The Air France-KLM Visa Signature Card is issued by Bank of America in the United States, and it recently underwent a refresh.
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. 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 perks & bonus
Here are the basics of the Air France-KLM credit card:
- Welcome bonus: earn 70,000 bonus miles plus 100 XPs after making $3,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days
- 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, 3x miles on dining, and 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 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 180 XPs)
- 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 XPs you earn on this card can go a long way to helping you earn a higher status tier. The 180 XPs could get you Gold status, or could get you most of the way to Platinum status on an ongoing basis.
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, particularly with the card now offering up to 180 XPs per year for spending
As someone who goes for Flying Blue Platinum status on an ongoing basis, this is a card that I have, and it’s one that I plan to spend $25,000 per year on, if possible. 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
- 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
- Earn 6x points at Marriott
- Free Night Award Annually
- 15 Elite Nights Towards Status Annually
- $95
On top of that, we even sometimes see transfer bonuses to Flying Blue (typically around 20-25%), 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, as the card can earn you up to 180 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 Card?
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.
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.