Strategically buying miles & points for luxury travel can be a great deal. We’ve just seen the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program launch a new promotion on purchased miles. While not quite in line with the best-ever offers we’ve seen from the program, it still has the potential to be a good deal, if you have a specific use in mind.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased Flying Blue miles
Between March 27 and April 16, 2026, the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program is offering a promotion on purchased miles. The accounts I manage all show a bonus of up to 80%, which you can unlock as long as you buy at least 50,000 miles in one transaction (pre-bonus). It’s possible that different accounts may be targeted for different promotions, as you do have to log into your Flying Blue account to see what your offer is.
How much does it cost to buy Flying Blue miles?
Ordinarily you can buy Flying Blue miles for as little as 3.05 cents each (in USD), before any discounts or bonuses (the cost per mile is lowest if you buy lots of miles). If you maxed out the promotion and purchased 100,000 Flying Blue miles, you’d receive a total of 180,000 miles (including 80,000 bonus miles) at a cost of $3,050, which is a rate of 1.69 cents per mile.
Back in the day, Flying Blue consistently offered a 100% bonus on purchased miles during a promotion, which was an opportunity to buy miles for 1.53 cents each. However, it has been a long time since we’ve seen such an offer, and this price is pretty close to the best deal we see on buying miles from the program nowadays.
How many Flying Blue miles can you purchase?
Those without status in the Flying Blue program are limited to purchasing at most 100,000 Flying Blue miles per calendar year before any bonuses. Elite members can purchase an unlimited number of miles, though there may be limits on how many bonus miles can be earned during promotions.
Which credit card should you buy Flying Blue miles with?
Flying Blue mileage purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as an airfare purchase for the purposes of credit card spending. Therefore I’d recommend using a card on which you’re trying to reach minimum spending, or otherwise, a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending.
- Earn 1% cash back when you make a purchase, earn 1% cash back when you pay for that purchase
- $0
- Earn 3% Cash Back on Dining
- Earn 3% Cash Back at Drugstores
- Earn 1.5% Cash Back On All Other Purchases
- $0
- 2x points on purchases up to $50k then 1x
- Access to Amex Offers
- No annual fee
See this post for more on which credit cards are best for buying points.
Is buying Flying Blue miles worth it?
The Air France-KLM Flying Blue program has dynamic award pricing, though has more consistency in pricing than in the past. Generally speaking, saver level transatlantic business class awards cost 60,000 miles one-way, which is great. The catch is that Flying Blue has become really bad about releasing saver business class award space across the Atlantic. However, in other markets availability is often better.
The way I view it, the big selling point of the Flying Blue program is that Air France and KLM make more award seats available to members of the Flying Blue program than to members of partner airline frequent flyer programs. Furthermore, nowadays Flying Blue allows free stopovers on awards, which is an awesome feature.
If you’re looking to book a long haul award ticket, especially in business class, it’s hard to beat the value proposition of booking through Flying Blue. Not only is there a good amount of availability in some markets, but both Air France and KLM offer solid long haul business class products (read my review of KLM’s 777 business class, read my review of Air France’s A350 business class).
Does Flying Blue have fuel surcharges on award tickets?
Flying Blue does have carrier imposed surcharges (often referred to as fuel surcharges) on award tickets, though they’re mild in comparison to what you’d pay for a British Airways business class award, for example. Expect Flying Blue carrier imposed surcharges to generally be around $200 one-way for a transatlantic business class award (and then taxes and fees are in addition to that, but you’d pay that with any airline).
On what airlines can you redeem Flying Blue miles?
As you can see above, personally I think there’s the most value to be had when redeeming directly on Air France & KLM. Beyond that, Flying Blue miles can also be redeemed on a variety of other airlines:
- Air France & KLM are in SkyTeam, so you can redeem miles on all SkyTeam partners; however, I generally find SkyTeam isn’t as good as oneworld or Star Alliance when it comes to reciprocal award space
- Flying Blue has some unique airline partnerships outside of SkyTeam, including with airlines like Aircalin and Etihad
- Flying Blue also allows first class redemptions on select partners, including China Eastern and Garuda Indonesia
How much are Flying Blue miles worth?
Everyone will value mileage currencies differently, but personally I value Flying Blue miles at ~1.3 cents each. However, I tend to value points pretty conservatively, and there are many ways to get way more value from Flying Blue miles than that.
Do Flying Blue miles expire?
Flying Blue miles expire if you have no qualifying flight or credit card activity in your account for 24 months. You can extend the expiration of miles by crediting any eligible flights to Flying Blue, having Flying Blue elite status, or by having a co-branded Flying Blue credit card.
Note that buying points directly from Flying Blue, or transferring them from a Flying Blue transfer partner, wouldn’t extend the expiration of the miles.
What other ways can you earn Flying Blue miles?
While buying Flying Blue miles could represent a great deal, keep in mind that there are lots of other ways to earn Flying Blue miles. Most significantly, Flying Blue is transfer partners with American Express Membership Rewards, Brex, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, and Marriott Bonvoy. As you can see, there are lots of ways to acquire points with the program through other currencies.
- 5x total points on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x points on dining
- 2x points on travel purchases
- $95
- 4x points on flights and hotels booked direct
- 3x points on Dining
- $300 Annual Travel Credit
- $795
- Earn 3x points on travel with the first $150k in combined purchases
- Earn 3x points on shipping purchases with the first $150k in combined purchases
- Cell Phone Protection
- $95
- 4x points at restaurants worldwide, on up to $50,000 in purchases annually
- 4x points at U.S. supermarkets, on up to $25,000 in purchases annually
- 3x points on flights booked directly with airlines or through amextravel.com
- $325
- Earn 5x points on flights purchased directly from airlines or through Amex Travel (up to $500k/year)
- $200 Annual Uber Credit
- Amex Centurion Lounge Access
- $895
- Unlimited 2x miles per dollar
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Capital One Business Travel
- $0 intro for first year; $95 after that
- Earn 6x points at Marriott
- Free Night Award Annually
- 15 Elite Nights Towards Status Annually
- $95
Bottom line
Air France-KLM Flying Blue is offering a promotion on purchased miles, giving members the opportunity to buy miles with up to an 80% bonus. This is an opportunity to acquire miles for 1.69 cents each.
There are still plenty of situations where this could represent a good value. There is lots of merit to Flying Blue, especially for long haul business class redemptions, where award pricing is generally reasonable. That being said, currently transatlantic business class award availability isn’t great.
The only thing I’d remind people of is that there are lots of ways to earn Flying Blue miles, so outright buying them won’t be necessary for a lot of people. Always crunch the numbers for yourself and search availability before buying miles.
Do you plan on purchasing Flying Blue miles with an 80% bonus?
Absolutely not worth it, better move one's MRs or URs when it's absolutely needed for a specific redemption in mind or transfer MR/UR under 30% more promotion.
The program ain’t what it used to be massive devaluations and the cost of a business class ticket with points one way for 300 to 900 k
Their greed is off the charts
Yes once in awhile a good deal comes up and then if you need to make a change or cancel they slam you with fees
Their customer service typically sucks with some occasional exceptions.It seems as if they aren’t empowered to help customers
Even Virgin Atlantic is better
Hard Pass
With devaluations aplenty recently, plus eyewatering BA-style surcharges, this program is in the 'also rans' basket.
Good while it lasted, but no more.
Pity.
I checked my account out of curiosity and my offer is only up to 45%
I loved Flyingblue a year ago, since a year they have massive devaluation in the program. From less saver award seats, less promo awards for non-paying members and now even the increase of the surcharges from 200-250 euros to over 350 euros one way.
Stay far away from this offer, especially as an American go with the US programs.
Before buying points, readers should be aware of the giant increase to fuel surcharges that Air France/KLM just made today. They are particularly high when departing from Europe.
Ben keeps confusing readers by not stating that business class transatlantic tickets start at 85k each way for every route outside of the 3 North American countries- even domestic flights to FDF/PTP/AUA are at this level. The worst part is that they've got a track record of overnight devaluations that they don't even bother to announce.
Unless you are ready to pull the trigger on a specific redemption, I would stay well away from these offers.
Ben - was going to ask about this as well. Can you do some digging? It does look like they did this overnight with absolutely no announcement... They were already high, but this hurts.
It's all on travel-dealz , surcharges've gone up by ca. 40%. Can't trust these people.