In 2004, Air France and KLM created the Air France-KLM Group. Around the exact same time, the firm released Flying Blue, a consolidated commitment program for both airline companies.

The program swiftly turned into one of one of the most popular airline company commitment programs as a result of its listing of charge card transfer companions, financially rewarding Promo Rewards and choice of airline company companions.

As an outcome, Flying Blue is a preferred program for vacationers that concentrate on earning transferrable factors. But if you’re brand-new to the program, it can be a little bit overwhelming — specifically offered its unforeseeable vibrant honor prices.

Here is whatever you require to learn about the Flying Blue program.

Related: Is Air France costs economic situation worth it to Europe?

An review of the Flying Blue program

Flying Blue is the joint commitment program of Air France and KLM, yet these aren’t the only service providers that utilize Flying Blue as their default commitment program. Several various other airline companies — within and beyond Europe — utilize the program for gas mileage earning and elite standing:

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

If you’re a Flying Blue participant taking a trip on among these airline companies, you can include your Flying Blue participant number to gain miles, Experience Points (XPs) for elite standing credentials and a lot more. Once you get to exclusive standing, you can utilize your advantages on these airline companies and mutual advantages on various other companion airline companies.

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But even if these airline companies utilize Flying Blue as their default program does not suggest you’re restricted to earning on those trips. Most companion airline companies that permit you to gain Flying Blue miles remain in the SkyTeam partnership, yet there are a selection of non-alliance companions, as well. These consist of:

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

Note that there might be limitations concerning which trips on which you can gain or retrieve miles within these collaborations. Review the airline company’s companion web page on the Flying Blue site prior to you intend your trips so you understand what to anticipate.

Related: Your ultimate guide to looking honor accessibility for the significant airline companies

Flying Blue elite standing rates

The airline company supplies 3 elite standing rates: Silver, Gold and Platinum. You can certify by earning Experience Points (XPs), which we’ll information out below.

Flying Blue Silver

Silver is the most affordable rate of Flying Blue elite standing and needs 100 XPs. It consists of some fundamental advantages, consisting of:

• 6 Flying Blue miles per euro invested in Flying Blue-released tickets
• Free common seat choice
• Priority check-in and boarding
• SkyTeam Elite advantages (one of the most remarkable SkyTeam Elite advantage is a totally free examined bag on all Flying Blue and SkyTeam companion trips)

Flying Blue Gold

Gold needs 180 XPs past Silver standing. You have gain access to to the Flying Blue Silver advantages and:

• 7 Flying Blue miles per euro invested in Flying Blue-released tickets
• Access to SkyTeam lounges on global trips run by a Flying Blue or SkyTeam airline company (legitimate for you and a visitor)
• Access to companion lounges on airline companies like Virgin Atlantic, Qantas and Air Mauritius
• SkyTeam Elite Plus (advantages like SkiesPriority boarding, fast-track migration and a lot more)
• 50% price cut on recommended seats and Delta Comfort+

Flying Blue Platinum

Flying Blue’s top-tier Platinum standing needs 300 XPs past Gold and consists of every one of the Gold advantages we stated previously. However, it sweetens the offer by updating some advantages and including others. Platinum participants gain 9 Flying Blue miles per euro invested in Flying Blue-released tickets, have gain access to to cost-free Economy Comfort and extra-legroom seats on all SkyTeam trips and can gain access to Delta Comfort+ seats totally free.

Additionally, just Flying Blue Platinum participants can reserve honor tickets in Air France La Premiere — the provider’s distinguished superior cabin. That claimed, they come with a quite significant price. La Premiere tickets commonly set you back greater than $10,000 when flying from Europe to North America, Asia or Africa, so being able to publication with miles makes an or else unattainable ticket feasible for lots of leaflets.

Related: 10 points that wowed me concerning Air France’s unbelievable La Premiere first-rate

Once you hold Flying Blue Platinum for 10 successive years, you have actually obtained the standing permanently.

Qualifying for Flying Blue elite standing

You can get Flying Blue elite standing by earning Experience Points, or XPs. Each rate needs a details variety of these factors, and you can gain them by flying and via charge card investing. All Flying Blue (other than Transavia) and SkyTeam companions are qualified for earning XPs, in addition to some non-alliance companions like Qantas.

You have to reach this variety of XPs within a year of earning your very first XP. So, if you take a paid trip in May, you have till May of the list below year prior to your XP counter resets. Current Flying Blue elite participants have to requalify by earning sufficient XPs to keep or update their standing rate within one year.

Earn XPs by flying

Earn XPs via Flying Blue’s United States charge card

Flying Blue has a cobranded U.S. charge card with Bank of America. I’ll go a lot more thorough on the Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard® in the following area, yet among its standout advantages is earning XPs by means of charge card investing.

You get 60 XPs when you open your make up the very first year. In succeeding years, you gain 20 XPs annual on your account wedding anniversary. If you invest $15,000 on acquisitions (leaving out charges, returns and modifications), you’ll get an added 40 wedding anniversary XPs (amounting to 60 wedding anniversary XPs). That’s over half the 100 XPs needed for Silver without tipping on an aircraft.

The info for the Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard has actually been gathered individually by The Points Guy. The card information on this web page have actually not been examined or offered by the card company.

Earning miles with Flying Blue

Earn miles by flying with Flying Blue airline companies and SkyTeam companions

You can gain Flying Blue miles by flying. How you gain these miles differs by airline company, however. When you reserve a trip on Air France or KLM, you’ll gain miles based upon just how much you invest in the ticket (gross). This is additionally real for Flying Blue-marketed tickets (i.e., reserved on a Flying Blue airline company site yet run by an additional provider).

The variety of miles you’ll gain per buck additionally relies on your Flying Blue standing rate. Flying Blue Explorer participants (those without standing) gain 4 miles per euro invested, while Silver, Gold and Platinum participants gain 6, 7 and 8 miles per euro invested, specifically. This earning does not consist of tax obligations and specific charges billed on the ticket.

Related: Is KLM costs economic situation worth it on the 787 Dreamliner?

Earn Flying Blue miles with companion airline companies

Earning with SkyTeam and non-alliance Flying Blue companions on tickets not bought via Flying Blue is a various tale. For tickets that are marketed by an additional airline company and attributed to Flying Blue, you’ll gain miles on the complying with standards:

• Distance flown
• Fare course
• Operating airline company
• Your elite standing rate

Each airline company companion honors a various variety of miles for every price course — you can discover the amount of miles your companion trip makes on the Flying Blue companions web page.

Here’s the Flying Blue earning graph for Delta Air Lines tickets.

Spend on the Flying Blue cobranded charge card

Another means to gain Flying Blue miles is with the formerly reviewed Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard®. This card makes 3 Flying Blue miles per buck invested in SkyTeam airline tickets acquisitions got straight with a SkyTeam airline company and 1.5 Flying Blue miles per buck almost everywhere else.

The card additionally has a strong welcome perk of 50,000 Flying Blue miles after investing $2,000 on the card in the very first 3 months of account opening. TPG worths Flying Blue miles at 1.2 cents each, so this perk alone deserves $600.

Additionally, you’ll gain 5,000 Flying Blue factors on your card wedding anniversary day as long as you invest at the very least $50 on your Flying Blue charge card yearly. We worth the 5,000-mile wedding anniversary perk at $60, which can assist warrant the card’s $89 yearly cost.

Transfer factors to Flying Blue

The program is a transfer companion of:

So, if 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 (to name a few), you can move your factors or miles to Flying Blue.

Stay at Accor resorts and gain perk factors

Flying Blue and Accor Hotels — a French resort team that consists of brand names like Fairmont, Novotel and Ibis — have actually a collaboration called Miles+Points. Flying Blue participants gain Accor Live Limitless factors when flying on participant airline companies, many thanks to this collaboration. Conversely, you can utilize the program to gain Flying Blue miles when remaining at Accor homes. These factors are gained on top of that to the normal benefits, so you can increase dip.

Link your Flying Blue and Accor Live Limitless accounts on the Flying Blue Miles+Points site to gain these perk factors. Earnings begin right away, so do it prior to your following Flying Blue participant trip or Accor resort remain.

Book various other resorts via Flying Blue

If you’re not remaining at an Accor home, you can still gain Flying Blue miles when you publication resorts. Flying Blue has a resort reservation system called resorts for Miles. Using this site, you can gain up to 10,000 Flying Blue miles per evening reserved via the site, with advertised and a lot more pricey remains normally earning a lot more miles.

For instance, a one-night $246 resort space at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco, Washington, D.C., makes 6,100 Flying Blue miles per evening.

Additionally, you can gain 1 Flying Blue mile per 1 euro invested in Booking.com if you experience Flying Blue’s Booking.com site. While you can still not utilize elite advantages and gain resort factors, Booking.com occasionally has outstanding bargains on store resorts and bed-and-morning meals that would not or else gain resort factors.

Redeeming miles with Flying Blue

While there are different methods to retrieve Flying Blue miles, I suggest sticking to honor trips. This will certainly usually offer you one of the most worth for your miles.

Since 2018, Flying Blue has actually utilized vibrant prices. This indicates there’s no collection honor graph, and some tickets can be very pricey — believe 200,000 miles for an economy-class trip from JFK to Europe. That claimed, Flying Blue has actually released an interactive honor map with entry-level honor prices.

Even with vibrant prices, Flying Blue commonly has the very best prices for lots of SkyTeam honors, vanquishing Delta, Korean Air and various other significant airline companies. The crucial to discovering these honors is to be versatile and expect good deals. For ideas, look into TPG’s guide to taking full advantage of Flying Blue miles.

The 2nd point you need to understand is that Air France and KLM fee modest gas additional charges on some tickets. You can anticipate to pay $200 to $350 on a one-way business-class honor ticket throughout the Atlantic. While these gas additional charges are substantially much less than those billed by airline companies like Emirates and British Airways, it’s still something to bear in mind as you contrast prices throughout commitment programs.

Book Air France or KLM to Amsterdam, Paris and past

While Flying Blue costs its honors dynamically, the program has currently standard saver-level prices for all one-way trips in between the United States and Europe as complies with, despite beginning or location, indicating you can link at no additional price:

• 20,000 miles in economic situation
• 35,000 miles in costs economic situation
• 50,000 miles in organization course

Remember that these prices are just for the most affordable saver-level seats, which are restricted. We have actually located plenty from the West Coast at the brand-new reduced prices (consisting of those with European links) in the economic situation and costs economic situation cabins.

However, business-class seats at saver degrees continue to be really difficult to discover, with just a few trips readily available on some courses over the whole following year. Booking organization course from throughout the U.S. to throughout Europe for 50,000 Flying Blue miles is a great offer, so get on this if you discover this cost on days that benefit you.

In enhancement, you might invest a couple of days in Paris or Amsterdam utilizing the cost-free Flying Blue stop. This is a wonderful means to check out an additional city without handing over added miles or money. To publication Flying Blue stops, you’ll require to telephone call Flying Blue at 800-375-8723.

Transatlantic Flying Blue honor prices can be affordable, so it deserves monitoring Flying Blue when intending journeys to Europe.

Related: Private collections and state-of-the-art touches: What it resembles flying Air France’s brand-new organization course

Book first-rate on pick SkyTeam companions

Flying Blue lately revealed superior redemptions were readily available to publication with miles on the complying with SkyTeam companion airline companies:

• China Eastern
• Garuda Indonesia
• Xiamen Air

While you need to be able to publication these online, we have actually located it practically difficult to discover any kind of accessibility, and with the exemption of Garuda, these airline companies are not understood to have the globe’s finest superior items anyhow, so you might desire to conserve your miles and try to find Saver honor room in organization course on Air France and KLM rather.

Fly Delta in between the United States and Europe, South America and past

As stated previously, Delta does not bill gas additional charges, so you can utilize your Flying Blue miles to publication Delta tickets with reduced charges. For instance, you can reserve an economy-class trip from New York to Dublin for simply 22,500 Flying Blue miles and $10.10 on lots of days in 2023.

We have actually not seen any kind of Delta costs economic situation or organization course (Delta One) honor accessibility utilizing Flying Blue miles.

Just keep in mind that Virgin Atlantic Flying Club can be a much better offer for reservation Delta coach class trips to Europe — specifically on continuously routings.

Keep an eye out for Promo Rewards

Every month, Flying Blue launches a set of Promo Rewards. You can just reserve these deeply affordable honor tickets within the exact same month they’re launched. They’re a lot more limiting than common Flying Blue honor tickets — they can not be transformed, so make certain your strategies are settled. But if you want to danger it, these promos can supply an exceptional offer on tickets to Europe and past (e.g., transatlantic organization course for under 40,000 miles).

You can see an up-to-day listing of Promo Rewards on the Flying Blue site, and TPG updates our Flying Blue Promo Rewards web page at the start of monthly with the most up to date bargains.

Be certain to watch on the Flying Blue Promo Rewards. There are some unbelievable bargains to be had.

Fly Copa Airlines to Panama City and past

Copa Airlines is a Star Alliance participant, yet the airline company has a non-alliance collaboration with Flying Blue. This indicates you can gain and retrieve miles with Copa, more increasing the reach of Flying Blue’s commitment program. Pricing generally begins around 21,500 miles for a ticket from North America to Copa’s center in Panama City, and you include linking trips as well.

Copa Airlines flies to significant Central and South American locations like Colombia, Brazil and Argentina.

Bottom line

Flying Blue is an underrated constant leaflet program. You can gain miles with all Flying Blue airline companies and their SkyTeam and non-alliance companions, indicating you can reserve hundreds of various courses with your miles. While its elite standing program isn’t one of the most satisfying, earning standing is very easy sufficient with the commitment program’s U.S. charge card. It consists of complete SkyTeam elite standing advantages when you get to Platinum standing.

I believe the very best means for many people to gain Flying Blue miles is with transferable-points bank card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Not just will you gain a lot more factors on many acquisitions, yet you’ll additionally have the adaptability to retrieve your factors with various other companions.