What do you get when you bring together two of the world's oldest, largest and most renowned airlines? The Air France/KLM Group, which is one of the largest airline holding groups in the world. Partners KLM (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij) and Air France, are subsidiaries of the holding group and share many things, including the Flying Blue loyalty program.

The Flying Blue loyalty program has undergone many changes over the years. Most of the changes have been negative, but that doesn't mean that the program holds no value. With some understanding of the fundamentals of the Flying Blue loyalty program, you can extract outsized value out of your Flying Blue miles.

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History

First, a quick history lesson. Formed in 1933, Air France was the result of a newly established joint airline agreement following the merger of several French aviation companies. The airline grew quickly and by 1948, Air France owned and operated 130 aircraft, making it one of the largest airlines at the time. Today, it is still one of the biggest and well known airlines in the world.

Air France's hubs are based in Paris and include both Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Paris Orly (ORY) airports.

KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, has a history that goes back even further than Air France––all the way back to 1919. In fact, KLM is the world's oldest airline that continues to operate under its original name. KLM's first flight took place in May of 1920. The flight left London and landed in Amsterdam along with several journalists, a stack of newspapers and a letter from the mayor of London.

KLM is based in the Netherlands and its main hub is based at Amsterdam's Airport Schiphol (AMS).

In 2004, Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines merged to form the airline holding company, Air France-KLM Group. By 2008 the newly formed group became one of the largest airlines in the world. Air France/KLM now operates up to 2,300 flights daily with a fleet of over 500 aircraft.

How to Earn Flying Blue Miles

In order to begin earning Flying Blue miles and work your way to elite status, you'll need to enroll in the free Flying Blue loyalty program. To sign up for an account, visit Flying Blue. Once enrolled, you'll automatically receive Explorer status, Flying Blue's lowest status tier.

Now it's time to actually earn Flying Blue miles, which is exciting because there are lots of ways to do so, and you'll be on your way to earning free travel before you know it.

Flying With AirFrance/KLM

Like most airline loyalty programs, the amount of miles earned through flying depends on several factors including the member's status, fare class booked and whatever other seemingly arbitrary rules the airline decides on.

Flying with Air France and KLM is no different and is full of its own rules and quirks, but unlike most airlines, seat classes don't actually determine the mileage earning rate. Miles earned is determined by the price of the ticket plus status level.

Flying Blue has 4 levels of status, which earn at the following rates.

  • Explorer earns 4 Flying Blue miles per Euro
  • Silver earns 6 Flying Blue miles per Euro
  • Gold earns 7 Flying Blue miles per Euro
  • Platinum earns 8 Flying Blue miles per Euro

This mileage earning rate is not to be confused with elite qualifying miles, a.k.a. XP, which are earned strictly for status and for which the rate is dependent on the cabin class and route flown. We will delve more into this later.

To calculate the miles you will earn when flying, you need to add the price of the ticket with the carrier surcharges. Once added, multiply the sum by the number of miles you earn based on your status, in the case of an Explorer, it's 4 Flying Blue miles––so, you would multiply the sum by 4. The total will give you how many miles you can expect to earn. You can see an example of what an explorer would earn below.

Although seat fares don't necessarily determine earning rates, they do come with some conditions and it's good to know if your fare is eligible for specific benefits or not.

Air France and KLM booking classes are organized first by cabin. The most basic cabin is economy class followed by premium economy, then business class and finally first class, also known as La Premiere with Air France.

Each cabin is then subdivided into seat fares. The seat fare will determine various conditions with the ticket and whether it is changeable or if cancellation is possible.

For travel within Europe, the booking classes are as follows:

For international travel, here are the fare codes.

Status Miles

Earning status with Flying Blue involves earning a unique type of currency known as XP (experience points). XP can be earned through flying and is calculated by cabin class plus routing. XP can also be earned through credit card spending.

As you can see from the chart above, the amount of XP earned when flying is based on the cabin booked and the routing. For a flight within the U.S. in economy class, for example, you would earn 2 XP. If the ticket is particularly cheap, this can be a fantastic value. But for a long distance flight, think New York to Hawaii in economy class, you will still only earn 2 XP.

In order to earn status or reach a new one, you must earn the required XP within a year. You'll have to requalify each year, as well.

Flying Blue has one basic status and three elite statuses and their XP requirements for each are as follows:

  • Explorer: 0 XP—Automatically assigned with enrollment
  • Silver: 100XP
  • Gold: 180 XP
  • Platinum: 300 XP

Each of these elite statuses includes its own unique set of benefits and perks:

Explorer

  • Earn 4 Flying Blue miles per € spent
  • Receive up to a €10 discount on your 1st paid checked baggage item
  • A 10% discount on seat options

Silver

  • Earn 6 Flying Blue miles per € spent
  • Receive priority check-in and boarding
  • Get a 25% discount on seat choices
  • Free selection of standard seats
  • 1 free extra checked bag on SkyTeam flights

Gold

  • Earn 7 Flying Blue miles per € spent
  • Free access for you and a guest to SkyTeam lounges around the world
  • SkyPriority––priority access throughout the airport
  • Receive a 50% discount on seat choices
  • Free selection of standard seats
  • 1 free extra checked bag on flights operated by SkyTeam members
  • Book award tickets in Air France's first class cabin, La Première

Platinum

  • Earn 8 Flying Blue miles per € spent
  • Free access for you and a guest to SkyTeam lounges around the world
  • SkyPriority––priority access throughout the airport
  • Free access to seat options
  • 1 free extra checked bag on SkyTeam flights
  • Dedicated help with the Platinum service line
  • Book award tickets in Air France's first class cabin, La Première

Flights on Partners

Air France and KLM are not the only airlines which participate in the Flying Blue loyalty program. Members can also earn and redeem their Flying Blue miles, accumulate XP and enjoy their elite status benefits on flights operated by the following airlines:

  • Aircalin
  • Kenya Airways
  • Transavia
  • TAROM

Air France-KLM has even more partners, though, thanks to their membership in the SkyTeam airline alliance. As members of SkyTeam, Air France-KLM partners with airlines like Delta, Virgin Atlantic, Qantas, Japan Airlines and many more. All of these partnerships means nearly endless destinations you can book with the Flying Blue program partner award redemptions.

To actually earn miles with partners, there are a few key points to understand. Earning Flying Blue miles and XPs by flying on Skyteam partners and non-alliance partners, unlike when flying with Air France and KLM, is determined by fare class, status and distance. And to complicate it even more, the requirements are different for each partner.

As you can see from the Delta earning scheme below, there is a lot of information when calculating how much you will earn.

Credit Card Spending

For U.S. residents, the only co-branded credit card to earn Flying Blue miles is the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®*.

  • Welcome bonus: 70,000 bonus miles, plus qualify for a bonus of 40 XP (Experience Points) after spending $2,000 or more on purchases within the first 90 days of your account opening. Plus get a welcome bonus of 60 XP upon approval.
  • 3 Miles per $1 spent directly on Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and SkyTeam member airlines purchases and 1.5 Miles per $1 spent on all other purchases
  • $89 annual fee.

One of the highlights of this card is the ability to earn XP towards Flying Blue status. Cardmembers automatically earn 60 XP upon approval, which is over half of the 100 XP required for Silver status. In addition, cardholders can also spend $15,000 within the first year and receive an additional 40 XP. Finally, another complimentary 20 XP is issued on your account anniversary.

This equates to a possible total of 120 XP within the first year. By earning an additional 60 XP with flying, members can reach Gold status. For Platinum, an additional 180 XP will need to be earned.

Transfer Partners

Although the Bank of America Air France/KLM World Elite Mastercard is the only co-branded card available for U.S. residents, Flying Blue is a transfer partner from all five of the major transferable points programs. This means that there are loads of credit cards that can essentially "earn" Flying Blue miles. Flying Blue is unique among programs in its ability to collect points from so many different programs into one Flying Blue account.

The five transfer programs are:

  • Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer at a rate of 1:1.
  • American Express Membership Rewards transfer at a rate of 1:1.
  • Citi ThankYou Points transfer at a rate of 1:1.
  • Capital One points transfer at a rate of 1.5:1.
  • Marriott Bonvoy points transfer at a rate of 3:1, plus 5,000 bonus miles when transfering in increments of 60,000.

Accor hotels recently teamed up with Flying Blue and introduced a reciprocal earning program called Miles+Points. Members enrolled in Accor's loyalty program, ALL (Accor Live Limitless) can earn ALL points in addition to Flying Blue miles on stays. Inversely, members can earn ALL points and Flying Blue miles on Flying Blue flights.

Shopping Portals

Flying Blue has its own shopping portal where members can earn Flying Blue miles. You can earn Flying Blue miles at hundreds of retailers for purchases you are already planning to make. Make sure you are logged into your account and cookies are enabled to ensure proper tracking.

Read More: How to Stack Credit Card and Portal Offers to Save on Online Purchases

Buying Miles

Flying Blue allows members to buy miles through Points.com. Buying through Points.com will not result in any airline credit card bonus categories as Points.com doesn't code as travel.

Explorer members can purchase, gift or receive up to 100,000 Flying Blue miles per year. Silver, Gold and Platinum elites can purchase, gift or receive up to 300,000 Flying Blue miles per transaction with an unlimited number of Flying Blue miles purchased per year.

As you can see, purchasing Flying Blue miles is very expensive and it's almost never worth the cost.

To put this into perspective, 6,000 Flying Blue miles is only enough miles for a one way redemption on a flight from Paris, France to Marseille, France.

That same ticket would cost just $119 when paying cash—significantly cheaper than purchasing miles.

Sometimes Flying Blue miles go on sale and you can extract better value, but even so, speculatively buying miles is almost never recommended.

How to Redeem Flying Blue Miles

With KLM or Air France

There are a few particularly important things to know about using Flying Blue miles to book award flights with a Flying Blue carrier beforehand.

The first is that Flying Blue uses dynamic pricing and therefore has no award charts. Dynamic pricing is different than your standard statically priced award charts in that the mileage required changes based on demand. Prices can even change from day to day.

Knowing that the pricing is dynamic, there's no way to really know what the rock bottom award ticket price is, or the upper limit. It's always best to compare award flights with other loyalty programs first before committing to using your Flying Blue miles.

The second thing to know is that Air France and KLM both impose fees for award tickets and they can be somewhat high. In the example above, booking an economy seat on a flight from just Paris to Marseille costs over $40 in taxes and fees. International flights in premium cabins can cost hundreds of dollars in addition to your miles.

On Flights With Partners

The ability to book flights with Skyteam partners is generally the best use of Flying Blue miles. Because of Flying Blue's dynamic pricing and lack of award charts, though, finding value in redemptions can take a bit of searching.

You can also expect somewhat inconsistent results with your searches, once again due to dynamic pricing. If you do get lucky, though, you can find some of the best mileage prices on the market for Skyteam flights.

A flight from IAH (Houston) to OSL (Oslo, Norway) comes in at 53,000 Flying Blue miles for a business class seat. You can find flights from the U.S. to other destinations in Europe for the same mileage cost, as well.

An economy class one way flight from SLC (Salt Lake City) to OGG (Maui) runs 17,500 Flying Blue miles on Delta.

Fees

Fortunately, Flying Blue doesn't pass along additional carrier imposed fees for partner airline award tickets when booking on an airline that does not tack on these charges. Delta and Aeromexico are both examples of carriers that do not add fees.

Because Delta does not add on any carrier imposed fees, a.k.a. fuel surcharges, using your Flying Blue miles to book flights on Delta will cost exactly what you would pay if booking with Delta SkyMiles. For domestic roundtrip flights in the U.S. on Delta, this comes out to a little over $11.

Sweet Spots

With Flying Blue's switch to dynamic pricing, finding sweet spots within the program can take a lot of effort and research as standard sweet spots based on rates do not exist. You'll have to find your own individual sweet spot.

Fortunately, Flying Blue has maintained their Promo Rewards program, which can be considered a sweet spot in and of itself. Promo Rewards is a program unique to Flying Blue that offers highly discounted flights on select routes. Discounts can range from 10% all the way up to 50% off award tickets and are available on both one-way and round trips. Even better, these discounts can include all cabins.

New Promo Rewards are announced at the beginning of each month and are categorized by short haul, medium haul and long haul flights.

Currently, the Promo Rewards program are slim pickings, but as travel picks up, hopefully they will be enhanced and offer the same great redemptions as before the global pandemic halted travel.

To book Promo Rewards, visit the Flying Blue website. Search the destination under the Promo Rewards tab and follow the prompt to book. The discount will automatically be applied. Make sure to pay attention to the discounted awards' validity dates before booking.

Quirks

Booking a first class cabin flight, known as La Premiere on Air France, is only available to Gold and Platinum elites. If you have ever dreamed of flying on La Premiere, without being an elite, it's pretty much impossible on miles.

Upgrading to La Premiere in advance from business class is also only available to Gold and Platinum Flying Blue elites.

Infant Fees

When paying for flights with Air France and KLM, infant fees are as follows:

  • For children 2 years and over, a discount of 20% on short-haul flights and up to 33% on all other flights.
  • Children under 2 flying as a lap infant will receive a 90% discount off of the ticket price.
  • Lap infants under 2 flying within France fly for free.

For award tickets:

  • Children 2 and over will be charged the regular ticket price.
  • Lap infants 2 and under will be charged 10% of the adult's revenue ticket in addition to the full taxes and fees.

To book a lap infant, you will have to call into the airline.

Family Pooling

Flying Blue miles can be pooled together, but in a less traditional way than other pooling options. Pooling is only available to residents of the Netherlands, so a very small percentage of Flying Blue members can take advantage.

Members who hold one of the four Flying Blue cards by American Express can participate in the program called Share & Fly which allows you to share Flying Blue miles with additional cardholders. These Amex cards are not available to U.S. residents.

For those based in the U.S., pooling isn't an option. If you would like to transfer or gift miles to a friend or family member, you can do so but at a significant cost. You are better off booking the flight for the person rather than paying to transfer the miles into their account.

Other Ways to Use Flying Blue Miles

Online Shopping Mall

Not to be confused with the Flying Blue shopping portal, Flying Blue has an online shop where you can spend your Flying Blue miles for merchandise. Using your miles to purchase merchandise is almost always a terrible dea. We recommend using your Flying Blue miles to book flights instead for the best value.

Upgrades

Flying Blue miles can be used towards cabin upgrades. These can be done in advance, last minute or even once boarded. Upgrades are only available on eligible airlines and each of those airlines only allow upgrades to specific cabins.

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Bottom Line

Flying Blue can be a fantastic loyalty program but requires some effort in order to extract maximum value. Dynamic pricing can make finding value more complicated, but thanks to Promo Rewards, it's still possible to find incredible deals on award flights.

Add the ability to transfer in Flying Blue miles from all of the major transferable currencies and their extensive network of partners you can redeem those miles with and the opportunities for Flying Blue miles are nearly endless.