Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue programme has rolled out a new up to 50% discount promotion on buying miles, and this is the best promotion we have seen from the house of Flying Blue. Here are the details on how to buy Flying Blue Miles with a discount.
Get up to a 50% discount on buying Flying Blue Miles.
Through February 29, 2024, Air France – KLM’s combined loyalty programme, Flying Blue, has rolled out a new promotion on buying miles, which gets you up to a 50% discount on purchasing these miles. The discount is tiered and adds up to more discounts as you buy more miles. Here is the offer:
- On buying between 4,000 – 14,000 miles, get a 35% discount
- On buying between 16,000 – 38,000 miles, get a 40% discount
- On buying between 40,000 – 100,000 miles, get a 50% discount
During the promotional period, Elite members can buy a maximum of 300,000 Miles when buying Miles, while Explorer members can buy a maximum of 100,000 Miles. Discounts will be made on transactions made between February 6 and February 24, 2024, 2359 CET +1.
Miles are sold in units of 2,000 Miles up to 100,000 Miles and units of 25,000 from 100,000 to 300,000 Miles. Elite members may purchase an unlimited number of Miles. In contrast, Explorer members may only purchase or receive up to 100,000 Miles in any calendar year unless a promotion is active, in which case it is possible to either buy or receive Bonus Miles on top of the 100,000 Miles when a bonus promotion is ongoing. In this case, since it is a discount promotion, a bonus is not required to be granted.
At the top end of the promotion (in the 50% discount bracket), you can maximise the promotion by buying miles at the cost of 1.53 Cents (US)/ 1.42 Cents (Euro)/ INR 1.27 INR. That is the best price you’d get with this programme.
KLM Business Class on their 787
Which cards should you use to buy these miles?
Typically, these point purchases are processed through Points.com and not directly by the hotel or airline. However, you will almost always pay in USD/EUR/GBP, not INR. So, the best cards to earn a bonus are Citi Prestige, Axis Reserve or American Express Platinum Charge Card, as these cards offer an international spending bonus. Beyond these, look at any card that provides a reduced foreign exchange spend conversion or one where you want to meet minimum spend requirements.
Things to know
Flying Blue now offers dynamic award pricing. However, the benefit is that if you like KLM/Air France, you can access more seats for redemptions over partners. However, it also offers Flying Blue Promo awards, some of the best use of the miles. Recently, Etihad Airways flights got redeemable with Flying Blue Miles as well.
KLM/Air France took on a new set of routes from India after partner Jet Airways collapsed, so there are flights from Delhi/Mumbai/Bangalore and Amsterdam/Paris and onwards. A Business Class saver ticket one-way from India to the USA costs 95,000 miles. You can also use the miles to redeem on KLM/Air France, Skyteam partner airlines, and other associates such as Virgin Atlantic and Westjet.
Bottomline
Flying Blue is offering up to a 50% discount on purchased miles through February 29, 2024, which is the best deal you could avail yourself of on Flying Blue Miles. The miles can be used to book tickets on Air France, KLM, Delta, Virgin Atlantic and all SkyTeam Airlines across the globe.
Do you plan on purchasing Flying Blue miles with a discount?
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FB is probably the worst program, considering how dynamically the award tickets are priced! One way business class ticket cost starts at 77.5k miles, but typical requirement is double of that. I would advice not to get stuck with FB miles – rather look at Virgin (transfer from Prestige) and redeem on KLM/ AF through that route!
@R, if there is no saver availability, then even Virgin won’t show you the availability anyways. So the whole point you suggest is moot.
Just yesterday, I booked a flight from BCN to BOM – KLM points requirement was ~1.19L, I booked the same with vision for 71K points. The taxes were a bit higher though, but to your point, there was a massive saving in points. I checked the same flight again just now – BCN-CDG-BOM (July 07) priced at 1,18,500 points on KLM. With Virgin, 71,000 point!
On a separate note, KLM, AF recently starting charging for seat selection in business class, which I find absurd, and even more absurd is the reasoning many are proposing, that they have just followed the suit after BA!
Great Blog post. Really exciting. Keep up the good work.
Well I don’t see KLM Air France as transfer partner with in Citi Prestige rewards redemption page or am I missing something ?
Seriously this is crazy deal for the one who travel, I would love to buy. But, unaware if the miles exceed little more than the mentioned blue miles in between 8K to 9K, how a bonus can get & added-up. Is it still 50%?
@Avanthi, you need to check your specific offer. The one I listed was customised to my account. If you need 8K in the case of my account, you buy 6K and get 3K bonus. Then you have 9K and use 8K-9K out of that. I hope I answered your question.
What are the fuel surcharges Flying Blue charges on AF/KLM? For example on that trip to US? Also whats the availability in your experience on flights to Europe or US on saver level awards?
should we or shouldnt we? I would love to buy and hold but hope someone comes up with a package where we could purchase enough miles for a family of 4 🙂
It feels like with so many airlines raising money through this route and keeping the loyalists engaged, they may even devalue redemption as soon as normalcy prevails.
@Saurav, there is no one clear answer to your question and depends on your risk appetite. I do personally believe that a sane airline won’t upset the applecart for the next few years as travel comes back and normalcy is hopefully restored. But yes, small adjustments here and there will continue to happen.
Respectfully I’ll disagree.. in a way. They may not devalue the “face value” of the points but travel demand will increase dramatically which will drive up cash prices and therefore require many more points/miles to buy dynamically priced award seats. I’m considering buying the miles regardless but as a Flyblue elite, I have a long-term investment in this program. I would also be concerned over the financial stability of Air France. The French won’t let it go under but it could impact prices and fees.
@DaninMCI I agree with you, and I disagree as well. WRT to my part of the world, I don’t expect demand to go up for a couple of years, given the sad pace of vaccination we are at. Trust that helps you appreciate my viewpoint better.