Air France KLM Flying Blue has been growing in prominence in North America over the past few years.
At a time when many programs are stripping away value and removing features, Flying Blue has been making itself felt on various fronts, warranting greater attention from Miles & Points enthusiasts.
Here are 6 reasons why we love Air France KLM Flying Blue, as well as a few notes about what we think could make the program even better.
1. Ease of Earning
It’s easier than ever to earn Flying Blue miles in North America these days, thanks mostly to transferable points currencies and co-branded credit cards.
In Canada, Brim Financial offers the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®, which has been rotating welcome offers between miles and Experience Points (XP).
Furthermore, the card provides the following everyday earning rates, which helps you boost your balance on daily spending:
- Up to 30 Flying Blue miles per dollar (CAD) spent with select Brim Financial merchant partners†
- 5 bonus Flying Blue miles per euro spent on Air France and KLM flights†
- 2 Flying Blue miles per dollar (CAD) spent at restaurants and bars†
- 1 Flying Blue mile per dollar (CAD) spent on all other eligible purchases†
Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®
- Earn 10,000 Flying Blue miles upon first purchase
- Plus, earn 10,000 Flying Blue miles when you spend $5,000
- And, earn 10,000 more Flying Blue miles when you spend another $10,000
- And, earn 30,000 Flying Blue miles when you renew your card for a second year
- Get 60 XP in the first year, plus 30 XP in subsequent years
- Earn 5 Flying Blue miles per euro spent on Air France KLM flights
- Earn 2 Flying Blue miles per dollar spent on food and drink
- Earn 1 Flying Blue mile per dollar spent everywhere else
- Minimum income: $80,000 personal or $150,000 household
- Annual fee: $132
In addition to earning miles with Brim’s co-branded card, you can also accumulate Flying Blue miles by transferring from American Express Membership Rewards (MR) points at a rate of 1 MR point = 0.75 Flying Blue miles.
American Express Membership Rewards Credit Cards
| Credit Card | Best Offer | Value | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
70,000 MR points $250 annual fee |
70,000 MR points | $1,676 |
Apply Now |
|
120,000 MR points $799 annual fee |
120,000 MR points | $1,574 |
Apply Now |
|
75,000 MR points $199 annual fee |
75,000 MR points | $1,561 |
Apply Now |
|
Up to 77,000 MR points $99 annual fee |
Up to 77,000 MR points | $1,419 |
Apply Now |
|
100,000 MR points $799 annual fee |
100,000 MR points | $1,361 |
Apply Now |
|
15,000 MR points $156 annual fee |
15,000 MR points | $372 |
Apply Now |
|
10,000 MR points $0 annual fee |
10,000 MR points | $242 |
Apply Now |
Meanwhile, in the United States, Bank of America has its own version of the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard. Like its Canadian counterpart, this card usually offers a welcome bonus of up to 50,000 miles.
The US-issued card also comes with the following earning rates on daily spending:
- 3 Flying Blue miles per dollar (USD) spent on eligible Air France and KLM flights
- 1.5 Flying Blue miles per dollar (USD) spent on other eligible purchases
In the US, Flying Blue has far more transfer partners than it does in Canada, and more favourable transfer ratios to boot:
Of course, you can also earn Flying Blue miles on paid flights with Air France, KLM, Transavia, TAROM, Aircalin, and SkyTeam carriers, regardless of which credit card you use to pay.
Additionally, holding elite status with the Flying Blue program enhances your earning rates on paid flights. With Platinum status, for instance, you can earn as many as 8 Flying Blue miles per euro spent on Air France and KLM flights.
2. Competitive Award Pricing
Air France KLM Flying Blue arguably offers the best overall transatlantic award pricing amongst its competitors. This is largely due to the program harmonizing its North American award pricing in Fall 2023.
Regardless of total distance flown, Air France and KLM awards between North America and any city in Europe have the following “starting at” prices:
- 20,000 Flying Blue miles in economy
- 35,000 Flying Blue miles in premium economy
- 50,000 Flying Blue miles in business class
The pricing above even extends to award flights from North America to select countries in North Africa, as well as Turkey.
In comparison, Aeroplan award flights with distances of up to 4,000 miles start at 35,000 Aeroplan points in economy and 60,000 Aeroplan points in business class. Transatlantic award flights that measure more than 4,000 miles cost even more.
Unlike Aeroplan, Flying Blue adds carrier-imposed surcharges on award tickets. Although not ideal, these costs are relatively reasonable compared to awards booked with British Airways Executive Club or Emirates Skywards.
The taxes and fees increase as you fly in higher classes of service. For a one-way transatlantic business class flight, you can expect to pay around $300 (CAD) or so, depending on the route.
Unfortunately, Flying Blue’s competitive harmonized award pricing doesn’t extend to partner airlines. In the future, it would be nice to see Flying Blue apply consistent award pricing for routes operated by partner airlines, too.
3. Excellent Route Network
Air France and KLM together operate a network that spans five continents.
In the US, the two airlines fly to 19 destinations, including major cities from coast to coast, as well as secondary hub cities like Minneapolis (MSP) and Raleigh (RDU).
In Canada, KLM flies to Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal, while Air France flies to Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City.
It’s worth noting that Air France and KLM operate rare transatlantic flights out of Edmonton, Ottawa, and Quebec City. Neither Air Canada nor WestJet fly to Europe out of these airports, forcing passengers to connect through one of their hubs instead.
If you live in Ottawa, Quebec City, or Edmonton, you shouldn’t have a difficult time redeeming Flying Blue miles for direct transatlantic flights, which likely costs fewer miles than through other programs and also removes the need for positioning flights.
Plus, once you arrive in Europe, you can connect to a multitude of destinations, as Air France and KLM fly not only to gateway cities, but also to destinations that you might not have even heard of.
4. Free Stopovers
In 2023, Air France KLM Flying Blue added the option to add free stopovers on award tickets. The stopovers are allowed to be between 24 hours and up to a year in length.
This means that you can enjoy multiple destinations on a single award ticket, with the usual stopover points being Air France’s and KLM’s hub cities of Paris and Amsterdam, respectively.
However, stopover tickets can only be booked over the phone, and according to some feedback from the Miles & Points community, award pricing can be inconsistent when you add a stopover.
That said, hopefully Flying Blue is working to make stopover pricing consistent across bookings. It’d also be doing the community a huge favour if it makes booking stopovers possible online, as is the case with Aeroplan.
Promo Rewards is one of Air France KLM Flying Blue’s most attractive features.
With Promo Rewards, the program releases a list of discounted flights in various classes of service every month.
The discount is usually 25%, but sometimes goes as high as 50%, and it applies on specific routes for travel in the next few months.
With a 25% discount, you might see transatlantic awards for as few as 15,000 miles in economy, 26,250 miles in premium economy, and 37,500 miles in business class.
Promo Rewards discount Flying Blue’s already competitive pricing, allowing you to fly business class for what many programs charge for economy.
However, the availability of flights with Promo Rewards pricing can be quite limited, and it’d be nice to see more availability and perhaps even a guaranteed allotment of discounted awards to improve this feature.
6. Partner Awards
Air France and KLM are both members of SkyTeam, which means that you can also use Flying Blue miles to book award flights on SkyTeam-member airlines, such as China Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Virgin Atlantic.
However, you can also book award flights with Flying Blue’s growing roster of partner airlines who don’t belong to an alliance, such as Air Mauritius and Etihad Airways.
Having these options expands your horizons, so to speak, and you’ll find these partners helpful for getting to destinations or regions not served by Air France or KLM.
For example, you can fly from Vancouver to Taipei in China Airlines business class for 83,500 Flying Blue miles, plus $136 (CAD) in taxes and fees.
Getting premium cabin award flights across the Pacific is more difficult than ever before, so you should always remember to check availability through Flying Blue if you can’t find what you’re looking for with other programs.
That said, partner award pricing with Flying Blue isn’t always as favourable when compared to other loyalty programs. To improve the program even more, we’d love to see better partner award pricing to make it more competitive with other programs.
Conclusion
Air France KLM Flying Blue has been making its presence felt in Canada and the US in the past few years.
After harmonizing its award pricing between North America and Europe, Flying Blue members can enjoy generally affordable transatlantic award flights, with one-way business class seats going for as low as 50,000 miles.
Additionally, the program’s monthly Promo Rewards provide discounts on its already competitive rates by 25–50%, often featuring destinations across North America.
The above are just some of the many reasons why we love Air France KLM Flying Blue, and we hope that it further takes hold in North America to foster competition with other programs.
