The $89 annual fee Air France KLM Visa Signature® credit card is issued by Bank of America in the United States, and is the co-branded card of the Flying Blue program. The card is currently offering a limited time welcome offer, making it the ideal time to apply.
Not only does this bonus offer a substantial number of miles, but it can also help you earn Flying Blue elite status, and that’s something that’s incredibly valuable… I say that as someone who has had Flying Blue Platinum status for a few years now!
Link: Learn more about the Air France KLM Visa Signature® credit card
What is the current Air France-KLM Card bonus?
The Air France KLM Credit Card is currently offering a limited time welcome bonus of 70,000 Flying Blue bonus miles plus 100 Experience Points (XPs) after spending $3,000 within the first 90 days of account opening. This is a limited time offer, and it’s significantly better than the standard bonus.
Personally, I value Flying Blue miles at 1.3 cents each, so to me the bonus miles alone are worth $975. However, that doesn’t factor in the value of the 100 XPs, as that alone is enough for Flying Blue Silver status, and it gets you on your way to Flying Blue Gold or Flying Blue Platinum status, which offer additional, valuable perks.
Who is eligible for the Air France-KLM Card?
The Air France KLM Credit Card is issued by Bank of America, and it follows a 24-month rule when it comes to bonus eligibility. Specifically, when you pull up the application, you’ll find the following terms:
Limit of one bonus miles offer per new Air France KLM credit card account, and limit of one new account XP bonus per Flying Blue member within any 24-month period, regardless of how many Air France KLM credit card accounts are opened.
So that means you’re limited to one bonus on the Air France KLM Credit Card every 24 months. Beyond that, Bank of America’s most common restrictions on new accounts include the following:
- Bank of America has the 2/3/4 rule, meaning you can open at most two Bank of America cards every two months, at most three Bank of America cards every 12 months, and at most four Bank of America cards every 24 months; this applies only to personal cards, and not business cards
- Bank of America has the 3/12 rule, meaning you may not be approved for a card if you’ve opened three or more new cards with any card issuer in the past 12 months; this applies only to personal cards, and not business cards, and it also doesn’t seem to apply if you have a banking relationship with Bank of America
Assuming you meet those requirements, I find that Bank of America cards are typically quite easy to get approved for.
What benefits does the Air France-KLM Card have?
Beyond the excellent welcome bonus, the Air France KLM Credit Card offers a variety of benefits that could make it worth holding onto. As a reminder, the card has an $89 annual fee, and offers the following perks:
- The Air France-KLM Card offers 3x miles per dollar spent directly with Air France, KLM, and SkyTeam member airlines, 3x miles on dining, and 1.5x miles per dollar spent on all other purchases, all with no foreign transaction fees
- The Air France-KLM Card makes it easier to earn Flying Blue elite status — earn 20 XPs on your account anniversary every year without any spend requirement, plus 80 additional XPs when you spend $15,000, plus an additional 60 XPs when you spend $25,000 (so if you spend $25,000 per anniversary year, you’d earn 160 XPs)
- The Air France-KLM Card offers 5,000 bonus anniversary miles every year on your account anniversary after you spend $50 or more on purchases within the anniversary year
For context on XPs, that’s the metric by which you earn elite 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
See my full review of the Air France KLM Credit Card here.
Air France-KLM Credit Card welcome bonus FAQs
Bottom line
The Air France-KLM Card is one that many people may not have considered, but it could absolutely be worthwhile. The card currently has a limited time bonus of 70,000 Flying Blue miles plus 100 XPs upon completing minimum spending. That not only earns you a lot of miles, but also gets you Flying Blue Silver status (or a boost toward a higher status tier).
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, as the card can earn you up to 160 XPs per year, enough for Flying Blue Gold status, or if you’re already Gold, it gets you 60% of the way to Platinum status.
Anyone plan on picking up the Air France KLM Visa Signature® credit card?
I wouldn't apply for a DieTeam credit card or status if you put a gun to my head.
Benz do you still have this card?
The last time this was posted it was just before the latest devaluation.
Even than the 70k FB points were not enticing because of high taxes and fees.
Now you cannot even get a saver award with 70k that includes lounge access or an award that is refundable even with a penalty.
20 XP + 80 XP + 60 XP = 160 XP from spending, not 180 right? You’d still be 20 XP short of gold status as I understand it.
Receipt of XPs upon approval (or via SUB) is only once every 24 months. So, if someone is starting "new," they'll receive 100 XPs. That will trigger FB Silver and their FB membership year is reset. Let's say October. IF the card's anniversary 160 XPs hit before the person's reset FB membership anniversary date and IF the person earned another 20 XPs via paid flights, then the person would advance to FB Gold. To sustain...
Receipt of XPs upon approval (or via SUB) is only once every 24 months. So, if someone is starting "new," they'll receive 100 XPs. That will trigger FB Silver and their FB membership year is reset. Let's say October. IF the card's anniversary 160 XPs hit before the person's reset FB membership anniversary date and IF the person earned another 20 XPs via paid flights, then the person would advance to FB Gold. To sustain FB Gold, the person would need to earn the extra 20 XPs that you note.
However, the timing of the card's anniversary 160 XPs might be problematic. If they hit in November and are not deemed credited in October, thus after the person's reset FB membership anniversary date, the person will drop down to FB Blue and 0 XPs. And, when the 160 XPs are credited, the person will move back up to FB Silver with an excess of 60 XPs (or 80 XPs with the earned XPs in the example above). Now, to move up to FB Gold, the person must earn 120 XPs (or 100 XPs) to reach FB Gold.
It's not just the saver awards are hardly ever available. But the fact that the taxes have just gone through the roof that even with saver awards this is just not a great redemption.
Hard pass!
No wonder they've started blocking partner availability even for the dates and routes when the 'cheap' 85k redemptions are available- they need to make space for their credit card customers. There's no business class availability on AFKL to anywhere in the Cono Sur using SK miles from the beginning of Oct until 19 Nov- not a single seat!
Anyone else receiving the 100K offer in their email? Structured as a 2 part offer: 70K after $3k in 3 months and an extra 30K after a total of $7.5K in 6 months. Seems to be an all time high offer!
I got this one and my spouse got the 70k offer.
Jesus, not again... Whatever happened to making Platinum (somewhat) exclusive (considering the low qualification in the first place)?
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.
DL sell Africa-S. America tickets on AF via CDG for 100k miles each way in business class. Good luck pricing that up on Flying Blue.
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.
You get free checked bags for the first year only. And flying blue program is on life support. This card is a shameless money grab providing no real benefits to customers after year one…KLM/AF hope is that subscribe to their stupid monthly subscription
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.