The Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard has been in the US market for several years now, and is issued by Bank of America. We’re increasingly seeing non-US airlines launch credit cards in the United States, and that’s pretty cool.
We’ve seen a new limited time welcome bonus rolled out on this card, which is in line with the best bonuses I’ve ever seen on this card (thanks to Miles to Memories for flagging this). Specifically, you can earn 70,000 Flying Blue miles upon completing minimum spending, plus can get quite a bit of help toward status.
Let’s take a closer look at the card…
In this post:
Air France-KLM Credit Card details
Here are the basics of the Air France-KLM credit card:
- Welcome bonus: earn 70,000 bonus miles plus 40 XP after making $3,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days, plus 60 XP upon approval
- Annual fee: $89 (not waived the first year)
- Return on spending: 3x miles per dollar spent directly with Air France, KLM, and SkyTeam member airlines, 1.5x miles per dollar spent on all other purchases
- Other benefits: 5,000 miles every year on your account anniversary after you spend $50 or more on purchases within the anniversary year, plus 20 XP on your account anniversary every year without any spend requirement, plus 40 additional XP on your account anniversary when you spend $15,000 in purchases within the cardmember year
- Foreign transaction fees: None
For context on XPs, that’s the metric by which you earn status with Flying Blue:
- 100 XPs gets you Silver status, which you could earn with this bonus
- You then need 180 additional XPs to earn Gold status
- You then need 300 additional XPs to earn Platinum status
As someone who recently started earning Flying Blue elite status, the 100 XPs I’ve earned from the card have gone a long way to helping me qualify for a higher status tier.
My take on the Air France-KLM Credit Card
In general I don’t recommend using an airline credit card for a majority of your spending, as there are typically better credit cards for everyday spending. That’s more general commentary than something specific to this card.
That’s simply because cards that accrue transferable points give you a lot more flexibility, and often have better bonus categories and welcome bonuses.
Is this the most amazing airline credit card ever? No. But I do think it offers some solid perks and unique benefits that could make it a keeper:
- Earning 1.5x miles per dollar spent on all purchases is better than average for an airline credit card
- While the card has an $89 annual fee, the 5,000 bonus miles when spending $50 on the card in a year (which is a reasonable threshold) should nearly cover the annual fee in terms of value
- The card can help you earn XPs toward Flying Blue status (both as part of the bonus and on an ongoing basis), which some may find to be worthwhile
As someone who is going for Flying Blue Platinum status, this is a card that I have, though it’s not one that I spend a ton on. Flying Blue is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou, so generally I’d rather maximize my rewards with some of those credit cards, since many of them offer 1.5-2x points per dollar spent.
- 5x total points on travel purchased through Chase Travel
- 3x points on dining
- 2x points on travel purchases
- $95
- 3x points on Travel after the $300 Annual Travel Credit
- 3x points on Dining
- $300 Travel Credit
- $550
- Earn 3x points on travel
- Earn 3x points on shipping purchases
- Cell Phone Protection
- $95
- 4x points at restaurants, 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
- $695
- Earn 2x miles per dollar on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
- $395
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check Credit
- $95
- Unlimited 2x miles per dollar
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Capital One Travel Portal
- $0 intro for first year; $95 after that
- 3x on Dining
- Earn Points on Rent with No Fees
- 15 Points Transfer Partners
- $0
On top of that, we even sometimes see transfer bonuses to Flying Blue (typically around 25%), which can improve your points earning rates even more.
Bottom line
The Air France-KLM Card is one that many people may not have considered, but it could be worthwhile. The card currently has a bonus of 70,000 Flying Blue miles plus 100 XPs upon completing minimum spending.
This is an excellent offer for those who have had most other cards but not this one. This card is especially valuable if you’re pursuing elite status with the Flying Blue program.
Anyone plan on picking up the Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard?
Just Google the offer. I just tried and it was the terms Ben said.
AF offers little to no value for must of us these days with 98% of the saver awards POOF GONE! Unless u want to spend 130k+ points for J.
I agree. I been looking for a month, every day. It's annoying as shit.
Like for others, your link is only showing an offer for 50000 miles after $2k spend and, crucially, no 40xp on sign-up, "only"the 60 after min spend. Is anyone finding the better offer?
How churn-able is this card? Get it in year 1, cancel at end. Wait two years (2 and 3) and can get it at beginning of year 4?
BTW, your link showed me 50k miles with $2000 spend.
The last two years, we used Flying Blue miles to fly Air France or KLM to/from Atlanta. Their rewards pricing is much better than Delta. And for those trips, we have gotten extra value from transfer bonuses. I have the card, but I’m thinking of getting one for my wife to get the extra 70k miles. That 5k on the anniversary more than covers the annual fee based on my tracking of the value I get from Flying Blue miles.
Crazy it doesn't even include a free checked bags lol
They give you 100XP which is silver status. Silver status gives you 1 free checked bag on all Skyteam carriers.
Until Flying Blue makes good on their promise to "significantly increase entry level award availability" (which they made almost two months ago), I would stay away. The available saver fares are still too few and far between.
Beware: If you credit points from this card to your Flying Blue account, it's the same as crediting a flight to Flying Blue. Why is that bad? If you have points earned from flights, you can't extend them with a credit card transfer. Instead, you actually have to credit flights to Flying Blue (or spend from the credit card). It's a sneaky way to lock you into keeping the card.
Also, if you haven't booked...
Beware: If you credit points from this card to your Flying Blue account, it's the same as crediting a flight to Flying Blue. Why is that bad? If you have points earned from flights, you can't extend them with a credit card transfer. Instead, you actually have to credit flights to Flying Blue (or spend from the credit card). It's a sneaky way to lock you into keeping the card.
Also, if you haven't booked with Flying Blue in awhile, keep in mind that they have hugely devalued the program. It's very hard to find business class availability that doesn't start in the 6 figures these days, and 7 figures isn't uncommon.
With silver status (which you get from this card) your flying blue miles will not expire.
With the 5k anniversary miles, that more than covers the annual fee in value for me. While you’re right about it being hard to find award flights for less than six figures, it’s hard to find that on any carrier since my travels are generally in the summer or around holidays. I love in Atlanta, and Flying Blue is much cheaper than trying to use miles on Delta anymore. I’ve basically given up on Delta for international Delta One.
Wow I had no idea how good a deal this was. Am now strongly considering getting this card to help me get to AF Platinum, especially after experiencing my first La Premiere flight last month—would love to be able to redeem points for it!
I will be getting Gold status with AF next month with another Delta flight I have booked then. Should I wait until I have Gold status and then get this...
Wow I had no idea how good a deal this was. Am now strongly considering getting this card to help me get to AF Platinum, especially after experiencing my first La Premiere flight last month—would love to be able to redeem points for it!
I will be getting Gold status with AF next month with another Delta flight I have booked then. Should I wait until I have Gold status and then get this card? Or does it not matter for how status is earned? (In other words, if I am only 3 XP away from Gold and have a transaction that gives me 60 XP like card approval, would the extra 57 XP roll over and count towards Platinum qualification?)
They should roll over but you should consider that your new qualification period might start earlier. it‘s another 12 month to go for the missing 243 xp as far as I understand
D**n! I just got the card three weeks ago with the lower bonuses.
Ugh.
Is there a business version of this card available? Asking for a friend.