The final word information to incomes and redeeming with Air France-KLM Flying Blue

In 2004, Air France and KLM fashioned the Air France-KLM Group. Across the identical time, the corporate launched Flying Blue, a mixed loyalty program for the 2 airways.

This system shortly turned one of the crucial well-known airline loyalty applications due to its listing of bank card switch companions, profitable Promo Rewards and number of airline companions.

In consequence, Flying Blue is a well-liked program for vacationers who focus on earning transferrable points. However should you’re new to this system, it may be a bit daunting — particularly given its unpredictable dynamic award pricing.

Right here is all the pieces you should know in regards to the Flying Blue program.

Associated: Is Air France premium economy worth it to Europe?

An outline of the Flying Blue program

Flying Blue is the joint loyalty program of Air France and KLM, however these aren’t the one carriers that use Flying Blue as their default loyalty program. A number of different airways — inside and out of doors of Europe — use this system for mileage incomes and elite standing:

• Aircalin
• Air France
• Kenya Airways
• KLM
• Transavia
• TAROM

Should you’re a Flying Blue member touring on one among these airways, you’ll be able to add your Flying Blue member quantity to earn miles, Expertise Factors (XPs) for elite standing qualification and extra. When you attain elite standing, you should utilize your advantages on these airways and reciprocal advantages on different companion airways.

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However simply because these airways use Flying Blue as their default program does not imply you are restricted to incomes on these flights. Most companion airways that assist you to earn Flying Blue miles are within the SkyTeam alliance, however there are an assortment of non-alliance companions, too. These embrace:

• Air Corsica
• Air Mauritius
• Bangkok Airways
• Chalair Aviation
• Copa Airways
• Gol
• Japan Airways
• Malaysia Airways
• Qantas
• Transavia
• Twin Jet
• WestJet
• airBaltic

Notice that there could also be restrictions relating to which flights on which 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 already know what to anticipate.

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Flying Blue elite standing tiers

The airline affords three elite standing tiers: Silver, Gold and Platinum. You may qualify by incomes Expertise Factors (XPs), which we’ll element out under.

Flying Blue Silver

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

• 6 Flying Blue miles per euro spent on Flying Blue-issued tickets
• Free commonplace seat choice
• Precedence check-in and boarding
• SkyTeam Elite advantages (probably the most notable SkyTeam Elite profit is a free checked bag on all Flying Blue and SkyTeam companion flights)

Flying Blue Gold

Gold requires 180 XPs past Silver standing. You’ve got entry to the Flying Blue Silver advantages and:

• 7 Flying Blue miles per euro spent on Flying Blue-issued tickets
• Entry to SkyTeam lounges on worldwide flights operated by a Flying Blue or SkyTeam airline (legitimate for you and a visitor)
• Entry to companion lounges on airways like Virgin Atlantic, Qantas and Air Mauritius
• SkyTeam Elite Plus (advantages like SkyPriority boarding, fast-track immigration and extra)
• 50% low cost on most well-liked seats and Delta Consolation+

Flying Blue Platinum

Flying Blue’s top-tier Platinum standing requires 300 XPs past Gold and contains the entire Gold advantages we talked about earlier. Nevertheless, it sweetens the deal by upgrading some advantages and including others. Platinum members earn 9 Flying Blue miles per euro spent on Flying Blue-issued tickets, have entry to free Economic system Consolation and extra-legroom seats on all SkyTeam flights and may entry Delta Consolation+ seats at no cost.

Moreover, solely Flying Blue Platinum members can e-book award tickets in Air France La Premiere — the provider’s famend first-class cabin. That stated, they arrive at a reasonably hefty value. La Premiere tickets usually value greater than $10,000 when flying from Europe to North America, Asia or Africa, so having the ability to e-book with miles makes an in any other case unattainable ticket doable for a lot of flyers.

Associated: 10 things that wowed me about Air France’s incredible La Premiere first class

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

Flying Blue has a cobranded U.S. bank card with Financial institution of America. I am going to go extra in-depth on the Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard® within the subsequent part, however one among its standout advantages is incomes XPs by way of bank card spending.

You obtain 60 XPs once you open your account for the primary yr. In subsequent years, you earn 20 XPs yearly in your account anniversary. Should you spend $15,000 on purchases (excluding charges, returns and changes), you may obtain an extra 40 anniversary XPs (totaling 60 anniversary XPs). That is greater than half the 100 XPs required for Silver with out stepping on a aircraft.

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 offered by the cardboard issuer.

Incomes miles with Flying Blue

Earn miles by flying with Flying Blue airways and SkyTeam companions

You may earn Flying Blue miles by flying. The way you earn these miles varies by airline, although. While 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). That is additionally true for Flying Blue-marketed tickets (i.e., booked on a Flying Blue airline web site however operated by one other provider).

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

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Earn Flying Blue miles with companion airways

Incomes with SkyTeam and non-alliance Flying Blue companions on tickets not bought by Flying Blue is a unique 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 companion awards a unique variety of miles for every fare class — you could find what number of miles your companion flight earns on the Flying Blue partners page.

Here is the Flying Blue incomes chart for Delta Air Lines tickets.

Spend on the Flying Blue cobranded 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 immediately with a SkyTeam airline and 1.5 Flying Blue miles per greenback all over the place else.

The cardboard additionally has a stable welcome bonus of fifty,000 Flying Blue miles after spending $2,000 on the cardboard within the first three months of account opening. TPG values Flying Blue miles at 1.2 cents every, so this bonus alone is value $600.

Moreover, you may earn 5,000 Flying Blue factors in your card anniversary date as long as you spend no less than $50 in your Flying Blue bank card every year. We worth the 5,000-mile anniversary bonus at $60, which may also help justify the cardboard’s $89 annual payment.

Switch factors to Flying Blue

This system is a switch companion of:

So, if in case you have a card like The Platinum Card® from American Express, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (amongst others), you’ll be able to switch your factors or miles to Flying Blue.

Keep at Accor resorts and earn bonus factors

Flying Blue and Accor Motels — a French resort group that features manufacturers like Fairmont, Novotel and Ibis — have a partnership referred to as Miles+Points. Flying Blue members earn Accor Dwell Limitless factors when flying on member airways, due to this partnership. Conversely, you should utilize this system to earn Flying Blue miles when staying at Accor properties. These factors are earned along with the everyday rewards, so you’ll be able to double dip.

Hyperlink your Flying Blue and Accor Live Limitless accounts on the Flying Blue Miles+Points website to earn these bonus factors. Earnings begin instantly, so do it earlier than your subsequent Flying Blue member flight or Accor resort keep.

Guide different resorts by Flying Blue

Should you’re not staying at an Accor property, you’ll be able to nonetheless earn Flying Blue miles once you e-book resorts. Flying Blue has a resort reserving platform referred to as hotels for Miles. Utilizing this portal, you’ll be able to earn as much as 10,000 Flying Blue miles per night time booked by the portal, with promoted and costlier stays usually incomes extra miles.

For instance, a one-night $246 resort room on the Kimpton Lodge Monaco, Washington, D.C., earns 6,100 Flying Blue miles per night time.

Moreover, you’ll be able to earn 1 Flying Blue mile per 1 euro spent on Reserving.com should you undergo Flying Blue’s Booking.com portal. Whilst you can nonetheless not use elite advantages and earn resort factors, Reserving.com typically has wonderful offers on boutique resorts and bed-and-breakfasts that would not in any other case earn resort factors.

Redeeming miles with Flying Blue

Whereas there are numerous methods to redeem Flying Blue miles, I like to recommend sticking to award flights. This may virtually at all times provide the most worth on your miles.

Since 2018, Flying Blue has used dynamic pricing. This implies there isn’t any set award chart, and a few tickets might be extraordinarily costly — suppose 200,000 miles for an economy-class flight from JFK to Europe. That stated, Flying Blue has published an interactive award map with entry-level award rates.

Even with dynamic pricing, Flying Blue usually has the very best pricing for a lot of SkyTeam awards, beating out Delta, Korean Air and different main airways. The important thing to discovering these awards is to be versatile and watch for nice offers. For inspiration, take a look at TPG’s guide to maximizing Flying Blue miles.

The second factor it’s best to know is that Air France and KLM cost reasonable fuel surcharges on some tickets. You may count on to pay $200 to $350 on a one-way business-class award ticket throughout the Atlantic. Whereas these gas surcharges are considerably lower than these charged by airways like Emirates and British Airways, it is nonetheless one thing to recollect as you evaluate pricing throughout loyalty applications.

Guide Air France or KLM to Amsterdam, Paris and past

Whereas Flying Blue costs its awards dynamically, this system has now standardized saver-level pricing for all one-way flights between the USA and Europe as follows, no matter origin or vacation spot, that means you’ll be able to join at no further value:

• 20,000 miles in economic system
• 35,000 miles in premium economic system
• 50,000 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 from the West Coast on the new decrease charges (together with these with European connections) within the economic system and premium economic system cabins.

Nevertheless, business-class seats at saver ranges stay very onerous to search out, with just a few flights obtainable on some routes over your complete subsequent 12 months. Reserving enterprise class from anyplace within the U.S. to anyplace in Europe for 50,000 Flying Blue miles is a incredible deal, so soar on this should you discover this value on dates that give you the results you want.

As well as, you could possibly spend just a few days in Paris or Amsterdam utilizing the free Flying Blue stopover. This can be a nice approach to go to one other metropolis with out forking over extra miles or money. To e-book Flying Blue stopovers, you may must name Flying Blue at 800-375-8723.

Transatlantic Flying Blue award charges might be cheap, so it is value checking Flying Blue when planning journeys to Europe.

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Guide top notch on choose SkyTeam companions

Flying Blue lately introduced first-class redemptions had been obtainable to e-book with miles on the next SkyTeam companion airways:

• China Japanese
• Garuda Indonesia
• Xiamen Air

Whilst you ought to have the ability to e-book these on-line, we’ve discovered it nearly unimaginable to search out any availability, and apart from Garuda, these airways usually are not recognized to have the world’s finest first-class merchandise anyway, so chances are you’ll want to save your miles and search for Saver award area in enterprise class on Air France and KLM as a substitute.

Fly Delta between the US and Europe, South America and past

As talked about earlier, Delta would not cost gas surcharges, so you should utilize your Flying Blue miles to e-book Delta tickets with low charges. For instance, you’ll be able to e-book an economy-class flight from New York to Dublin for simply 22,500 Flying Blue miles and $10.10 on many dates in 2023.

We now have not seen any Delta premium economic system or enterprise class (Delta One) award availability utilizing Flying Blue miles.

Simply word that Virgin Atlantic Flying Club generally is a better deal for booking Delta economic system class flights to Europe — particularly on nonstop routings.

Hold an eye fixed out for Promo Rewards

Each month, Flying Blue releases a batch of Promo Rewards. You may solely e-book these deeply discounted award tickets throughout the identical month they’re launched. They’re extra restrictive than commonplace Flying Blue award tickets — they can not be modified, so make sure that your plans are finalized. However should you’re prepared to danger it, these promotions can present a superb deal on tickets to Europe and past (e.g., transatlantic enterprise class for beneath 40,000 miles).

You may view an up-to-date listing of Promo Rewards on the Flying Blue web site, and TPG updates our Flying Blue Promo Rewards page initially of every month with the most recent offers.

Make sure to keep watch over the Flying Blue Promo Rewards. There are some unbelievable offers available.

Fly Copa Airways to Panama Metropolis and past

Copa Airways is a Star Alliance member, however the airline has a non-alliance partnership with Flying Blue. This implies you’ll be able to earn and redeem miles with Copa, additional increasing the attain of Flying Blue’s loyalty program. Pricing normally begins round 21,500 miles for a ticket from North America to Copa’s hub in Panama Metropolis, and also you add connecting flights too.

Copa Airways flies to main Central and South American locations like Colombia, Brazil and Argentina.

I believe one of the simplest ways for most individuals to earn Flying Blue miles is with transferable-points bank cards just like the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Not solely will you earn extra factors on most purchases, however you may even have the flexibleness to redeem your factors with different companions.