Air France KLM Flying Blue Is Essential For U.S. Points Collectors — 38 Award, Transfer, And Status Moves Worth Knowing

Air France KLM Flying Blue is a crucial frequent flyer program for U.S. members. It’s clearly the best program in Delta-led SkyTeam. It’s one of the best programs in the world for getting to Europe in business class. And the points are easily available to Americans.

Flying Blue partners will of the major transferable currencies. So if you have American Express Platinum Card® see rates and fees; Chase Sapphire Reserve® (See rates and fees); Citi Strata Elite^SM Card (See rates and fees.); or Bilt Palladium Card (See rates and fees) you can move points into Air France KLM’s program.

• That means it’s a great place to pool points from different cards to redeem them on the same trip.
  
• This is an intentional strategy on Flying Blue’s part. They even transfer from Rove. It’s how they get a piece of the lucrative U.S. market. In fact, there are apparently now more Air France KLM points redemptions from this side of the Pond than there are by members in Europe.
  
• And they have an intentional strategy of offering attractive award values. They want to have the best price when you search for awards using comparison tools. That’s how they get the points transfers and they make money on them.

So here are 38 things you may not know about the Air France KLM Flying Blue program. Some of them are more common knowledge than others, and some may even be semi-secret. But all of them are worth knowing given the importance this program holds in the frequent flyer miles hobby.

1. When searching for an award, there are a number of ways to pull up a calendar of award availability and what actually works changes. First, try just leaving the departure date blank. If that doesn’t work, change the URL that comes up in search from `/search/flights/0` to `/search/open-dates/0`. The calendar now includes partner awards, not just Air France and KLM availability, but it’s not perfect and may not have all inventory (and may have some phantom space probably due to caching).

2. Air France KLM opens up its booking window ~ 359 days out, while many airlines begin releasing their flights 330–331 in advance of travel. That doesn’t mean this is the best time for award space, but some flights do have space at schedule open and the program gives you a head start over what some partner progams offer.

3. Also, Air France KLM makes more award space available to its own members than they do to partners. It’s relatively easy to book transatlantic Air France awards usign Flying Blue miles, and much tougher using other miles.

   

4. Platinum and Ultimate accounts can see lower award prices unavailable to ordinary members. That’s a published benefit of this status. The same flight might pricing at 60,000 miles for a Platinum member and three times as much for someone without that status.

   Flying Blue allows awards to be issued for anyone, so a Platinum or Ultimate member can use their expanded access to ticket a spouse, colleague or unrelated traveler. Find a Platinum Flying Blue member and befriend them.

   

5. When searching for award space, enter the full origin–destination, not just the long-haul segment you’re looking for. Flying Blue uses married-segment logic, so availability and pricing can differ when you add connecting flights.

6. Adding a flight can actually reduce the award price. A short connection beyond CDG or AMS can cause the entire itinerary to price below the nonstop award just to the hub. There’s a logic to charging more for the non-stop and if you’re just flying to Paris they have more pricing power over that.

7. While current saver award price floors between Europe and most of North America are 25,000 economy, 40,000 premium economy and 60,000 business one-way, consider paying more. Flying Blue is reasonably decent with business class award space once you hit 80,000 miles. A lot of programs charge far more for better availability than Flying Blue does.

   

8. Promo Rewards reset on the first day of each month, offering up to 25 off on certain routes. They’re no longer necessarily use-it-or-lose-it awards. The discounted long-haul segment can often be combined with onward European connections, so a published promo award between (say) Houston and Paris can extend travel elsewhere in Europe.

9. Flying Blue offers a 25% child discount for travelers aged 2–11. That even applies to Promo Rewards. Add a bank-transfer bonus and the effective bank point cost can become absurdly low.

10. La Première awards are restricted to Platinum and Ultimate members.

11. Some agents still grant roughly 24–72 hour award holds, while other agents say holds are not available. That’s a broader symptom of highly variable customer service from Flying Blue call centers.

12. Free stopovers on one-way awards are permitted for no additional miles (although an additional flight segment can add taxes and fees). The stopover doesn’t have to be Paris or Amsterdam, and very long stopovers are possible – but stopovers must be booked by phone. However I’ve found that with mixed-carrier itineraries pricing will often break; this works best when traveling on a single airline on the one-way award (and it’s easier to get this to price when booking two one-ways rather than roundtrip).

13. Award redeposit is generally €70 per traveler, and can be done up until check-in closure for the booked flight. You need Platinum status or above to get this waived.

14. I find Flying Blue status qualification highly confusing. They use a personal qualification year that starts with the first qualifying activity, lasts up to 12 full calendar months, and can reset when you move up a level. This means many members try to time their activity in the program, either pulling it up to qualify for a higher level before the period ends or pushing extra activity out to the next period.

15. If you start with no status, then you need to hit 100 XP (‘experience points’) for Silver, another 180 for Gold and another 300 for Platinum: That means you need 580 XP to reach Platinum, while a Platinum needs 300 to requalify.

16. Connections earn more experience points, e.g. Amsterdam–Paris–New York round-trip in business can earn 90 XP versus 60 XP for Amsterdam–New York nonstop. And the number of XP you eanr for flights is based on their distance, so routing that forces longer flights can be advantageous to status-earning. A segment barely above 2,000, 3,500 or 5,000 miles receives the next band’s XP.

17. If you were to start in Antwerp or Brussels rather than Amsterdam, you pick up XP for train segments included with the ticket and that can also reduce your fare compared to non-stop. But don’t skip the outbound rail coupon, this can actually trigger cancellation of the rest of the itinerary as a no show.

18. Sustainable aviation fuel is mostly a scam, but you can buy XP credits this way (1 XP per €10). This will normally post after the first flight departs (not at time of purchase). Some country sites have accepted multiple SAF contributions on one booking, and this occasionally works up to four purchases. They’ll probably fix that at some point.

19. 2,000 mile charitable donations earn 1 XP, so it can be a good way to close a tiny gap to status without a flight.

20. Linking Flying Blue and ALL Accor Live Limitless produces a one-time status boost. Completing the first eligible flight and first eligible Accor stay after linking generates and you receive 10 XP in total and two ALL elite status nights.

21. Since Flying Blue makes it easier to requalify for status (or earn a higher level) compared to starting off at zero, a status match makes a lot of sense. I use my Bilt Rewards Platinum status, transfer 10,000 points to Flying Blue, and receive Gold status each year.

22. My Flying Blue Gold gets me priority check-in and boarding, free checked bags, and free exit row seats on Delta. I’m tempted to go for Platinum, though, for better award availability, waived redeposit fees, and access to first class awards.

    

23. Air France’s U.S. credit card is good for earning elite status credit (20 XP at anniversary, 100 total annual XP after $15,000 spend and 160 total after $25,000) and you can generate spend on rent via Bilt.

24. You can select elite status credits as milestone awards, 20 XP at 450 and 30 at 600 moves it to 630.

25. Also, excess elite status credits can roll over (up to 300 XP and 900 UXP). So an existing Platinum member can use a 600 XP two-year cycle – earn 600 XP in one qualification year and 300 renews Platinum and 300 rolls over, fully requalifying for Platinum again. The first year also crosses the 450- and 600-XP Choice milestones.

26. But most people should stop at 600 XP! There’s a 750 XP milestone and you might be chasing otherwise but otherwise over 600 is wasted.

27. Flying Blue offers elite soft landings. I just lost my Gold status (I need to go re-match via Bilt) and was made Silver rather than no status. Platinum falls to Gold, Ultimate falls to Platinum.

28. Platinum for Life is based on ten consecutive Platinum years.

29. Ultimate requires 900 ‘UXP’ rather than ordinary XP. You get up to eight lounge companions, four long-haul upgrade vouchers and the ability to gift one Platinum status.

    

30. Miles now expire after 24 months of inactivity with any qualifying mileage-earning reseting the validity of an account balance. So transfer over 1,000 points from a credit card every two years to save your balance. Buying miles or redeeming miles do not work to reset expiration.

31. Elites, cobrand cardmembers, Flying Blue Extra subscribers and minors do not have mileage expiration. German accounts expire under three-year rules.

32. Flying Blue ofers family pooling for up to 8 accounts (2 adults, 6 children). The Family leader can transfer part or all of a member’s miles into their account.

    To limit fraud, invitations expire after 14 days, membership generally lasts at least six months, an account must have been enrolled for seven days before transfer, and an initial transfer can take up to 72 hours.

33. ALL Accor Live Limitless is a double dip. Linked members earn one Flying Blue mile per eligible euro spent with Accor and one ALL point per €2 spent on eligible Air France KLM flights. Transfers of 2,000 ALL points produce 2,000 Flying Blue miles. The reverse is 4,000 Flying Blue miles transfers to 1,000 ALL points.

34. Air Europa redemptions are great for low surcharges, e.g. transatlantic Madrid flgihts for 43,000 miles plus €60.

35. China Airlines business class can be a good deal especially intra-Asia (15,000 miles in business with low cash cost) and Europe-Asia for less than 60,000 miles. Vietnam Airlines Europe – Asia pricing is similar.

36. SAS intra-Europe economy starts at 5,000 miles and €35.

37. Flying Blue can be a good way to book Etihad business class, e.g. North America–Abu Dhabi from 86,500 miles.

    

38. Air France operates Los Angeles – Papeete, and if you want business class on this flight to French Polynesia you’ll need to use Flying Blue miles (but it’s not cheap, 90,000 miles each way). You can also book French Polynesia domestic awards of Air Tahiti.

    

    There are some other interesting non-SkyTeam partners (in addition to Etihad) like Qantas, Copa, Japan Airlines, Air Mauritius and El Al.

    

This has been a bit of a brain dump, and I’d love to hear if it was useful or (and I’m not even that deep into the program) if there’s a nuance I should have been clearer about or something I’ve left out? I’d appreciate your feedback.

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