Buy Air France-KLM Flying Blue Miles For 45% Off (1.68 Cents Per Point)

Buy Air France-KLM Flying Blue Miles For 45% Off (1.68 Cents Per Point)

Up to 45% discount on purchased miles

Starts: November 29, 2024
Ends: December 19, 2024
Deal History
Up to 45% discount on purchased miles November 29, 2024 December 19, 2024
Up to 45% discount on purchased miles October 14, 2024 October 27, 2024
Up to 40% discount on purchased miles July 15, 2024 August 4, 2024
Up to 70% bonus on purchased miles May 21, 2024 June 16, 2024
Up to 35% bonus on purchased miles April 4, 2024 April 25, 2024
Up to 50% discount on purchased miles February 6, 2024 February 29, 2024
Up to 100% bonus on purchased miles December 1, 2023 December 21, 2023
Up to 100% bonus on purchased miles October 23, 2023 November 7, 2023
1
In the interest of full disclosure, OMAAT earns a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through some of the below links. These are the best publicly available offers (terms apply) that we have found for each product or service. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of the bank, credit card issuer, airline, hotel chain, or product manufacturer/service provider, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Please check out our advertiser policy for further details about our partners, and thanks for your support!

It can be a great deal to strategically buy miles & points for luxury travel. We’ve just seen the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program launch a new promotion on purchased miles. While this offer isn’t quite as good as some of the past deals we’ve seen from the program, it still has the potential to represent a good value.

Promotion on purchased Flying Blue miles

Through 11:59PM CET on Thursday, December 19, 2024, the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program is offering a promotion on purchased miles. The accounts I manage all show a discount of up to 45%, which you can unlock as long as you buy at least 24,000 miles in one transaction. It’s possible that different accounts may be targeted for different bonuses, as you do have to log into your Flying Blue account to see what your offer is.

Buy Flying Blue miles with a 45% discount

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 100,000 miles at a cost of $1,677.50, which is a rate of 1.68 cents per mile.

Buy Flying Blue miles for 1.68 cents each

Historically Flying Blue has typically offered a 100% bonus on purchased points during a promotion, which is an opportunity to buy points for 1.53 cents each. However, it has been some time since we’ve seen such an offer, and the last three promotions have been for a 70% bonus, a 40% discount, and a 45% discount. So perhaps the 100% bonus is no longer the norm.

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.

Air France business class Boeing 787

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.

In this case the best option is the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review), which offers 2x miles and has no foreign transaction fees. Usually the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review) or Citi Double Cash® Card (review) would also be good options for maximizing everyday spending, but the cards have foreign transaction fees, so wouldn’t be a good option in this case.

Citi Double Cash® Card
  • Earn 1% cash back when you make a purchase, earn 1% cash back when you pay for that purchase
  • $0
Chase Freedom Unlimited®
Learn More Terms Apply.
  • Earn 3% Cash Back on Dining
  • Earn 3% Cash Back at Drugstores
  • Earn 1.5% Cash Back On All Other Purchases
  • $0
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
  • Earn 2x miles per dollar on every purchase
  • No Foreign Transaction Fees
  • 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
  • $395
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
  • Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day
  • No Foreign Transaction Fees
  • Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check Credit
  • $95
The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express
  • 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 50,000 miles one-way, which is great.

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 transatlantic 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, but both Air France and KLM offer solid transatlantic business class products (read my review of KLM’s 787 business class, read my review of Air France’s A350 business class). I use Flying Blue miles a lot, and consistently get great value with them.

KLM business class Boeing 787

What are good uses of Flying Blue miles?

As mentioned above, my preferred use of Flying Blue miles is for travel in business class on Air France or KLM across the Atlantic. Currently business class awards across the Atlantic start at 50,000 miles one-way, which is an amazing deal.

Fly business class across the Atlantic for 50,000 miles

When you combine the overall value and availability for transatlantic business class flights, Flying Blue miles are pretty tough to beat, in my opinion.

While there are some other niche redemptions available with Flying Blue miles, I think this is where the most value lies.

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
Redeem Flying Blue miles on Aircalin (but probably not right now!)

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.

KLM Boeing 787

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.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Learn More Terms Apply.
  • 5x total points on travel purchased through Chase Travel
  • 3x points on dining
  • 2x points on travel purchases
  • $95
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Learn More Terms Apply.
  • 3x points on Travel after the $300 Annual Travel Credit
  • 3x points on Dining
  • $300 Travel Credit
  • $550
Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
Learn More Terms Apply.
  • Earn 3x points on travel
  • Earn 3x points on shipping purchases
  • Cell Phone Protection
  • $95
American Express® Gold Card
  • 4x points at restaurants, 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
The Platinum Card® from American Express
  • 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
  • $695
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
  • Earn 2x miles per dollar on every purchase
  • No Foreign Transaction Fees
  • 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
  • $395
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
  • Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day
  • No Foreign Transaction Fees
  • Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check Credit
  • $95
Capital One Spark Miles for Business
  • Unlimited 2x miles per dollar
  • No Foreign Transaction Fees
  • Capital One Travel Portal
  • $0 intro for first year; $95 after that
Bilt Mastercard®
Learn More Terms Apply
  • 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 a 45% discount. This is an opportunity to acquire miles for 1.68 cents each.

While not as good as the 100% bonus we’ve seen in the past, this is still better than the two most recent offers we saw, and there are plenty of situations where this could represent a good value. There is lots of merit to Flying Blue, especially for transatlantic business class redemptions, where award pricing is generally reasonable and availability is good.

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.

Do you plan on purchasing Flying Blue miles with a 45% discount?

Conversations (1)
The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.
Type your response here.

If you'd like to participate in the discussion, please adhere to our commenting guidelines. Anyone can comment, and your email address will not be published. Register to save your unique username and earn special OMAAT reputation perks!

  1. SFT Guest

    Hi Ben,
    Isn't the offer now for 80% ?

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

SFT Guest

Hi Ben, Isn't the offer now for 80% ?

0
Meet Ben Schlappig, OMAAT Founder
5,163,247 Miles Traveled

32,614,600 Words Written

35,045 Posts Published