
• Entry Air France and KLM lounges with as much as eight journey companions
• 24-hour help from this system’s “Final Assistant”
• 4 cabin improve vouchers per membership yr
• The flexibility to reward Flying Blue Platinum standing to 1 journey companion
• Hertz Platinum standing
• Complimentary on-board Wi-Fi

Take a look at the total record of Flying Blue benefits on the loyalty program’s web site.

Flying Blue has a cobranded U.S. bank card with Financial institution of America. One of many standout advantages of the Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard is incomes expertise factors by way of bank card spending.

You obtain 60 expertise factors whenever you open your account for the primary yr. In subsequent years, you earn 20 expertise factors in your account anniversary. Plus, you may earn a further 40 expertise factors in your account anniversary after you spend $15,000 or extra on purchases throughout the anniversary yr.

The data for the Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or offered by the cardboard issuer.

Incomes miles with Flying Blue

Flying Blue miles are one of many best currencies to earn.

Earn miles by flying

You’ll be able to earn Flying Blue miles by flying. The way you earn these miles varies by airline, although. If you e book a flight on Air France or KLM, you may earn miles primarily based on how a lot you spend on the ticket (earlier than taxes and costs).

The variety of miles you may earn per greenback additionally relies on your Flying Blue standing tier. Flying Blue Explorer members (these with out standing) earn 4 miles per euro spent, whereas Silver, Gold, Platinum and Final members earn 6, 7, 8 and 9 miles per euro spent, respectively. This incomes does not embrace taxes and sure charges charged on the ticket.

Incomes with SkyTeam and nonalliance Flying Blue companions on tickets not bought by Flying Blue is a unique story. For tickets which are marketed by one other airline and credited to Flying Blue, you may earn miles on the next standards:

• Distance flown
• Fare class
• Working airline
• Your elite standing tier

Every airline associate awards a unique variety of miles for every fare class — you will discover out what number of miles your associate flight will earn on the Flying Blue partners page.

Spend on the Flying Blue bank card

One other strategy to earn Flying Blue miles is with the beforehand mentioned Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard. This card earns 3 Flying Blue miles per greenback spent on SkyTeam airfare purchases purchased immediately with a SkyTeam airline and 1.5 Flying Blue miles per greenback spent on the whole lot else.

Switch factors to Flying Blue

This system is a switch associate of:

The next playing cards all at present provide sturdy welcome bonuses that you would simply convert to Flying Blue miles at a 1:1 ratio:

Earn miles with inns, automobile leases, procuring and experiences

Flying Blue has a variety of nonairline incomes companions, which lets you earn Flying Blue miles for actions and spending.

This contains (however is just not restricted to):

• Earn 2 miles for each euro spent and get not less than 15% off of choose properties with Reserving.com.
• Earn 500 miles every time you keep at a Hyatt lodge worldwide.
• Earn 12 miles for each euro spent on electrical automobiles with Hertz.
• Earn miles with lots of of outlets by the Shop for Miles online store.

Take a look at Flying Blue’s additional partners to be taught how one can earn miles.

Easy methods to redeem Flying Blue miles

Whereas there are numerous methods to redeem Flying Blue miles, we advocate sticking to award flights. It will virtually all the time provide the most worth on your miles.

Flying Blue makes use of dynamic pricing, which suggests there isn’t any set award chart, and a few tickets might be extraordinarily costly (assume: 100,000 miles for an economy-class flight from New York Metropolis’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) to Europe).

Even with dynamic pricing, Flying Blue usually has the most effective pricing for a lot of SkyTeam awards, beating out Delta, Korean Air and different main airways.

You also needs to know that Air France and KLM cost reasonable fuel surcharges on some tickets. You’ll be able to anticipate to pay $200 to $350 on a one-way business-class award ticket throughout the Atlantic.

E book Air France or KLM to Amsterdam, Paris and past

Whereas Flying Blue costs its awards dynamically, this system has now standardized the bottom saver-level pricing for all one-way flights between the U.S. and Europe as follows, no matter origin or vacation spot, that means you may join at no additional price:

• 25,000 miles in financial system
• 40,000 miles in premium financial system
• 60,000 miles in enterprise class

Do not forget that these charges are just for the bottom saver-level seats, that are restricted. We have now discovered loads of availability on flights from the West Coast (together with these with European connections) on the new decrease charges in financial system and premium financial system cabins.

Nevertheless, business-class seats at saver ranges might be onerous to seek out, so you could wish to use an external tool like Seats.aero to seek out award seats in seconds.

Moreover, keep in mind you would spend just a few days in Paris or Amsterdam utilizing the free Flying Blue stopover program. This can be a nice strategy to go to one other metropolis with out forking over further miles or money. To e book Flying Blue stopovers, you may have to name Flying Blue at 800-375-8723.

E book Air France’s La Premiere first-class with miles

Whereas KLM doesn’t function a first-class cabin, Air France does. La Premiere is a spectacular luxury aviation experience accessible on choose Boeing 777-300ER plane to high-yield locations like New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Singapore.

Sadly, it is one of the crucial troublesome and costly award seats to e book. You’ll be able to solely e book this product with Flying Blue miles and provided that you maintain Flying Blue Platinum or Final standing. Charges are additionally very excessive, with a one-way first-class award from Miami to Paris costing 232,500 Flying Blue miles per individual.

Associated: Video from the first flight in the new Air France La Premiere first class

Hold a watch out for Promo Rewards

Each month, Flying Blue releases discounted award tickets for choose dates and routes. Usually, you may snag financial system award seats from choose U.S. cities to Europe beginning at 18,750 miles, premium financial system awards beginning at 30,000 miles and business-class awards beginning at 45,000 miles.

You’ll be able to view an up-to-date record of Promo Rewards on the Flying Blue website.

Flying Blue is an underrated frequent flyer program. With month-to-month Promo Rewards, you may probably fly from the U.S. to Europe for underneath 20,000 miles one-way. Plus, this system permits you to add a free stopover in Paris or Amsterdam at no further mileage price.

Although Flying Blue does add excessive surcharges for award redemptions, it’s a transferable rewards program associate of all main bank cards.