Air France-KLM Flying Blue: How to earn and redeem...

Air France and KLM fashioned the Air France-KLM Group and shortly after launched a joint loyalty program known as Flying Blue.

Although award availability will be unpredictable as a result of dynamic pricing, Flying Blue remains to be well-liked with vacationers due to its record of credit card transfer partners, profitable Promo Rewards and saver-level award seats. For those who’re seeking to redeem your bank card factors and miles with Flying Blue, this is every little thing you want to find out about this system.

Associated: How to find the cheapest redemption rates using Flying Blue miles

Flying Blue program overview

Flying Blue is the joint loyalty program of Air France, KLM and Transavia. For those who’re a Flying Blue member touring on one in every of these airways, you may add your Flying Blue member quantity to earn miles and expertise factors for elite standing qualification. When you attain elite standing, you should utilize your advantages on these airways and reciprocal advantages on different associate airways.

However simply because these airways use Flying Blue as their default program does not imply you are restricted to incomes on these flights. Most associate airways that mean you can earn Flying Blue miles, reminiscent of Delta Air Traces and Virgin Atlantic, are a part of the SkyTeam alliance. Nevertheless, Flying Blue has many nonalliance companions, together with:

• Air Corsica
• Air Mauritius
• AirBaltic
• Aircalin
• Bangkok Airways
• Chalair Aviation
• China Southern Airways
• Copa Airways
• El Al
• Etihad Airways
• Gol Airways
• ITA Airways
• Japan Airways
• Malaysia Airways
• Oman Air
• Qantas
• Transavia
• Twin Jet
• WestJet
• Winair

Observe that there could also be restrictions relating to the flights you may earn or redeem miles inside these partnerships. Assessment the airline’s associate web page on the Flying Blue website earlier than you propose your travels so you understand what to anticipate.

Flying Blue elite standing tiers

Flying Blue presents 4 elite standing tiers: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Final. You possibly can qualify by incomes expertise factors.

Flying Blue Silver

Silver is the bottom tier of Flying Blue elite standing and requires 100 expertise factors. It comes with some fundamental advantages, together with:

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• The power to earn 6 Flying Blue miles per euro spent
• Free customary seat choice
• Precedence check-in, baggage drop-off and boarding
• SkyTeam Elite advantages (probably the most notable SkyTeam Elite profit is a free checked bag on all Flying Blue and SkyTeam associate flights)
• Most well-liked waitlist standing on flights operated by Air France, KLM or SkyTeam companions
• One extra checked bag on Air France and KLM flights
• Most well-liked standby standing
• Further legroom availability 24 hours earlier than departure (on Air France and KLM flights)

Flying Blue Gold

Gold requires an extra 180 expertise factors. You might have entry to the Flying Blue Silver advantages and:

• The power to earn 7 Flying Blue miles per euro spent
• Entry to SkyTeam lounges on worldwide flights operated by a Flying Blue or SkyTeam airline (legitimate for you and a visitor)
• SkyTeam Elite Plus (advantages embody SkyPriority boarding and fast-track immigration)
• Precedence baggage dealing with
• Further legroom availability 72 hours earlier than departure (on Air France and KLM flights)

Flying Blue Platinum

Flying Blue’s Platinum standing requires an extra 300 expertise factors and consists of all Gold advantages. Nevertheless, it sweetens the deal by upgrading some advantages and including others, reminiscent of:

• The power to earn 8 Flying Blue miles per euro spent
• Entry to a Platinum Service Line for devoted assist
• Waived charges when altering or requesting a refund on reward bookings
• The power to e-book La Premiere, Air France’s first-class product, with miles
• Two extra checked baggage on Air France and KLM flights
• Miles overdraft on award tickets (as much as 50,000 miles)
• Further legroom availability on the time of reserving (on Air France and KLM flights)

When you maintain Flying Blue Platinum for 10 consecutive years, you could have the standing for all times.

Flying Blue Final

As of 2024, Flying Blue additionally has a top-tier standing degree known as Final. It requires a whopping 900 expertise factors in a yr and presents all of the Platinum advantages, in addition to:

• The power to earn 9 Flying Blue miles per euro spent
• Entry Air France and KLM lounges with as much as eight journey companions
• 24-hour help from this system’s “Final Assistant”
• 4 cabin improve vouchers per membership yr
• The power to present Flying Blue Platinum standing to at least one journey companion
• Hertz Platinum standing
• Complimentary on-board Wi-Fi

Take a look at the total record of Flying Blue benefits on the loyalty program’s web site.

Flying Blue has a cobranded U.S. bank card with Financial institution of America. One of many standout advantages of the Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard is incomes expertise factors by way of bank card spending.

You obtain 60 expertise factors once you open your account for the primary yr. In subsequent years, you earn 20 expertise factors in your account anniversary. Plus, you may earn an extra 40 expertise factors in your account anniversary after you spend $15,000 or extra on purchases throughout the anniversary yr.

The knowledge for the Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or supplied by the cardboard issuer.

Incomes miles with Flying Blue

Flying Blue miles are one of many best currencies to earn.

Earn miles by flying

You possibly can earn Flying Blue miles by flying. The way you earn these miles varies by airline, although. Whenever you e-book a flight on Air France or KLM, you may earn miles based mostly on how a lot you spend on the ticket (earlier than taxes and costs).

The variety of miles you may earn per greenback additionally depends upon your Flying Blue standing tier. Flying Blue Explorer members (these with out standing) earn 4 miles per euro spent, whereas Silver, Gold, Platinum and Final members earn 6, 7, 8 and 9 miles per euro spent, respectively. This incomes would not embody taxes and sure charges charged on the ticket.

Incomes with SkyTeam and nonalliance Flying Blue companions on tickets not bought via Flying Blue is a special story. For tickets which might be marketed by one other airline and credited to Flying Blue, you may earn miles on the next standards:

• Distance flown
• Fare class
• Working airline
• Your elite standing tier

Every airline associate awards a special variety of miles for every fare class — yow will discover out what number of miles your associate flight will earn on the Flying Blue partners page.

Spend on the Flying Blue bank card

One other option to earn Flying Blue miles is with the beforehand mentioned Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard. This card earns 3 Flying Blue miles per greenback spent on SkyTeam airfare purchases purchased straight with a SkyTeam airline and 1.5 Flying Blue miles per greenback spent on every little thing else.

Switch factors to Flying Blue

This system is a switch associate of:

The next playing cards all at the moment provide sturdy welcome bonuses that you might simply convert to Flying Blue miles at a 1:1 ratio:

Earn miles with motels, automotive leases, buying and experiences

Flying Blue has a variety of nonairline incomes companions, which lets you earn Flying Blue miles for actions and spending.

This consists of (however will not be restricted to):

• Earn 2 miles for each euro spent and get at the very least 15% off of choose properties with Reserving.com.
• Earn 500 miles every time you keep at a Hyatt lodge worldwide.
• Earn 12 miles for each euro spent on electrical autos with Hertz.
• Earn miles with a whole bunch of shops via the Shop for Miles online store.

Take a look at Flying Blue’s additional partners to study how one can earn miles.

How one can redeem Flying Blue miles

Whereas there are numerous methods to redeem Flying Blue miles, we suggest sticking to award flights. This can nearly all the time provide the most worth in your miles.

Flying Blue makes use of dynamic pricing, which suggests there is not any set award chart, and a few tickets will be extraordinarily costly (suppose: 100,000 miles for an economy-class flight from New York Metropolis’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) to Europe).

Even with dynamic pricing, Flying Blue usually has the perfect pricing for a lot of SkyTeam awards, beating out Delta, Korean Air and different main airways.

You must also know that Air France and KLM cost average fuel surcharges on some tickets. You possibly can count on to pay $200 to $350 on a one-way business-class award ticket throughout the Atlantic.

Ebook Air France or KLM to Amsterdam, Paris and past

Whereas Flying Blue costs its awards dynamically, this system has now standardized the bottom saver-level pricing for all one-way flights between the U.S. and Europe as follows, no matter origin or vacation spot, that means you may join at no additional value:

• 25,000 miles in financial system
• 40,000 miles in premium financial system
• 60,000 miles in enterprise class

Keep in mind that these charges are just for the bottom saver-level seats, that are restricted. We have now discovered loads of availability on flights from the West Coast (together with these with European connections) on the new decrease charges in financial system and premium financial system cabins.

Nevertheless, business-class seats at saver ranges will be arduous to search out, so you could wish to use an external tool like Seats.aero to search out award seats in seconds.

Moreover, bear in mind you might spend a couple of days in Paris or Amsterdam utilizing the free Flying Blue stopover program. It is a nice option to go to one other metropolis with out forking over extra miles or money. To e-book Flying Blue stopovers, you may have to name Flying Blue at 800-375-8723.

Ebook Air France’s La Premiere top quality with miles

Whereas KLM doesn’t function a first-class cabin, Air France does. La Premiere is a spectacular luxury aviation experience out there on choose Boeing 777-300ER plane to high-yield locations like New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Singapore.

Sadly, it is one of the troublesome and costly award seats to e-book. You possibly can solely e-book this product with Flying Blue miles and provided that you maintain Flying Blue Platinum or Final standing. Charges are additionally very excessive, with a one-way first-class award from Miami to Paris costing 232,500 Flying Blue miles per particular person.

Associated: Video from the first flight in the new Air France La Premiere first class

Hold an eye fixed out for Promo Rewards

Each month, Flying Blue releases discounted award tickets for choose dates and routes. Usually, you may snag financial system award seats from choose U.S. cities to Europe beginning at 18,750 miles, premium financial system awards beginning at 30,000 miles and business-class awards beginning at 45,000 miles.

You possibly can view an up-to-date record of Promo Rewards on the Flying Blue website.

Flying Blue is an underrated frequent flyer program. With month-to-month Promo Rewards, you may probably fly from the U.S. to Europe for beneath 20,000 miles one-way. Plus, this system allows you to add a free stopover in Paris or Amsterdam at no extra mileage value.

Although Flying Blue does add excessive surcharges for award redemptions, it’s a transferable rewards program associate of all main bank cards.