How to get the maximum value from your miles

• Fly local: Flying Blue is great for getting to and from Europe, but it also offers excellent value to U.S.-focused travelers. You can book Delta flights with your Flying Blue Miles, opening up numerous opportunities to redeem rewards on domestic travel.

• Bring the family: You get a 25% discount on Flying Blue award tickets for children aged 2 to 11, making it more affordable to travel as a family.

• Rack up rewards: It’s easy to earn Flying Blue Miles, as you can transfer rewards from Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou Rewards, and more.

• Travel in style: Flying Blue award sweet spots include business class flights to/from Europe, starting at 60,000 points (or fewer with a transfer bonus or promotional offer).

Flying Blue is the joint travel loyalty program of Air France and KLM, two European airlines based out of Paris and Amsterdam. This free-to-join program offers members the opportunity to earn and redeem Flying Blue Miles.

Air France and KLM are the primary airlines within Flying Blue, offering direct flights to numerous destinations worldwide, including North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. These flights are based out of the hub cities of Paris and Amsterdam.

However, Flying Blue also partners with over 30 other airlines to provide access to even more global destinations. For U.S.-based travelers, that includes access to Delta routes to and from these U.S. cities:

• Atlanta (ATL)

• Boston (BOS)

• Charlotte (CLT)

• Chicago (ORD)

• Dallas (DFW)

• Denver (DEN)

• Detroit (DTW)

• Fort Lauderdale (FLL)

• Houston (IAH)

• Las Vegas (LAS)

• Los Angeles (LAX)

• Miami (MIA)

• Minneapolis (MSP)

• Nashville (BNA)

• Newark (EWR)

• New York (JFK)

• New York (LGA)

• Orlando (MCO)

• Philadelphia (PHL)

• Phoenix (PHX)

• Salt Lake City (SLC)

• San Francisco (SFO)

• Seattle (SEA)

• Tampa (TPA)

• Washington, D.C. (DCA)

• Washington, D.C. (IAD)

You can earn Flying Blue Miles and status points, called XP, on eligible flights with Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and over 30 partner airlines, including Delta Air Lines.

The Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard® earns Flying Blue Miles on all eligible purchases, doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, and typically provides a sign-up bonus to qualifying new cardholders. It may make sense to apply for it if you frequently use Flying Blue.

However, it’s worth noting that you can transfer rewards to Flying Blue from most major credit card rewards programs, including American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One, Citi ThankYou Rewards, and Wells Fargo.

That opens up huge opportunities for taking advantage of Flying Blue redemptions while staying within a flexible rewards program.

With that in mind, here are additional travel credit cards you could use to earn (via transfers) Flying Blue Miles:

If you prefer travel cards with premium perks, such as airport lounge access, consider these options:

Related: Best rewards credit cards

The Flying Blue program lets you create or join a Flying Blue Family with up to eight Flying Blue members, with a maximum of two adults and six children.

A Flying Blue Family lets you share your Flying Blue Miles with other members of the group, making it easier to build your overall points pool and book more award flights.

Flying Blue members can buy more Flying Blue Miles through the Flying Blue website. This typically isn’t the most cost-effective way to earn miles, but it could make sense if you need to top off your balance to make a specific redemption.

Here are a few examples of how much it costs to buy Flying Blue Miles:

• 2,000 miles: $63.40

• 10,000 miles: $305

• 50,000 miles: $1,525

• 100,000 miles: $3,050

• Hotel and other stays: Flying Blue has partnered with hotels and booking websites to offer opportunities to earn miles on hotel and other stays. Some of the partners include Accor Live Limitless, Hyatt, Booking.com, Choice Privileges, Hilton Honors, IHG, and more.

• Car rentals: Similarly, you can also earn miles with eligible car rentals from Hertz, Alamo, Enterprise, National, Avis, Budget, and more.

• Shopping: The Flying Blue shopping portal, Shop for Miles, lets you earn miles for shopping at popular stores and retailers like Walmart, Macy’s, CVS, and others.

• Experiences: The Flying Blue Event & Concert Tickets website allows you to earn miles on various event tickets. If you’re planning to book a fun tour or activity, consider using GetYourGuide to earn miles on your booking (after adding your Flying Blue number).

1. Sign up for a free Flying Blue account on the Air France or KLM website.

2. Log in to your account on either website.

3. Select the “Book a flight” option to search for flights using cash. Select the “Book with Miles” option to search for flights using miles.

4. Enter your desired itinerary information, including one-way or round trip, your departure city, your arrival city, your date(s), the number of passengers, and the fare class.

5. Select the “Search flights” button and browse flights from the available options.

6. Select a flight from the available options, enter the required personal and payment information, then book your flight.

Tip: If you’re browsing Flying Blue award flights and want to see a monthly calendar view of prices, leave the “Departure date” field blank when you start your search.

There’s loads of value to be had from the Flying Blue program, but you have to play around with it to see how it can benefit you. Here are some examples of what you can expect to find.

You can find economy flights to Europe from the U.S. for as little as 18,750 miles when Flying Blue is running promotional fares.

If there aren’t promotional fares available for the route you’re checking, the lowest economy award tickets tend to run at 25,000 miles.

Business flights to and from Europe

Business class flights to Europe from North America can go as low as 45,000 miles per person on promotional fares.

The typical business class award ticket will go as low as 60,000 miles without a promotional fare.

Delta U.S. domestic flights can provide great value when booking through Flying Blue. This flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas would only cost 5,000 miles one-way.

For a short flight between Atlanta and Miami, you’d be on the hook for 8,000 miles.

This Delta flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo would only cost 35,500 miles.

This AeroMexico flight from Houston to Mexico City is only 8,500 miles.

This list can give you an idea of who may be able to make the most of using Flying Blue to earn and redeem miles:

• Delta travelers: Flying Blue members can redeem miles toward Delta flights, often at a lower price. Delta elite status can also get you benefits when flying with KLM and Air France, including priority boarding, extra baggage allowance, preferred seats, lounge access, and more.

• Families: With a 25% discount on Flying Blue award tickets for children under 12, the Flying Blue program can provide huge value for families.

• Europe enthusiasts: Flying Blue is based out of Paris and Amsterdam, making it an excellent choice for travelers who frequently visit Europe. You can fly directly to those cities from many destinations worldwide, or connect through to another city.

Major credit card rewards programs frequently offer bonuses on transfers to certain travel partners. This means you’ll receive additional miles on top of the miles you would normally get from a transfer.

For example, Amex Membership Rewards typically transfer to Flying Blue at a 1:1 ratio, which means you get 1,000 Flying Blue Miles for every 1,000 Membership Rewards you transfer.

With a 20% transfer bonus, you would actually get 1,200 Flying Blue Miles for every 1,000 Membership Rewards transferred. That may not seem like a lot when talking about only transferring 1,000 points, but it adds up the more points you transfer. And any points you save can be used for more redemptions down the road.

Every month, Flying Blue releases new Air France-KLM Flying Blue Promo Rewards that provide up to a 25% discount on different Flying Blue award tickets. These tickets can include economy, premium economy, and business class fares on Air France and KLM.

To put it into perspective, that means you could book a flight to Europe for as little as:

You would have to add some taxes and fees onto these mileage prices, but you should still get excellent value from these promo redemptions.

To take it a step further, you could increase your redemption value even more if you were also able to take advantage of a transfer bonus on one of these fares.

For example, here’s how much you would need in Amex, Chase, Capital One, or Citi rewards for the same promo fares as above with a 20% transfer bonus (this is assuming you need to transfer in increments of 1,000 rewards each):

• 16,000 in transferred rewards = 19,200 miles

• 25,000 in transferred rewards = 30,000 miles

• 38,000 in transferred rewards = 45,600 miles

Flying Blue’s stopover program lets you add a complimentary stopover in Paris or Amsterdam on eligible award itineraries. Stopovers must be at least 24 hours but can last days or weeks. Meaning, you can be quite flexible with your travel arrangements without incurring additional costs for your flights.

Flying Blue gives a 25% discount on award tickets booked for children aged 2 to 11. This should also work for children under the age of 2 who are in their own seat. Lap infants typically have their own discounts.

Flying Blue is one of the easiest programs to use when searching for award flights across a range of dates. If you open up the “Book with Miles” search tool on the KLM or Air France website, leave the “Departure date” field blank.

This will provide you with a calendar view that allows you to quickly see the lowest fares by month.

Note: We have seen issues occasionally with clicking through to a specific day, and it won’t show the same price as seen on the calendar — but these instances are relatively uncommon in our experience.

Having elite status with Flying Blue or another SkyTeam Alliance airline, such as Delta, can get you certain benefits across the board. For Delta elite status holders, that could mean getting lounge access, extra baggage allowance, preferred seats, and priority boarding on Flying Blue flights.

In our experience, it’s possible to call Flying Blue to hold an award ticket reservation. This is mainly useful in situations where you’re looking for award space, but haven’t actually transferred any points or miles into your Flying Blue account yet from another source.

In many cases, transfers are immediate. However, they can sometimes take longer, even up to a few days or more. In these cases, it’s helpful to have a customer service agent put the award fare on hold while you arrange the transfer. Otherwise, someone else could snap up that booking before you’re ready.

Note that there might be a small fee for putting an award ticket on hold over the phone or completing a held reservation over the phone, but an agent may waive the fee for you.

Flying Blue Miles are valid for two years for Explorer Members aged 18 and older. You can extend the expiration date by two years with an Overall Extending Activity.

A qualifying activity typically includes earning Flying Blue Miles by completing an eligible flight with Air France, KLM, or a partner airline. You may also be able to extend the expiration date through other mileage-earning activities, such as transfers, although this isn’t explicitly stated in the Flying Blue terms.

According to our valuations, Flying Blue Miles are typically worth about 1.2 cents per mile. That means:

• 10,000 Flying Blue Miles = $120

• 100,000 Flying Blue Miles = $1,200

• 1,000,000 Flying Blue Miles = $12,000

However, the value of your miles could be higher or lower depending on how you redeem them. Redeeming your miles toward flights will typically provide the best redemption value, but that value can vary.

For example, you can get much more value by redeeming your miles for a business class flight compared to one in economy class, simply because the cash prices for business class are much higher.

You can calculate the redemption value for any potential booking by dividing the cash price by the number of miles needed for the same fare. For instance, if a flight costs $240 or 20,000 miles, you would divide $240 by 20,000 and get 0.012, or a valuation of 1.2 cents per mile.

Yes, Flying Blue is free to join through the Air France and KLM websites.

This is valued at approximately $1,200, according to our estimates. That’s a redemption value of 1.2 cents per mile.

Log in to your Flying Blue account through the KLM or Air France website, search for flights, and select a flight operated by Air France. Then pay for the booking with miles from your Flying Blue account.

Flying Blue airline partners include:

Are Air France and KLM the same?

No, Air France and KLM are two separate airlines based in Europe. However, they share a travel loyalty program called Flying Blue. The Flying Blue program is free to join and offers members the opportunity to earn and redeem miles with Flying Blue and its partners, such as Delta, Japan Airlines, and Korean Air.

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