Air France-KLM Flying Blue: Easy methods to earn and redeem miles, elite standing and extra

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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 might be unpredictable on account of dynamic pricing, Flying Blue remains to be in style with vacationers due to its checklist of bank card switch companions, profitable Promo Rewards and saver-level award seats. In case you’re seeking to redeem your bank card factors and miles with Flying Blue, right here’s every part it’s worthwhile to learn about this system.

Associated: Easy methods to discover the most cost effective redemption charges utilizing Flying Blue miles

Flying Blue program overview

Flying Blue is the joint loyalty program of Air France, KLM and Transavia. In case you’re a Flying Blue member touring on considered one of these airways, you’ll be able to add your Flying Blue member quantity to earn miles and expertise factors for elite standing qualification. When you attain elite standing, you should use your advantages on these airways and reciprocal advantages on different companion airways.

However simply because these airways use Flying Blue as their default program doesn’t imply you’re restricted to incomes on these flights. Most companion airways that assist you to earn Flying Blue miles, similar to Delta Air Traces and Virgin Atlantic, are a part of the SkyTeam alliance. Nonetheless, 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 concerning the flights you’ll be able to earn or redeem miles inside these partnerships. Assessment the airline’s companion web page on the Flying Blue web site earlier than you propose your travels so you recognize what to anticipate.

Flying Blue elite standing tiers

Flying Blue presents 4 elite standing tiers: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Final. You may 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 primary advantages, together with:

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

Flying Blue Gold

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

• The flexibility 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
• Additional 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 contains all Gold advantages. Nonetheless, it sweetens the deal by upgrading some advantages and including others, similar to:

• The flexibility 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 flexibility to e-book La Premiere, Air France’s first-class product, with miles
• Two further checked baggage on Air France and KLM flights
• Miles overdraft on award tickets (as much as 50,000 miles)
• Additional legroom availability on the time of reserving (on Air France and KLM flights)

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

Flying Blue Final

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

• The flexibility 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 flexibility to present Flying Blue Platinum standing to 1 journey companion
• Hertz Platinum standing
• Complimentary on-board Wi-Fi

Try the complete checklist of Flying Blue advantages on the loyalty program’s web site.

Easy methods to qualify for Flying Blue elite standing

You may qualify for Flying Blue elite standing by incomes expertise factors. Every tier requires a particular variety of these factors, and you may earn them by flying and thru bank card spending.

Additionally, for each 2,000 miles contributed to carbon dioxide discount and absorption (for instance, by way of the acquisition of sustainable aviation gas), you’re rewarded with 1 expertise level.

Earn expertise factors by flying

The variety of expertise factors you earn is predicated on the space you fly and cabin class.

Earn expertise factors by way of Flying Blue’s US bank card

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 through bank card spending.

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

The data 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 may earn Flying Blue miles by flying. The way you earn these miles varies by airline, although. Once you e-book a flight on Air France or KLM, you’ll earn miles primarily based on how a lot you spend on the ticket (earlier than taxes and charges).

The variety of miles you’ll earn per greenback additionally is dependent 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 doesn’t embody taxes and sure charges charged on the ticket.

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

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

Every airline companion awards a distinct variety of miles for every fare class — you will discover out what number of miles your companion flight will earn on the Flying Blue companions web page.

Spend on the Flying Blue bank card

One other approach 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 part else.

Switch factors to Flying Blue

This system is a switch companion of:

• American Categorical Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards
• Capital One
• Chase Final Rewards
• Citi ThankYou Rewards
• Marriott Bonvoy
• Wells Fargo Rewards

The next playing cards all at present supply robust welcome bonuses that you could possibly simply convert to Flying Blue miles at a 1:1 ratio:

• Chase Sapphire Most popular® Card (see charges and charges)
• Citi Strata Premier℠ Card (see charges and charges)
• The Platinum Card® from American Categorical
• The Enterprise Platinum Card® from American Categorical
• Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit score Card

Earn miles with accommodations, automobile 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 contains (however is just not 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 resort worldwide.
• Earn 12 miles for each euro spent on electrical automobiles with Hertz.
• Earn miles with tons of of outlets by way of the Store for Miles on-line retailer.

Try Flying Blue’s further companions to be taught how one can earn miles.

Easy methods to redeem Flying Blue miles

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

Flying Blue makes use of dynamic pricing, which suggests there’s no set award chart, and a few tickets might 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 typically has the perfect pricing for a lot of SkyTeam awards, beating out Delta, Korean Air and different main airways.

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

E-book 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’ll be able to join at no further value:

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

Do not forget that these charges are just for the bottom saver-level seats, that are restricted. We now have 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.

Nonetheless, business-class seats at saver ranges might be exhausting to search out, so you could need to use an exterior instrument like Seats.aero to search out award seats in seconds.

Moreover, bear in mind you could possibly spend just a few days in Paris or Amsterdam utilizing the free Flying Blue stopover program. It is a nice approach to go to one other metropolis with out forking over further miles or money. To e-book Flying Blue stopovers, you’ll must name Flying Blue at 800-375-8723.

E-book 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 luxurious aviation expertise accessible on choose Boeing 777-300ER plane to high-yield locations like New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Singapore.

Sadly, it’s one of the tough and costly award seats to e-book. You may 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 primary flight within the new Air France La Premiere top quality

Hold an eye fixed out for Promo Rewards

Each month, Flying Blue releases discounted award tickets for choose dates and routes. Usually, you’ll be able to 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 may view an up-to-date checklist of Promo Rewards on the Flying Blue web site.

Backside line

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

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