It can be a great deal to strategically buy miles & points for luxury travel. Along those lines, the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program has just launched a promotion on purchased miles, which is in line with the best offers we’ve seen from the program.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased Flying Blue miles
Through Sunday, May 15, 2022, the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program is offering up to a 100% bonus on purchased miles. The bonus is tiered, and you get a bigger bonus the more miles you buy, as follows:
- Buy 4,000-10,000 miles, get a 50% bonus
- Buy 12,000-22,000 miles, get a 70% bonus
- Buy 24,000-100,000 miles, get a 100% bonus
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. However, it’s my understanding that the above is the standard offer.
How much does it cost to buy Flying Blue miles?
Ordinarily you can buy Flying Blue miles for 2.75 cents each (in EUR), before any discounts or bonuses. If you maxed out the promotion and purchased 100,000 Flying Blue miles pre-bonus, you’d receive a total of 200,000 miles at a cost of 2,750 EUR, which is a rate of 1.375 cents (in EUR) per mile. With today’s conversion rate, that comes out to a rate of 1.45 cents (in USD) per mile.
This is an excellent promotion from Flying Blue, and is in line with the best offers we see from the program. That’s especially true if your’e looking at it in terms of the price in USD, given the relatively weak EUR at the moment.
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.
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.
- 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
- Earn 2x Venture miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
- $395
- Earn 2x Venture miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check Credit
- $95
- 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. This means that there’s not a published award chart, but rather the cost of an award can vary based on the date, time of flight, etc.
The way I view it, the big selling point of the Flying Blue program is that Air France & KLM make more award seats available to members of the Flying Blue program than to members of partner airline frequent flyer programs.
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.
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. At the moment it seems like business class awards widely start at 55,000 miles one-way (this can change, given dynamic pricing), and that’s quite a good value.
For example, you can fly Air France business class from Paris to Miami…
Or Air France business class from New York to Prague via Paris…
Or Air France business class from Los Angeles to Edinburgh via Paris…
Or KLM business class from Chicago to Copenhagen via Amsterdam…
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. However, 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. However, 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
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.
However, 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
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
- American Express® Gold Card
- The Platinum Card® from American Express
- Citi Premier® Card
- Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
- Capital One Spark Miles for Business
- Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card
- 5x total points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®
- 3x points on dining
- 2x points on travel purchases
- $95
- 3x points on Travel after the $300 Annual Travel Credit
- 3x points on Dining
- $300 Travel Credit
- $550
- Earn 3x points on travel
- Earn 3x points on shipping purchases
- Cell Phone Protection
- $95
- 4x points at restaurants
- 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
- $250
- 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
- Earn 3x Points on Airfare
- Earn 3x Points on Hotels
- Earn 3x Points at Restaurants
- $95
- Earn 2x Venture miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
- $395
- Earn 2x Venture miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check Credit
- $95
- Unlimited 2x miles per dollar
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Primary Car Rental Coverage
- $0 intro for first year; $95 after that
- Earn 6x points at Marriott
- Free Night Award Annually
- 15 Elite Nights Towards Status Annually
- $95
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 100% bonus.
This is as good as promotions from Flying Blue get when purchasing miles. There’s lots of value to be had with Flying Blue miles, 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 100% bonus?
KLM's A330 business class doesn't look so great and unfortunately that's what they offer on IAD to AMS right now. So I booked AF instead for an upcoming trip. Still a decent value though
As I widen my scope away from my usual choice of airlines, I've been looking at Flying Blue. I read their T&C and it appears that only mileage-earning flights reset the expiry clock, which I agree isn't ideal. I don't have any miles to protect yet, but fly a bit domestically and one short QF flight will do the trick. Anyone in the US could do the same on Delta. It always pays to keep...
As I widen my scope away from my usual choice of airlines, I've been looking at Flying Blue. I read their T&C and it appears that only mileage-earning flights reset the expiry clock, which I agree isn't ideal. I don't have any miles to protect yet, but fly a bit domestically and one short QF flight will do the trick. Anyone in the US could do the same on Delta. It always pays to keep track ahead of time what the expiry conditions are for any points you have in any program.
The best card to buy Flying Blue miles is the Flying Blue co-branded card. I'd earn an additional 1.5x Flying Blue miles per dollar with no FTF, it WOULD homogenize the expiration for ALL of the miles in my account (from flying and from points transfers) and it would meet the $50 threshold for the annual points bonus. One and done. The CapOne cards are trash as they're too picky about people who've excellent credit...
The best card to buy Flying Blue miles is the Flying Blue co-branded card. I'd earn an additional 1.5x Flying Blue miles per dollar with no FTF, it WOULD homogenize the expiration for ALL of the miles in my account (from flying and from points transfers) and it would meet the $50 threshold for the annual points bonus. One and done. The CapOne cards are trash as they're too picky about people who've excellent credit but enthusiastically signed up for several new cards.
I guess my points transferred from AMEX pre-Covil has expired considering I have no plan to travel this year. Possibly late next year. It sucks that any activity on the account will not reset the clock.
Their website is the worst of the carriers I fly. And, as far as using miles for business tickets, figure 200,000 plus to the States. One way. I'll pass on this offer.
Try their app. I've been using the KLM App to search for award tix and it worked great!
I recently booked IAD to BCN via CDG in business class for 67k miles plus a couple hundred in fees
This is tempting, but the search functionality on the site is so bad that it just seems risky. Unless someone has a workaround.
Try to search award tix on their app! I've been using the KLM app and it worked great!
Ben, please correct me if I'm wrong . . . point transfers from card issuers as well a non-flight activity with partners do NOT reset Flying Blue's point expiration clock. Only flight activity and co-branded credit card activity will do so.
How likely is it there are 2 award seats available on the same flight?
I have found the likelihood to be quite high, @Nikojas, for the dates I have looked at, which have fallen 3 to 6 months out (and I'm targeting 787s and A350s in my searches). One issue to acknowledge, however, is that the flights with the lowest redemption rates often have short connection times at AMS and CDG. If you book further out this seems to be somewhat avoidable, but it is something to take into...
I have found the likelihood to be quite high, @Nikojas, for the dates I have looked at, which have fallen 3 to 6 months out (and I'm targeting 787s and A350s in my searches). One issue to acknowledge, however, is that the flights with the lowest redemption rates often have short connection times at AMS and CDG. If you book further out this seems to be somewhat avoidable, but it is something to take into consideration. I have seen flights to/ex LHR which have 50 min slotted at CDG. Seriously.
I agree. I got two tix in Biz Class on AF from Houston to Warsaw via Paris for September. I'd say your chance to see 2 or more available tix is higher than most other programs.