Strategically buying miles & points for luxury travel can be a great deal. We’ve just seen the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program launch a new promotion on purchased miles. While not quite in line with the best-ever offers we’ve seen from the program, it still has the potential to be a good deal, if you have a specific use in mind.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased Flying Blue miles
Between December 2 and December 22, 2025, the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program is offering a promotion on purchased miles. The accounts I manage all show a bonus of up to 80%, which you can unlock as long as you buy at least 50,000 miles in one transaction (pre-bonus). It’s possible that different accounts may be targeted for different promotions, as you do have to log into your Flying Blue account to see what your offer is.
How much does it cost to buy Flying Blue miles?
Ordinarily you can buy Flying Blue miles for as little as 3.05 cents each (in USD), before any discounts or bonuses (the cost per mile is lowest if you buy lots of miles). If you maxed out the promotion and purchased 100,000 Flying Blue miles, you’d receive a total of 180,000 miles (including 80,000 bonus miles) at a cost of $3,050, which is a rate of 1.69 cents per mile.
Back in the day, Flying Blue consistently offered a 100% bonus on purchased miles during a promotion, which was an opportunity to buy miles for 1.53 cents each. However, it has been a long time since we’ve seen such an offer, and this price is pretty close to the best deal we see on buying miles from the program nowadays.
How many Flying Blue miles can you purchase?
Those without status in the Flying Blue program are limited to purchasing at most 100,000 Flying Blue miles per calendar year before any bonuses. Elite members can purchase an unlimited number of miles, though there may be limits on how many bonus miles can be earned during promotions.
Which credit card should you buy Flying Blue miles with?
Flying Blue mileage purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as an airfare purchase for the purposes of credit card spending. Therefore I’d recommend using a card on which you’re trying to reach minimum spending, or otherwise, a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending.
- Earn 1% cash back when you make a purchase, earn 1% cash back when you pay for that purchase
- $0
- Earn 3% Cash Back on Dining
- Earn 3% Cash Back at Drugstores
- Earn 1.5% Cash Back On All Other Purchases
- $0
- 2x points on purchases up to $50k then 1x
- Access to Amex Offers
- No annual fee
See this post for more on which credit cards are best for buying points.
Is buying Flying Blue miles worth it?
The Air France-KLM Flying Blue program has dynamic award pricing, though has more consistency in pricing than in the past. Generally speaking, saver level transatlantic business class awards cost 60,000 miles one-way, which is great. The catch is that Flying Blue has become really bad about releasing saver business class award space across the Atlantic. However, in other markets availability is often better.
The way I view it, the big selling point of the Flying Blue program is that Air France and KLM make more award seats available to members of the Flying Blue program than to members of partner airline frequent flyer programs. Furthermore, nowadays Flying Blue allows free stopovers on awards, which is an awesome feature.
If you’re looking to book a long haul award ticket, especially in business class, it’s hard to beat the value proposition of booking through Flying Blue. Not only is there a good amount of availability in some markets, but both Air France and KLM offer solid long haul business class products (read my review of KLM’s 787 business class, read my review of Air France’s A350 business class). 
Does Flying Blue have fuel surcharges on award tickets?
Flying Blue does have carrier imposed surcharges (often referred to as fuel surcharges) on award tickets, though they’re mild in comparison to what you’d pay for a British Airways business class award, for example. Expect Flying Blue carrier imposed surcharges to generally be around $200 one-way for a transatlantic business class award (and then taxes and fees are in addition to that, but you’d pay that with any airline).
On what airlines can you redeem Flying Blue miles?
As you can see above, personally I think there’s the most value to be had when redeeming directly on Air France & KLM. Beyond that, Flying Blue miles can also be redeemed on a variety of other airlines:
- Air France & KLM are in SkyTeam, so you can redeem miles on all SkyTeam partners; however, I generally find SkyTeam isn’t as good as oneworld or Star Alliance when it comes to reciprocal award space
- Flying Blue has some unique airline partnerships outside of SkyTeam, including with airlines like Aircalin and Etihad
- Flying Blue also allows first class redemptions on select partners, including China Eastern and Garuda Indonesia
How much are Flying Blue miles worth?
Everyone will value mileage currencies differently, but personally I value Flying Blue miles at ~1.3 cents each. However, I tend to value points pretty conservatively, and there are many ways to get way more value from Flying Blue miles than that.
Do Flying Blue miles expire?
Flying Blue miles expire if you have no qualifying flight or credit card activity in your account for 24 months. You can extend the expiration of miles by crediting any eligible flights to Flying Blue, having Flying Blue elite status, or by having a co-branded Flying Blue credit card.
Note that buying points directly from Flying Blue, or transferring them from a Flying Blue transfer partner, wouldn’t extend the expiration of the miles.
What other ways can you earn Flying Blue miles?
While buying Flying Blue miles could represent a great deal, keep in mind that there are lots of other ways to earn Flying Blue miles. Most significantly, Flying Blue is transfer partners with American Express Membership Rewards, Brex, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, and Marriott Bonvoy. As you can see, there are lots of ways to acquire points with the program through other currencies.
- 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 Travel Credit
- $795
- Earn 3x points on travel
- Earn 3x points on shipping 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
- 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
Bottom line
Air France-KLM Flying Blue is offering a promotion on purchased miles, giving members the opportunity to buy miles with up to an 80% bonus. This is an opportunity to acquire miles for 1.69 cents each.
There are still plenty of situations where this could represent a good value. There is lots of merit to Flying Blue, especially for long haul business class redemptions, where award pricing is generally reasonable. That being said, currently transatlantic business class award availability isn’t great.
The only thing I’d remind people of is that there are lots of ways to earn Flying Blue miles, so outright buying them won’t be necessary for a lot of people. Always crunch the numbers for yourself and search availability before buying miles.
Do you plan on purchasing Flying Blue miles with an 80% bonus?
I am still utterly confused about their uniquely weird split between 'Flight miles', and 'Commercial miles'. I even wrote to FB CS, but their reply, bordering on gibberish, confused me even more: 'When referring to "Flight Miles," this term applies exclusively to miles earned from flights. Since the only way to extend the validity of your miles is by earning additional miles, it would be necessary to accrue more Flight Miles specifically. Miles earned through...
I am still utterly confused about their uniquely weird split between 'Flight miles', and 'Commercial miles'. I even wrote to FB CS, but their reply, bordering on gibberish, confused me even more: 'When referring to "Flight Miles," this term applies exclusively to miles earned from flights. Since the only way to extend the validity of your miles is by earning additional miles, it would be necessary to accrue more Flight Miles specifically. Miles earned through a co-branded credit card are considered "Commercial Miles" and do not extend the validity of your Flight Miles (Commercial Miles gains extend the validity for Commercial Miles only, and the same goes to Flight Miles)'. And:'No, Commercial Miles do not become Flight Miles. However, only the total balance is displayed in your account, which means both Commercial Miles and Flight Miles are combined into a single total. You may use your miles as you prefer while they remain valid, whether for purchases in the Flying Blue Shop or for booking flights.' So, if they are combined into a 'single total', how can they have different expiry dates? Somewhere I read, that Flight miles can only be extended by booking a flight, even if it's a codeshare credited to Flying Blue, OR by using a co-branded credit card. But what this agent wrote, that credit card miles only extend the 'Commercial miles'. I just cannot wrap my head around this.
@ben I believe that if you bought miles you can extend them by buying more miles? Or if you transfer them by credit card you can extend by transferring more. And each mile is then extended in a similar compartmentalized way.
I don’t know the exact details now but did a lot of research when I realised I had let 200k miles expire last year….
Thankfully flying blue let me earn them back with a flight.
What’s the deal with this photo Ben ? You’ve been using it for years more than any other ?
To answer the title's question for the newbies: other than topping off points for a specific flight, it's not worth it.
Again, I don't think it's that cut and dry at all. True, for the vast majority of people it's not worth it.
If you 1) live in a city that has service (Boston, NYC, Chicago, a bunch more) and 2) actually want to fly to France or even Europe and 3) have a lot of flexibility, Flying Blue miles can save you a fair amount on Premium Economy tickets and a huge amount on Business....
Again, I don't think it's that cut and dry at all. True, for the vast majority of people it's not worth it.
If you 1) live in a city that has service (Boston, NYC, Chicago, a bunch more) and 2) actually want to fly to France or even Europe and 3) have a lot of flexibility, Flying Blue miles can save you a fair amount on Premium Economy tickets and a huge amount on Business. That's a lot of Ands but I can say from experience I've probably saved $10K+ over 3 trips flying PE and Biz over the last 3 years. Granted I would never pay cash for a business flight but at 1.69c/mile you are paying about $2.6k (incl fees) for a business flight on Air France that normally sells for at least $4K. When you factor in transfers from Chase etc that cost goes down.
Are there business class flights to Europe for $2.6K? Sure, from time to time, but they aren't as nice an experience, aren't cancellable, and probably are 20+ hours and 2 stops.
Availability is a _significant_ drawback so when I say you need flexibility I mean it. You need to book cancellable fallback awards and wait for space to open up, and be prepared to change dates +/- a day to snag biz or PE seats. Often there's just no saver available for spring/summer/fall months and then they dump some award inventory. It can be frustrating for sure.
And of course everything used to be better; PE availability was often wide open and prices were lower (70K miles for PE RT). Sometimes you just have to accept that things change and embrace the new normal.
Oh forgot to mention the fees. Still worth it from my perspective.
I live in a city that has service and do want to fly to France and Europe, but I find FB redemptions in any cabin a waste of time.
85k+€200ish each way between Europe and Africa is more expensive than most regular business class tickets on the route. $4k for business between Europe and the USA also seems very expensive to me, it was only last year that I flew from Italy to Mexico...
I live in a city that has service and do want to fly to France and Europe, but I find FB redemptions in any cabin a waste of time.
85k+€200ish each way between Europe and Africa is more expensive than most regular business class tickets on the route. $4k for business between Europe and the USA also seems very expensive to me, it was only last year that I flew from Italy to Mexico and back for well under €1k.
Their miles only really come in handy for routes that are short and expensive like their odd A320 service from Belem or KQ within Africa.