Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Some you win …. important updates to recent Flying Blue and Accor articles

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Here are two important bits of news on deals I have covered this week.

Number 1 – The generous transfer rate from Accor to Iberia Avios

As I wrote here, this deal is back after a hiatus of a few days.  However, Accor has now confirmed that it will end on 28th February and the Iberia transfer rate will align with the BA one.  If you have any Accor points, try to transfer them before the end of next month.

Number 2 – The Flying Blue status match

Flying Blue has now changed the terms and conditions of the status match I posted about here.  Instead of running until May and having no restrictions on eligibility, it now says:

Flying Blue offer is valid until 28 February, 2013 and is only valid for Danish residents

The alternative versions restrict it to Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish residents.

So, you now have two options if you want to take part.

1.  Find a friend who lives in Denmark, Norway, Sweden or Finland who will let you use their address

or

2.  Use this rather cheeky method which I outlined in my original post:

1.  Create a false Danish street address in your Flying Blue profile

2.  Let them match you – the card will be mailed to your fake Danish address, but will take months to be ‘returned to sender’

3.  Change your address to your UK address, and request a replacement card from them (not sure if this can be done online, but most airlines let you do it via their website)

It remains to be seen what will happen to people who applied before they changed the rules and the closing date.


How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (April 2024)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card.  However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Comments (12)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Keith says:

    I have a few Platinum family member Accor accounts with 2k points in each, from the Discovery Tour promo last year. I can’t transfer points out, I believe, until an account has 1 stay, or hit 4k points.
    I was planning on sitting on them until either another promo came along, or I could credit some stays to the accounts. Any ideas now how to do either of these faster given the end date of the Iberia bonus?

  • gagravarr says:

    The Iberia rate is dropping, but I think it’ll still be higher than the BA / Avios one. The Accor rep said “The conversion rate has indeed changed: from the 1st March 2013, 3000 Le Club by Accorhotels points = 3000 Avios.” BA and Avios avios are two LeClub to one avios, so half what it’ll be

    • Raffles says:

      I am waiting until I see this online before mentioning it. Hard to believe IB has agreed a new long term deal at a different rate to BA!

  • TravelBloggerBuzz says:

    Good comprehensive post on these recent deals, I am sure my readers will appreciate mentioning it. Thanks!

  • Jason Thorpe says:

    The Flying Blue promotion has been closed. Pity as I just changed my address to a Scandinavian one after my application (UK address) looks like it has been ignored. I have e-mailed FB but will not hold my breath…

  • Ben E says:

    Damn! Still waiting for my Etihad Gold card to come through as I was going to try to match that (there didn’t seem to be any mention that the matched airline had to be in an alliance).

    Any other matches on the go? I’ve read that nobody’s had success so far in 2013 with Turkish…

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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