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.
Starting with this promotion, Flying Blue has fundamentally changed how it sells miles. The program has decreased the cost per purchased mile, but has also decreased the percent bonus you receive when buying miles during a promotion. Clearly it’s just about trying a different marketing approach.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased Flying Blue miles
Through 11:59PM CET on Thursday, April 25, 2024, 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 35%, which you can unlock as long as you buy at least 2,000 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.
How much does it cost to buy Flying Blue miles?
Ordinarily you can buy Flying Blue miles for as little as 2.44 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 before the bonus, you’d receive a total of 135,000 miles at a cost of $2,440, which is a rate of 1.81 cents per mile.
Unfortunately this is considerably worse than past promotions we’ve seen from Flying Blue. In the past, the program regularly sold miles for 1.53 cents each. Hopefully we see similarly lucrative offers in the future.
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) (Rates & Fees), 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 miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
- $395
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day
- 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, 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.
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.
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
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.
- 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
- Bilt Mastercard®
- 5x total points on travel purchased through Chase Travel
- 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 miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
- $395
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check Credit
- $95
- 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 a 35% bonus. This is an opportunity to acquire miles for 1.81 cents each.
While some promotion is better than no promotion, this is significantly weaker than past offers we’ve seen from the program. Still, 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 35% bonus?
To me the bonus points are 70%! I don’t know why.
I got 70% bonus. While I would prefer the 100% bonus, I need AF for an upcoming trip (current flight in PE and a brutal itinerary), it made sense for me to purchase. I want to save my URs for flexibility in case a return flight opens up, which is an even higher priority for me.
Yeah, if one is going to purchase points, they're better off waiting for a 100% bonus again...
There's also a chase transfer bonus currently.
Ben — since they’re now changing the price, it makes the table at the top (which was super helpful) less useful; maybe you can add a column showing the per mile cost (assuming maximum purchase) going back to the prior promos? This will allow an apples to apples comparison. I appreciate it takes effort but it would be a value add to your readers.
Very strange. In the EU, I am offered a 70% bonus, and I can also buy up to 300,000 points before the bonus. For example, 100,000 miles + 70,000 bonus cost 2500 EUR (2715 USD), which works out to 1.6 cents per mile (in USD)
Same. In France and Platinum AFKL member. 70 percent bonus.