Air France-KLM Flying Blue is currently offering a paid status match promotion. While this offer has been around for some time, there have been geographic restrictions.
There’s now an update, as this offer has been extended to customers in more regions (though restrictions vary by region, including that those in the United States can only match up to Flying Blue Gold, and not Platinum). Some people will no doubt find this to be worthwhile, so let’s go over all the details.
In this post:
Basics of Flying Blue’s status match promo
The website statusmatch.com is currently partnering with Air France-KLM Flying Blue to offer a status match promotion, with the option to earn Silver, Gold, or Platinum status. This offer is available to residents of dozens of countries, at different price points, and with different restrictions. Specifically:
- For residents of the United States and Mexico, you’ll pay $99 for a Silver match, or $299 for a Gold match (Platinum matches aren’t available to these members)
- For residents of the United Kingdom, you’ll pay €79 for a Silver match, €199 for a Gold match, or €399 for a Platinum match
- For residents of Canada, you’ll pay CAD 79 for a Silver match, CAD 199 for a Gold match, or CAD 399 for a Platinum match
- For residents of Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, you’ll pay €59 for a Silver match, €199 for a Gold match, or €399 for a Platinum match
- For residents of Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Japan, Panama, Peru, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, you’ll pay $99 for a Silver match, $299 for a Gold match, or $399 for a Platinum match
- For residents of Brazil and Hong Kong, you’ll pay $99 for a Silver match, or $299 for a Gold match (Platinum matches aren’t available to these members)
The status match request should take just a minute to complete, though it can take up to five business days for the request to be approved. Matched status is valid for a period of 12 months from when the match is approved. There’s no published end date for this promotion, though it can be pulled at any time.
Which airline status is Flying Blue matching?
According to the FAQs, Flying Blue is matching status from the following 25 programs:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air India Flying Returns
- Alaska Mileage Plan
- All Nippon Airways Mileage Club
- American AAdvantage
- avianca lifemiles
- British Airways Executive Club
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- EgyptAir Plus
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Guest
- Finnair Plus
- Iberia Plus
- Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- LATAM Pass
- Lufthansa Miles & More
- Malaysia Airlines Enrich
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Singapore KrisFlyer
- TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
- Turkish Miles&Smiles
- United MileagePlus
- WestJet Rewards
As you can see, this includes many non-SkyTeam airlines, with a presence across the globe. Status maps over roughly as you’d expect, with top tier status generally mapping to Flying Blue Platinum, entry level status generally mapping to Flying Blue Silver, etc. The exception, as mentioned above, is that residents of select regions aren’t eligible for a Flying Blue Platinum match.
How this status match opportunity could be useful
Flying Blue is generally a valuable program for award redemptions, and I redeem miles through Flying Blue all the time. Even beyond the redemption opportunities, there’s value to having status with Flying Blue. Status really gets valuable with Flying Blue Gold and Platinum.
Flying Blue Gold status offers:
- The ability to earn 7x miles per € spent on airfare
- SkyTeam Elite Plus status, which offers priority check-in, priority security, priority boarding, extra baggage, lounge access, and much more, whether flying with Air France, KLM, or a SkyTeam partner
- Some free premium seat options 72 hours before departure
Flying Blue Platinum status incrementally offers:
- The ability to earn 8x miles per € spent on airfare
- The ability to redeem Flying Blue miles for Air France first class (La Premiere)
- Free premium seat options at the time of booking; you can even pre-reserve the bulkhead seats in Air France’s new Airbus A350 and Boeing 777 business class, which I’d consider to be the world’s best business class seats
- Access to a dedicated Platinum phone service line
- Waived change & cancelation fees on Flying Blue awards
In general, this status match opportunity is an easy way to unlock SkyTeam Elite Plus perks, regardless of which airline you may fly. On top of that, for those eligible for a Flying Blue Platinum status match, that could be worth it for the ability to redeem miles for Air France first class.
For those in the United States, I’d note that taking advantage of a Flying Blue Gold status match gets you closer to Platinum status. The system of qualifying for status with Flying Blue works a bit differently than with other programs:
- 100 XPs gets you Flying Blue Silver status
- You then need 180 additional XPs to earn Flying Blue Gold status
- You then need 300 additional XPs to earn Flying Blue Platinum status
However, there’s a bit more nuance to this, which also makes it easier to earn status. For example, you don’t need 580 XPs in a year to earn Platinum status:
- Once you earn 100 XPs in a membership year, you’ll earn Silver status
- Your status will then be reset, and you’ll need to earn 180 XPs over the next 12 months to earn Gold status
- Your status will then be reset, and you’ll need to earn 300 XPs over the next 12 months to earn Platinum status
- Maintaining status on an ongoing basis simply requires 100 XPs for Silver, 180 XPs for Gold, and 300 XPs for Platinum
In other words, if you started from scratch and wanted to earn Flying Blue Platinum status, you’d need to earn 580 XPs. Meanwhile if you already had Gold status through this match, you’d only need to earn 300 XPs in order to earn Platinum status. Also keep in mind that the Flying Blue credit card in the United States can help you earn XPs.
Bottom line
The Air France-KLM Flying Blue program is currently offering a status match promotion, whereby you can pay for a 12-month status match all the way up to Flying Blue Platinum status. The major restriction is the residency requirements, as well as the limit of Flying Blue Gold status for those in select regions, including the United States.
Still, if you value SkyTeam Elite Plus status, or if you want a shortcut to Flying Blue Platinum status, this offer could be well worth it.
Do you plan on taking advantage of this Flying Blue status match opportunity?
Ben, are you sure this is still offered? I tried and got the “Offer expired or not available at your location” for both US and the UK (I used a VPN).
For European residents it says it's only available for those who have status on Czech Airlines.
Tier status provides what benefits that a premium cabin ticket does not? Little. And, if a person is paying with points, the earning multiple is irrelevant. In the case of Flying Blue, the only significant benefit is Platinum's access to Air France first class award inventory. I maintain Platinum for that reason alone. If not for that, I'd forego tier status. Keep perspective and good luck.
Recall Ben's article on Delta selling most of its domestic first class . . . which makes status-based upgrades less likely. Certainly, there are a few people with unique circumstances who get frequent upgrades but most don't. AA has gone the route of discounted paid upgrades big time and SWUs are a joke. Hobbyists must acknowledge that tier status is becoming less and less valuable. Then, hotels.
$99 for silver for US applicants would be a bit silly anyways, when the FB credit card offers this exact thing (plus SUB points) for $99 annual fee
Qatar Gold via credit card. Is it worth matching to FB?
See my comments above.
Not available to those in the USA
This must be the first time Canadians didn't get screwed with an offer.
They're matching OneWorld Sapphire to FlyingBlue Silver (AS MVP Gold only matches to Silver). This has to be the most nonsense status mapping I've ever seen.
“Offer expired or not available at your location” error for US based applications.
It doesn't seem to work for USA - it gives me a offer expired or unavailable at your location :-( anyone else tried?
Same here. Offer expired or not available in my location.
In the terms - says the US offer expired Oct 4th which is odd bc I haven't seen it public anywhere before
https://flyingblue.statusmatch.com/terms/
I would prefer the Vietnam Airlines status match option, in which the requirements for next year' qualifications are easier. 47 segments or 50,000 qualifying miles.
Vietnam Airlines may be easier to requalify via points, but when it comes to segments, it's easier in Flying Blue - you need 180 XP = 36 segments assuming you fly exclusively shorthaul economy. If you have occasional business or longhaul trips, it's even less.
I was able to match to BA then AF with diamond medallion. Sayonara Skymiles (god know what the spending requirement will be next year)
Not sure if it's a typo or if they've since updated pricing, but it's CAD299 and 499 respectively for Gold and Platinum in Canada.
Anyone having a problem where on the form where it requires an email it defaults to capitalizing the first letter? My email starts with b and not B. Therefore I cannot complete the status match form.
I don’t want to miss this status match.
My man, I have good news for you: there are no capital/lowercase letter distinctions in email addresses. Just put in your address and you"ll be good.
Wait, Oneworld sapphire status from AAdvantage matches to Gold but Oneworld sapphire status from Alaska MileagePlan only matches to Silver? This is the strangest status match mapping I've ever seen. Has there ever been a status match with such preferential treatment given to elites in one specific airline of an alliance?
Soft landing would apply, yes?
The Status mapping is not valuable at all for Flying Blue Silver status. Most of the useful benefits are from having SkyTeam Elite Plus, which you get with Delta Gold Medallion. But for some reason United Gold and American Gold only match to the base tier of Flying Blue which doesn’t get the useful Skyteam Elite Plus benefits..
Ben, I am AA 2 mm miler platinum for life. Would this status work? I rarely spend a penny to fly with so many miles in the bank.
Thanks in advance,
See my comments above.
Dammit! The USA restriction sucks. I am flying to france for the olympics and I would have tried for premiere. can't earn 300 xp in a month lol.
@ Matt -- Hah, it would be a great strategy if it were possible, but I suspect that's exactly what the airline was trying to avoid. The exception for Flying Blue Platinum in the US is probably because of the number of transferable points that are in circulation.
good.
AF La Premiere doesn't need a bunch of US based flyers
So I guess they don't want to match my Spirit Gold status :(
Hunny do you hear yourself
And yet quite a lot of the EU (which is KL's main market) still isn't eligible. Weird.
I wonder how this works with the BILT gold status offer for KL/AF; it seems like one just deposits 280 XP into your account to activate gold. I wonder what would happen if you activated both offers and then got the credit card...
@ Nawaid Ladak -- That's an interesting question. I was going to answer this and say that it won't work, since you already have Flying Blue Gold status. But at the same time, when you get Flying Blue Gold status, you essentially have 180 XPs deposited into your account. I'm curious if anyone can share a data point here?
I assume matches are blocked if you already have the status, but maybe not?
Wait, Oneworld sapphire status from AAdvantage matches to Gold but Oneworld sapphire status from Alaska MileagePlan only matches to Silver? This is the strangest status match mapping I've ever seen. Has there ever been a status match with such preferential treatment given to elites in one specific airline of an alliance?
The status match is actually processed via StatusMatch.com and no XPs are involved. The terms and conditions state that if a person obtains a status match via this offer, the person will be ineligible for a subsequent AF status match. Not certain what negative implications this has for Bilt's status match, which would otherwise be repeatable.
If my One World status expires in six months, will the KLM paid status continue for the balance of the paid 12 months?
@ Engel -- Yeah, the status match is valid for 12 months if approved, regardless of when your status expires with the program you're matching from.
In spite of the one F award seat policy, some Platinums have said there is greater F inventory in practice. Ben, as you will achieve Platinum this year, perhaps an article is in order. I will achieve Platinum later this year. Whether I retain it solely depends on F award inventory.
@ Lee -- Look forward to reporting back once I earn the status!
@Ben- Have you earned Platinum status? Thanks
@ Sam -- I'm *very* close. Should be there in a couple of weeks. I'll report back when I've earned it! :-)
@Lee That is true. On some dates next week or on random dates in July i can see up to 3 seats available on CDG-HND in La Premiere.