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Flying Blue is the loyalty program for Air France and KLM, formed when the two large and well-respected airlines (along with Transavia) merged their loyalty programs to create one of the largest European mileage programs. Flying Blue provides many great redemptions — not just within Europe but also on transatlantic flights to and from U.S. cities. Additionally, as a member of the SkyTeam alliance, the Flying Blue program also has valuable partner booking opportunities.
In this post, we'll cover how to earn and spend your Flying Blue miles and how to reach elite status.
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Why Should You Join the Flying Blue Program?
Flying Blue members earn frequent flyer miles redeemable for flights on Air France, KLM, and more than 30 partner airlines. These Flying Blue miles are highly valuable. In recent redemptions, AwardWallet members have redeemed Flying Blue miles at an average of 2.16¢ per mile.
You can create your Flying Blue account by clicking this link. After you've entered all your personal details, you'll be provided with a Flying Blue number. For ease in keeping track of this number (and your hard-earned mile), track your Flying Blue account through AwardWallet.
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Flying Blue Partner Airlines
Air France and KLM each serve hundreds of destinations across more than 100 countries. Moreover, both airlines' participation in the SkyTeam alliance expands their global footprint further, giving its members access to over 1,000 destinations worldwide.
SkyTeam partners
SkyTeam formed in June 2000 by founding members Delta Air Lines, Aeromexico, Air France, and Korean Air. With the recent addition of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), SkyTeam has 20 member airlines — making it the second-largest airline alliance.
Non-alliance partners
In addition to its SkyTeam partners, you can also earn and burn Flying Blue miles with the following non-alliance partner airlines:
- Air Corsica
- Air Mauritius
- Aircalin
- Bangkok Airways
- Chalair Aviation
- China Southern Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Etihad Airways
- Gol Airlines
- Japan Airlines
- Malaysia Airlines
- Oman Air
- Qantas
- Twin Jet
- WestJet
- Winair
- airBaltic
Flying Blue has individual agreements with these airlines determining how you'll earn and redeem Flying Blue miles on their flights. For full details, check the Flying Blue website before making travel plans.
How To Earn Flying Blue Miles
You can get nearly anywhere with Flying Blue miles, thanks to Air France and KLM's extensive route networks and numerous partner airlines. Thankfully, it’s also pretty easy to earn these valuable miles.
Fly on Air France, KLM, or partners
The most straightforward way to earn miles is by flying on Air France or KLM flights or with airline partners. Flights operated by Air France-KLM will earn based on the cost of the ticket (not including government taxes) and your tier status. For example, after spending 1,000 Euros (excluding taxes) on a ticket, a general Explorer member would earn 4,000 miles, whereas a Platinum member would earn 8,000 miles and the relatively new Flying Blue Ultimate tier would earn 9,000 miles.
Earning miles by flying on partner airlines is more complicated because it depends on Flying Blue's partnership with that airline. You can check how many miles your flight will earn on the Flying Blue website. Typically, mileage earnings are determined by a combination of the following factors:
- Distance flown
- Fare class
- Elite status tier
Air France credit card
An easy way for U.S.-based travelers to earn Flying Blue miles on spending is by picking up Flying Blue's sub-$100 annual fee co-branded credit card. Bank of America issues the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®, and cardholders can enjoy the following earning rates and benefits:
- 3 miles per $1 spent directly on Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and SkyTeam member airlines purchases.
- 1.5 miles per $1 spent on all other purchases.
- Get 5,000 bonus miles every year on your account anniversary as long as you spent at least $50 that year.
With an annual fee of only $89 and a competitive welcome bonus of 70,000 bonus miles and 40 XP bonus miles after you make $3,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days of your account opening, plus 60 XP upon approval, this card could be a great addition to your wallet. It probably isn't your best choice for regular spending, though, as several transferable rewards cards have better earn rates and offer point conversions to Flying Blue.
Transfer points to Flying Blue
Most transferrable currencies convert to Flying Blue miles, making building a large stash of miles relatively easy. Additionally, bank rewards programs regularly offer transfer bonuses to Flying Blue, which are easy ways to stretch your miles further.
Here are all of the credit card rewards programs that transfer to Flying Blue:
Additionally, you can convert hotel points to Flying Blue miles. However, we generally don't recommend this, given poor transfer ratios. The only exception is transferring points from Marriott Bonvoy — which offers a reasonable 3:1 transfer rate to around 40 airlines. You'll also get a bonus of 5,000 Flying Blue miles for every 60,000 Marriott points you convert in one transaction.
Other Ways To Earn Flying Blue Miles
If you are looking for other ways to boost your Flying Blue miles, there is no shortage of ways to do so.
Booking hotels
Travelers can earn Flying Blue miles when booking hotels through various hotel and booking site partnerships.
Flying Blue and Accor Hotels have a partnership allowing you to earn hotel and airline miles for your travel. Once your memberships are linked, Accor Live Limitless members will earn 1 point for every 2 euros spent on flights booked with Flying Blue. And when booking Accor hotels, Flying Blue members will earn 1 mile for every euro spent. Hotels in the Accor group include brands such as Fairmont, Sofitel, Ibis, and Novotel.
Beyond Accor, Flying Blue also has its own hotel booking platform, Hotels for Miles, that earns miles when you book. The miles earned vary widely depending on the cost of the hotel and whether there is an ongoing promotion.
Alternatively, Flying Blue partnered with Booking.com to offer 2 Flying Blue Miles per euro spent when travelers use a special Booking.com portal. Remember that hotels booked through these third-party sites usually do not honor elite benefits earned with hotel loyalty programs and do not earn points for that hotel program either.
Shopping portals
Flying Blue has a branded shopping portal called Shop for Miles, which, like similar portals, earns you miles when you shop online after clicking through links. Better yet, these portal deals are often stackable with credit card earnings and store deals to make for lucrative offers.
Related: Shopping Portals: A Beginner's Guide
Join or create a Flying Blue Family
If you're 18 or older, you can set up your own Flying Blue Family and pool miles at no cost through the ‘My Profile‘ section on the Air France or KLM website. Your Flying Blue Family can include up to eight people — one additional adult and six kids. As the creator, you'll be the Family leader and invite others to your “Family.” Once you have a Flying Blue Family set up, you can transfer your miles within your family.
As the Flying Blue Family leader, only you can transfer Miles from your Family members' accounts, partially or fully, and only after you've been a Flying Blue member for at least seven days. Note that after each transfer, all miles remain valid for only two years and that transfers are final. So, make sure you have a solid plan for those miles before transferring them within your family group.
Related: Rewards Programs That Let You Combine Points & Miles for Free
How To Redeem Flying Blue Miles
Flying Blue uses dynamic award pricing for award flights on Air France and KLM. That means the miles you will need for a trip can vary enormously depending on the day. While there is no award chart, you can check the minimum miles required for a particular pair of cities on the award calculator. Better yet, there is a trick to see the Flying Blue award calendar if you are looking for which dates have the lowest rates.
Unfortunately, Flying Blue passes on the fuel and airline surcharges for both Air France and KLM flights and partner bookings. This means that booking award flights often requires paying moderate fees, though some carriers have less of an out-of-pocket burden than others.
While the fees are nowhere close to those you'll find when booking through British Airways or Virgin Atlantic, they do add up, especially when flying in business class. You can expect to pay as much as $300 or more in fees for a one-way business class transatlantic flight.
That said, the various Flying Blue award sweet spots can still be a great deal, even with the fees.
Air France/KLM flights
Transatlantic flights from the East Coast of the U.S. to Europe on Air France or KLM offer excellent value when you can find the lowest-priced awards. These awards are priced as low as:
- 20,000 miles one-way in economy
- 35,000 miles one-way for premium economy
- 50,000 miles one-way for business
Even better, Flying Blue offers discounted awards for children. Award tickets are 25% off for kids aged 2–11, meaning a child flying to Europe in economy seats would cost only 15,000 miles!
We recently used this discount to book our family of four from Dulles to Barcelona in business class for 187,500 miles one way. In our case, our under-12 child will fly business class for 37,500 miles to Barcelona!
Related: Practical Airline Award Sweet Spots for Families
Monthly Promo Rewards
Another excellent opportunity to unlock real value is through the program's monthly Flying Blue Promo Rewards. Each month, the program offers up to 50% off (although 25% off has become more typical) award flights for select routes operated by Air France and KLM. Flying Blue may apply discounts to economy, premium economy, and/or business-class awards. These can be awesome deals, so be sure to check each month's options.
Partner sweet spots
Flying Blue offers some great partner-booking sweet spots. You can sometimes find Delta flights for far less than what you would pay on Delta, such as flights to Hawaii or Colombia for only 17,500 miles when available.
Virgin Atlantic flights are also incredibly reasonable and often carry lower surcharges than what Virgin's Flying Club program would otherwise charge.
New SkyTeam addition, SAS, has some great value sweet spots as well. For example, you can fly between Chicago and Copenhagen for 40,900 miles in business class.
Remember that all SkyTeam partners can be booked with Flying Blue miles, but not all flights will be available. In fact, it has been increasingly difficult to find business seat award availability on partner bookings. Using an award availability search tool can be helpful when looking for excellent redemptions.
Related: How To Find Partner Airline Award Availability
Add a stopover for free
One nice feature of the program is that Flying Blue allows you to book a free stopover on award bookings. These can be added to any award booking, even on partner airlines booked with Flying Blue. The stopover can be days, weeks, or even months! You have up to a year to continue on to your final destination. Here are some of the key details:
- Stopovers can only be booked by phone. If the agent is not aware of this, hang up and try again.
- Only one stopover is allowed per award booking
- They can be part of a one or round-trip ticket.
For example, if we wanted to break up our family trip to Barcelona next summer with a stopover in Paris, we could spend a few days there before continuing on to Barcelona at no additional cost. It's a great way to sneak in an extra destination during your travels.
Flying Blue Elite Status
Flying Blue elite status is comprised of four tiers (above entry-level Explorer): Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Ultimate. Frequent fliers can earn elite status by collecting XPs (experience points). To qualify, you will need to earn the following XP for each level:
- Silver: 100 XP
- Gold: 180 XP
- Platinum: 300 XP
- Ultimate: 900 XP
The benefits of each elite tier are as follows:
Flying Blue Silver
You'll unlock Silver status after earning 100 XPs, which comes with the following benefits:
- Earn 6 miles (instead of the regular 4 miles) per euro spent.
- Priority check-in, baggage, and boarding.
- Some free seat options 24 hours before departure.
- Free seat selection.
- One extra free checked bag on Air France/KLM and some partner flights.
- Sky Team Elite status.
Flying Blue Gold
Once you reach 180 XP in a year, you'll be promoted to Gold status. At this level, you will receive the following benefits:
- Earn 7 miles per euro spent.
- Free access to KLM/Air France lounges with 1 guest on the same flight when flying KLM, Air France, or some partners.
- SkyPriority access.
- Free seat options 72 hours before departure.
- Free selection of standard seats.
- One extra free checked bag on Air France/KLM and some partner flights.
- Sky Team Elite Plus status.
Flying Blue Platinum
After earning 300 XP in a year, you'll be entitled to Platinum level and the following benefits:
- Earn 8 miles per euro spent.
- Choose any seat you want.
- One extra free checked bag on Air France/KLM and some partner flights.
- Free access to KLM/Air France lounges with one guest on the same flight when flying KLM, Air France, or some partners.
- SkyPriority access.
- Call the exclusive Platinum Service Line for 24/7 assistance.
- Sky Team Elite Plus status.
- Waived fees when changing or canceling reward bookings.
- Only Platinum members can book La Premiere first class as an award ticket.
- Members who maintain Platinum status for 10 years become lifetime Platinum.
Flying Blue Ultimate
The ultimate status is, of course, Flying Blue Ultimate. Members who reach 900 XP in a year can fly in comfort and style with the following benefits:
- Earn 9 miles per euro spent.
- KLM and Air France lounge access with up to 8 travel companions.
- SkyPriority access.
- Ultimate Assistant available 24/7.
- Four complimentary one-cabin upgrade vouchers per membership year.
- One Flying Blue Platinum card for 1 of your travel companions.
- Hertz Platinum Card.
Members who have not received elite status are called Explorers and earn 4 miles per euro spent. For more information on the benefits at each tier, see the Flying Blue website.
How To Earn XPs Towards Elite Status
At each tier, the required XP must be earned in a single year from when you earn your first XP. Therefore, if your first XP earning flight is on April 1, you will have until the following April 1 to complete your XP earnings. After that date, the counter resets, and you will start back at zero.
Flying Blue makes it fairly difficult to move between these levels. Unlike most other loyalty programs, once you reach 100 XP and qualify for Silver Status, these XP are deducted, and your balance resets at zero. You then have 12 months from the day you reached Silver status to either earn another 100 XP and maintain Silver status or earn 180 XP to upgrade to Gold.
Luckily, the program does provide a bit of a soft landing. If you don't maintain your higher-level status by earning a sufficient number of points that year, you will drop down a level for the following 12 months. So Platinum members who fail to earn Platinum again will drop to Gold, and so on.
Earn XP by flying
Importantly, XPs are earned only on flights operated by Air France, KLM, Transavia (only Plus and Max fares), Sky Team Partners, and some flights on Aircalin and Air Corsica. Other non-SkyTeam partner flights no longer earn XPs toward Flying Blue Status. The number of XPs you earn on a flight depends on the cabin of service and the distance flown, as seen in the table below.
| Domestic (within a country) | Medium (under 2,000 miles) | Long 1 (2,000–3,500 miles) | Long 2 (3,500–5,000 miles) | Long 3 (over 5,000 miles) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economy | 2 XP | 5 XP | 8 XP | 10 XP | 12 XP |
| Premium Economy | 4 XP | 10 XP | 16 XP | 20 XP | 24 XP |
| Business Class | 6 XP | 15 XP | 24 XP | 30 XP | 36 XP |
| First Class | 10 XP | 25 XP | 40 XP | 50 XP | 60 XP |
Earn XP via the Air France KLM Mastercard
Outside of flying, you can earn XP via the Air France KLM Mastercard. Sometimes, XP are awarded as part of the card's welcome offer, but you'll also earn 20 XP annually on your account anniversary plus 40 XP after you spend $15,000 or more on purchases within the anniversary year.
Flying Blue Status Match
An easy way to get Flying Blue elite status with little effort is to apply for a status match. It's not free to match your currently-held airline status to Flying Blue, but you can secure elite benefits for 12 months if your application is successful. There's no published end date for the presently available offer.
Final Thoughts
Flying Blue offers numerous partnerships that make earning and redeeming Miles a breeze. You can easily rack up points by flying with Air France, KLM, and their partners, using the Air France KLM Mastercard, or transferring points from flexible rewards programs. Plus, promos and partner sweet spots often lead to great redemption opportunities.
Elite members enjoy a range of benefits on Air France, KLM, and SkyTeam Alliance flights. The benefits may not rival some of the top loyalty programs, but for frequent flyers, it can be worth the effort, especially since it is fairly easy to achieve with the credit card or by status matching.
Plus, with perks like discounted child tickets and family miles transfers, Flying Blue is a fantastic program for traveling with kids. We regularly take advantage of transfer bonuses and promo rewards to fly our family of four to Europe.
On balance, Flying Blue is a solid loyalty program with great earning and redeeming opportunities, and it should be on your radar if you're considering pledging your loyalty to a new program.
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