Air France-KLM Flying Blue is one of the most useful loyalty programs for redeeming points for long haul, premium cabin travel. Up until now, there have been all kinds of ways to acquire Flying Blue miles, ranging from buying them outright, to moving them over from a transferable points currency.
The program has just rolled out yet another way to earn miles, and it could represent a good deal.
Flying Blue’s new monthly mileage subscription
Subscribe to Miles is the name of Flying Blue’s new monthly subscription. The idea is that if you subscribe, you can buy a certain number of miles monthly at a fixed cost.
For example, my account shows four tiers:
- The Starter package offers 2,000 miles per month for $34.20, a cost of 1.71 cents per mile
- The Smart package offers 5,000 miles per month for $79, a cost of 1.58 cents per mile
- The Advanced package offers 10,000 miles per month for $146, a cost of 1.46 cents per mile
- The Complete package offers 17,000 miles per month for $227.80, a cost of 1.34 cents per mile
For what it’s worth, you can cancel your subscription at any time, and this can be done by logging into your account and selecting the “cancel subscription” prompt. You even have the right to withdraw a purchase within 14 business days, without any penalty.
Flying Blue also markets how if you have a subscription, your miles won’t expire while it remains active. Flying Blue miles expire after 24 months of inactivity, so since you have monthly activity this way, that would indeed qualify. Then again, any activity that generates points within that timeframe would reset your expiration.
Is Flying Blue’s Subscribe to Miles program worth it?
I think there are plenty of situations where it can make sense to buy miles at an attractive cost, especially if you can redeem for first and business class flights. Now, personally I prefer not to buy miles speculatively, which is to say that I’d rather buy them shortly before I’m ready to redeem, since the value of miles can change at a moment’s notice.
With that in mind, I’m usually not a fan of these kinds of monthly subscription services, even if the cost per mile is pretty good. That being said, what I like about this program is that you can cancel at any time.
For example, if you’re short 15,000 miles on a redemption, it could make sense to sign-up for this program for one month, so you can collect 17,000 miles at the cost of $227.80.
When Flying Blue sells miles directly, you’ll almost never see the cost get below 1.5 cents per mile. Meanwhile with this program, you’re looking at paying just 1.34 cents per mile, so that’s a bit better.
I wouldn’t approach this by thinking “if I spend $2,733.60 over the next 12 months, then I’ll have 204,000 miles.” Instead, I’d think of it more in terms of the short term opportunities.
Bottom line
Flying Blue has launched a Subscribe to Miles program, whereby members can pay to purchase a fixed number of miles monthly. As you’d expect, the cost per mile is potentially pretty attractive, with the catch being that you’ll slowly acquire miles over time. The good thing is that you can cancel at any time, which means you could even use this to acquire a small number of miles across one or two months.
There are definitely some niche situations where this could represent a good value, so it’s worth being aware of.
What do you make of Flying Blue’s Subscribe to Miles program?
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