AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. Enrollment is required for select Amex benefits. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers. Offers for Bank of America cards mentioned in this post have been updated as of 06/14/2025
Offers for the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard® are not available through this site. Some offers may have expired. Please see our card marketplace for available offers
Flying Blue is one of the only frequent flyer programs into which you can transfer nearly every type of points. With so many partnerships, it's easy to combine points from a variety of programs for the redemption you want. With this in mind, we'll take a look at some of the best KLM/Air France Flying Blue sweet spots.
The sheer number of partnerships provides the Flying Blue program with considerable value. Points earned on cards such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Citi Strata Premier℠ Card, and The Platinum Card® from American Express, among many others, can be transferred into Flying Blue at a 1:1 ratio (and usually instantly). Additionally, you can take advantage of the occasional transfer bonus from Chase, Amex, Capital One, Bilt, or Citi to stretch your points even further.
But before we jump into the best uses of your Flying Blue miles, let's briefly cover some Flying Blue basics.
Page Contents
- Flying Blue Award Basics
- Flying Blue Promo Rewards
- Flying Blue Sweet Spots
- Partner awards between the U.S. and Mexico
- Business class awards between the U.S. and Europe
- Economy awards between the U.S. and Europe
- Awards between the contiguous U.S. and Northern Africa
- Business class awards between East/Southeast Asia and Europe
- Awards between the contiguous U.S. and Central/Southern Africa
- Kenya Airways flights Within Africa
- South America to Europe and beyond — without massive surcharges
- Awards including a Europe stopover
- Best Ways to Accumulate Flying Blue Miles
- Final Thoughts
Flying Blue Award Basics
If you're not familiar with the Flying Blue program or its sweet spots you can book with award miles, here are some key things to keep in mind:
- Flying Blue passes on fuel surcharges imposed by the operating airline for award redemptions, including on its own flights. These can really increase the out-of-pocket costs of a “free” flight. Some carriers have significant surcharges, while these are minimal for others.
- Flying Blue does not publish an award chart. You can see the minimum amount of miles required for any city pairing by using its award calculator (scroll to near the bottom of the page). However, this calculator doesn't work for many partner routes.
- You can book one-way awards in addition to round-trip awards.
- You can book free stopovers on Flying Blue award tickets, now including partner awards.
- Flying Blue releases Promo Rewards each month. Bookmark that link to see the latest offerings.
Related: Airline Programs that Don't Add Fees and Surcharges to Award Flights
Flying Blue Promo Rewards
As we just mentioned, Flying Blue runs monthly Promo Rewards. These are KLM and Air France routes available at discounted award rates. The booking window for these awards is typically up to three months before the eligible travel period. Typical savings on Promo Rewards range from 25% to 50%, which can result in excellent deals during the promotional period.
Since only Air France and KLM flights are eligible for Promo Rewards, fuel surcharges are almost always a concern. However, many awards are still worth booking — especially if business-class awards are discounted. Taxes, fees, and surcharges come out to around $200 to $300 each way.
Now, let's dig into some of the other Flying Blue award sweet spots.
Flying Blue Sweet Spots
Partner awards between the U.S. and Mexico
You can leverage SkyTeam partners Delta and Aeromexico to redeem Flying Blue miles on flights between the U.S. and Europe for low rates. Generally, you'll find shorter routes like those between Texas airports and Mexico City (MEX) are the cheapest, but even longer flights like this one between Chicago (ORD) and Mexico City can be a great deal at just 14,5000 miles each way — or 29,000 roundtrip.
Comparatively, United charges a minimum of 17,500 miles, with 19,300 miles being a common requirement from some major airports. American Airlines prices hover around 17,500 miles one-way, though you can find flights for as cheap as 10,000 miles through AA's dynamic award pricing. You also can use British Airways Avios on nonstop American Airlines and Alaska routes for decent value.
But if you have Flying Blue miles and prefer to fly Delta or SkyTeam partner Aeromexico, using your miles for a trip to Mexico could be a solid choice.
Business class awards between the U.S. and Europe
Sadly, the days of booking Air France and KLM business class flights from anywhere in the U.S. to Europe for just 50,000 miles are gone. Like many other mileage programs lately, Flying Blue recently hiked award rates. But there's still plenty of value to be had for business class awards.
Flying Blue dynamically prices awards on its own flights (e.g., Air France and KLM), with many awards now costing well over 100,000 miles. However, you can still find awards as low as 60,000 miles to fly business class to Europe on some routes. Currently, 60,000 miles is the best price you can find for business class between the U.S. and Europe — unless you score a promo reward.
Prices generally climb the further you have to fly. However, you can find deals with seemingly random city pairings, such as Dallas to Budapest for 68,500 miles each way in business class:
Flying Blue occasionally throws business class tickets from North American airports in the Promo Rewards mix. But more often, you'll only find economy or premium economy in the list.
Business class awards on Delta are rare, but they are a great deal if you can find them. Check for last-minute options. You may score a seat at a great price. But these are a unicorn if you find them. You used to be able to find plenty of Virgin Atlantic awards via Flying Blue, but these seem to have dried up as well.
Economy awards between the U.S. and Europe
Even economy awards are a decent Flying Blue sweet spot — especially for cities where flights to Europe are generally expensive. Standard economy seats start at just 25,000 miles one-way — even from the West Coast connecting through to Rome (FCO):
You can also book Premium Economy for as low as 40,000 miles, but I will attest that it's not an especially appealing product. I'd honestly rather save the miles and fly economy.
The taxes and fees (around 100 euros each way in economy) cut into the value you get for your Flying Blue miles. So, check cash prices if you're departing a major hub like New York (JFK) or Los Angeles (LAX). But from other airports, you can often get a solid redemption rate.
Awards between the contiguous U.S. and Northern Africa
Flying Blue considers Northern Africa a part of Europe when it comes to award pricing — or at least the areas that were previously French colonies, such as Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. This can be advantageous for all cabin classes. Flights from New York to Morocco start at 25,000 miles one-way in economy.
Premium economy and business are a great deal as well, charging 40,000 and 60,000 miles, respectively. But this pricing is less frequently available. Factor in the slightly dynamic award calculations, so sometimes you'll pay a bit more. Or much more, as you can see in the image above. Taxes and fees can still hit hard, too. Even though economy costs very few miles, sometimes using cash to book is the best option.
The same is not true for business class. It's overwhelmingly an excellent deal.
Business class awards between East/Southeast Asia and Europe
This isn't so helpful for U.S. folks, unless you're trying to put together an around-the-world adventure. However, it's a good option if you want to fly SkyTeam carriers. Tickets on Air France and KLM are available from major East and Southeast Asia airports for 85,000 miles one-way in business class. Fees are around $200, like many other awards.
In addition to Air France and KLM, you can book awards on SkyTeam carriers Vietnam Airlines, China Airlines, and Korean Airlines. These aren't as great a deal. As an example, nonstop tickets in Vietnam Airlines' business class between Hanoi and Paris cost over 110,000 miles.
You'd actually be better off using Delta miles between these regions — one of the few areas where you'll get a decent premium cabin award deal. Delta will actually outdo Flying Blue in many cases. I actually have a Vietnam airlines itinerary booked from Australia to Europe, which is one of our highlighted best ways to use Delta SkyMiles.
Awards between the contiguous U.S. and Central/Southern Africa
Africa can be hard to reach, but several regions make for additional Flying Blue sweet spots. Economy awards to/from the U.S. start at only 40,000 Flying Blue miles for a one-way ticket to destinations like Ghana, Senegal, and Gabon. If you can find space on the nonstop Delta flight from New York (JFK) to Accra (ACC), you'll save a ton of miles compared to what Delta charges. But, like so many other Delta routes, partner award availability can be extremely rare.
Even flying to Johannesburg won't break the mileage bank, as it's available for 40,000 Flying Blue miles on some dates. This is a decent deal, given how expensive tickets to southern Africa can be. The fuel surcharges for economy tickets average around $200, which stings. Award availability can be hit or miss at 40,000 miles. We found some award availability close-in, but your best bet is searching well in advance for award seats. You may be able to find award space on Kenya Airways as well to many destinations.
Decently priced business class awards can be a bit more of a challenge to find, not to mention more expensive. You may be able to find cheaper tickets with other airline alliances, but Flying Blue is the best SkyTeam program by far. The only thing that hurts for business class is the taxes, fees, and surcharges. You should expect to pay around $400 one-way.
Business class award availability at reasonable rates is more irregular. But we consider 115,000 miles one-way to some destinations about the best deal you can find. Seats between the U.S. and Accra at this rate were rare, though.
If you find space on Delta, book it. You save the most, since there are no surcharges.
Kenya Airways flights Within Africa
Flights within Africa can be mind-bogglingly expensive. Consider that Kenya Airways typically charges over $600 for an economy roundtrip ticket between Nairobi and Johannesburg, and fares can climb above $800. In some cases, one-way tickets can be more expensive than a return. It's crazy.
You can get this same ticket for just 14,500 Flying Blue miles and ~$90 each way. Business class is a reasonable 35,000 miles. But for a mere 4-hour flight, that really isn't worth it.
Even paying 24,000+ miles for tickets on some destination pairs isn't terrible (e.g. Zanzibar–Lagos). Having Kenya Airways as a SkyTeam partner opens up some destinations you might not think of immediately and is great since SkyMiles finds almost zero availability within Africa.
United MileagePlus is another useful program for flights within Africa. This is because it partners with Ethiopian Airlines and South African Airways — major carriers on the continent.
South America to Europe and beyond — without massive surcharges
Brazil is one of several countries that ban or limit additional surcharges on award tickets. What's cool is that this applies to your entire itinerary. So if you can find a business-class award that normally has high fees — say, to an African country — you'll pay far less out of pocket.
The downside is that where these tickets used to be reasonable priced, you'll now be lucky to find options that are a little more than 100,000 miles. In many cases, you'll have to pay far more miles, which really negates any savings on taxes and fees. Plus, you have to get to Brazil first. This is still a great option to keep in mind if you're trying to piece together an around-the-world trip. Plus, you'll want to work in the next use of Flying Blue miles.
Awards including a Europe stopover
Flying Blue allows free stopovers on one-way award tickets. It's one of few programs — Alaska Mileage Plan being the other major one — that offer free stopovers on one-way award tickets. Some other programs, such as Air Canada Aeroplan and Singapore KrisFlyer, allow stopovers for a reasonable cost.
The catch with Flying Blue is that the stopover must be on either Air France or KLM flights. This is still an excellent benefit, though, as you can add a stint in Europe before continuing to Africa, for example. Or simply stop in Paris or Amsterdam for a few days before continuing to another European city. This is a great way to stretch the value of your Flying Blue miles, as it saves on the cost of the next flight.
Best Ways to Accumulate Flying Blue Miles
Transfer Points to Flying Blue
It's pretty easy to get Flying Blue miles, considering that the program is a transfer partner of multiple reward types. You can use the following transfer partners:
The abundance of transfer options means you don't need to worry about building up a balance with Flying Blue. Instead, you can focus on a strategy to accumulate flexible points. Then, you can transfer to Air France or KLM when needed. And keep an eye out for transfer bonuses, where you may get 15%–25% bonus miles when moving your credit card points to Flying Blue.
Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®
In addition to the various bank transfer partners, you can earn Flying Blue miles directly with the Air France KLM Mastercard. The card earns 1.5 miles per $1 spent on all other purchases miles on everyday spending, which is better than many cards if you compare miles on a 1:1 basis. You also can use the card to augment earning Flying Blue elite status:
- Earn 70,000 bonus miles and 40 XP after you make $3,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days of your account opening, plus 60 XP upon approval.
- Earn 3 miles per $1 spent directly on Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and SkyTeam member airlines purchases.
- Earn 1.5 miles per $1 spent on all other purchases per $1 spent on all other purchases.
- Receive 20 XP every year on your account anniversary.
- Receive 5,000 bonus miles each account anniversary after you spend $50 or more on purchases within the prior anniversary year.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- $89 annual fee.
Keep in mind that Bank of America issues the card and has a 2/3/4 rule for new card approvals.
Related: Understanding Rewards Credit Card Application Rules and Restrictions
Buying miles
We don't generally recommend buying airline miles, but there can be situations where this is advantageous. Examples include when you have nearly enough miles for a specific redemption or when you can immediately use miles for a ticket that would ordinarily cost a ton of money.
Flying Blue occasionally sells miles at reasonable rates during promotions. A recent promotion offered 100% bonus miles, bringing the cost to around 1.53 cents per mile. If used for a Flying Blue business class sweet spot, these could be worth purchasing.
Buy Flying Blue Miles With an 80% Bonus Through June 25 — Book Business Class to Europe for $1,014
Final Thoughts
Knowing about the Flying Blue award sweet spots can prove valuable, given the relative ease of earning miles through ubiquitous transfer options. You'll pay higher-than-usual taxes, fees, and surcharges in some circumstances. However, if you're saving a significant amount of miles, the cost could be worth it. In many cases, the taxes and fees hover around $200, which isn't terrible compared to some programs.
Make sure you keep an eye on the monthly Promo Rewards and also look out for transfer bonuses to the Flying Blue program. Both of these will let you maximize the value of your hard-earned points and miles.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
