Air France-KLM Flying Blue Paid Status Match Promotion

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 the United States and Mexico (though Flying Blue Platinum matches are excluded).

Some people will no doubt find this to be worthwhile, so let’s go over all the details.

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 20 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, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, 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

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 18 programs:

• Aer Lingus AerClub
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Alaska Mileage Plan
• American AAdvantage
• British Airways Executive Club
• Emirates Skywards
• Etihad Guest
• Finnair Plus
• Iberia Plus
• JetBlue TrueBlue
• 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, in particular airlines with a big presence in Europe or across the Atlantic. 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 the United States and Mexico 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 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?