Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Book a good KLM business class flight sale deal from the UK

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KLM is running a new business class sale for departures from the UK.

It is especially good for readers outside of London since these sale prices are valid for departures from 16 UK airports, via Amsterdam or (on Air France) via Paris.

You won’t earn Avios or tier points on these flights, as KLM and Air France are part of the SkyTeam alliance.  However, you WILL earn Virgin Atlantic miles and tier points as long as the airlines are integrated into Virgin Flying Club by the time you fly.  This is expected to happen in the next couple of weeks.

Fares start from £1,266.  The sale page very helpfully allows you to sort the fares by UK departure airport, which gives a great overview of all the destinations available.

These are return prices from Heathrow although you can also fly from Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Humberside, Inverness, Leeds, London City, Newcastle and Norwich.  You can book these sale deals on the KLM site here – the site shows both Air France and KLM pricing if both airlines serve the same city.

Here is a sample of fares from Heathrow – there are many others:

Middle East:

  • Abu Dhabi – £1,266
  • Dubai – £1,356
  • Kuwait – £1,517

Asia:

  • Bangalore – £1,646
  • Mumbai – £1,657
  • Tokyo – £1,896
  • Xiamen – £1,596
  • Seoul – £1,537
  • Chengdu – £1,586
  • Beijing – £1,586

South and Central America:

  • Bogota – £1,426
  • Havana – £1,726
  • Quito – £1,387
  • Fortaleza – £1,535

The fares seem widely available.  For example, if you look at Abu Dhabi it shows £1,200-ish fares available most of the time (although not on every day in every month).

We have never reviewed the KLM business class product, although I did get a tour of a KLM Boeing 787 when I went behind the scenes at Schiphol in 2018.  This has an attractive 1-2-1 seat layout.  The Boeing 777 and A330 fleet are still 2-2-2 I think.

I reviewed the impressive Air France Boeing 777-300ER business class product recently – see here.  Some Air France aircraft still have sloping seats in Business Class, including their A380 fleet, so research the aircraft type you are getting.

Your best option to maximise your miles when paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold.  This offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.

You can get more information, and book, here.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

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 American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it, not just with Air France and KLM but with any airline.

Category

Air France KLM and Flying Blue

Comments (137)

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

  • Gringo says:
    20 Jan20 January 05:18

    OT – thanks to whoever left the tip about getting around Addison Lee’s restriction on using JAN10 to the airport by putting in any location within the airport to get to LHR 🙂

    • n_g says:
      20 Jan20 January 08:34

      Didn’t realise there was a restriction on airport trips? Is there also one on collections from Heathrow?

      • Pete says:
        20 Jan20 January 08:39

        “This Promotion does not apply to bookings made to or from an airport. ”

        T5 try Walrus Road as drop off or pickup.

    • ali says:
      20 Jan20 January 11:07

      Surely even with JAN10 most airport journeys will still be pricier than Uber and the like

  • Shoestring says:
    20 Jan20 January 05:51

    BA Amex cards – targeted – 3000 Avios points on £300 spend at BA. Save to Card to receive 3,000 Avios Points on a transaction of £300+ online at British Airways UK by 16 February 2020. Valid once per Card for the first 50,000 Cardmembers to save. Terms and payment restrictions apply

    • Andrew says:
      20 Jan20 January 06:09

      Thanks. On my BAPP, too.

    • CraigyC says:
      20 Jan20 January 06:26

      Thank you!

    • Cat says:
      20 Jan20 January 06:40

      Brilliant, thanks Harry!

    • MattB says:
      20 Jan20 January 06:53

      Thanks perfect timing for us with our remaining holiday balance due within the next few weeks. That’s an extra 10k avios on top between us thanks to to these offers over the past few months.

      • Anna says:
        20 Jan20 January 07:58

        +1!

      • WaynedP says:
        20 Jan20 January 16:15

        I have also been targeted, eventually.
        T&Cs states “Offer only available when you spend £300 or more at http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/home/ by 16 February 2020 with the BA Amex Card to which the offer is saved”
        Does paying off all (pr part) of an existing BA Holiday booking via “Manage my booking” count, or does it not have to be a new BA Holiday or flight purchase ? Existing booking deposit was paid with Starwood PG Amex..

    • BJ says:
      20 Jan20 January 06:55

      Thanks Harry, sill have a look. Last night I went to do the 100 thingies you mentioned. It seems you need to use a code for those?; is it ok to do so? I think the avios I would get have been cut since you posted Saturday so I might wait for a future iteration.

      • BJ says:
        20 Jan20 January 07:54

        Ok, thanks, I’ll give it a spin 🙂

      • Secret Squirrel says:
        20 Jan20 January 19:16

        You should see all the details in a banner ad on the home page, click the link.
        Set to turbo as you can do 50-100 at a time.
        I won £4.50 on this then another £20 on Roulette.

    • Andrew says:
      20 Jan20 January 08:50

      Excellent, just spotted it.

      Are payments for BA Flight Passes by OptionTown collected by BA or OptionTown?

      • Rob says:
        20 Jan20 January 08:57

        Someone posted that OptionTown charges the admin fee and BA charges the flights.

    • Graham Walsh says:
      20 Jan20 January 09:57

      Thanks, most likely book up a 241 flight this week. Will be a sweetner.

    • Waddle says:
      20 Jan20 January 10:12

      No trips planned. Any non-fight, non-hotel things I can buy from BA which code as BA.com payments?

    • Harry T says:
      20 Jan20 January 12:49

      @Shoestring – thanks, saved to my card.

      Does anyone know if this is cumulative spend or a single transaction?

      Sort of regretting not leaving a few hundred quid of my Mum’s BA holidays bill to be paid. I paid the balance when the extra Avios offer was running last month.

  • Liam says:
    20 Jan20 January 06:15

    OT — 15% off rides with Gett (black cab app) appearing on both my Platinum and Rewards cards. Valid until March 6. Not as generous as some of the discounts we’ve seen in the past for Gett and MyTaxi/FreeNow, alas.

  • Cat says:
    20 Jan20 January 07:19

    O/T for Polly – aiming to get there for half 6 tonight, but just in case I’m running late, I’ll post here to avoid shivering outside! Looking forward to seeing you later! X

  • Mr. AC says:
    20 Jan20 January 07:21

    OT – short trip report about an off the beaten path Marriott redemption in Armenia of all places for a family ski trip. Marriott Tsaghkadzor, Category 2 yet 5 stars according to them and hotel sites. Probably the best hotel in a 200 mile radius. Weird thing that there were no rooms for cash to be had when we decided to tag along (Jan is high season due to holidays in Russia) – yet 2 rooms were available on points, which we booked (5th free night ana all). Amazing value for redemption – the hotel is consistently cheaper on points than the cash rate any time in the year. Free (really, really good!) buffet breakfast, one of the biggest hotel pools I’ve ever seen + giant jacuzzi (probably fits 20 people yet empty most of time). Great facilities for kids.

    Cons are, obvious, it’s Armenia. Surroundings looks about as good as you’d expect from a country with GDP per capita 10x lower than UK. No direct flights. Very friendly people, however, and great cheap food.

    I’ll be at the party (blue sweater, glasses) if anyone wants to chat about this, the Moscow BA routes (cheapest First), and some interesting Curve opportunities for expats. If anyone has good tips on transferring money overseas in a points-efficient way, I’d love to hear those.

    • Oh! Matron! says:
      20 Jan20 January 07:58

      Was in Armenia last year for a walk in the mountains. Stunning place: amazing food, great walks, managed a swim in a different lake every day and being able to see Mt Ararat from virtually everywhere…. The National Museum is amazing too… Although learning about the Armenian genecide was a low point.

      I thoroughly recommend a trip to Yerevan, and if you need recommendations on walks, let me know.

      • Cat says:
        20 Jan20 January 08:15

        I’ll always take walk recommendations!

      • Graeme says:
        20 Jan20 January 13:13

        I arrived there on the day of the Velvet Revolution in 2018 – it was a nightmare trying to get into the city from the airport, but a brilliant few days once we were there.

    • John D says:
      20 Jan20 January 08:25

      Hi I would love to chat/ pick your brains about Moscow With BA as we will probably be visiting our son due to go back end of the year as part of his University course in Russian . Sadly being from “ up North” will not make it tonight. Would you mind DM to chat further ? John at Salvo’s.co.uk . TIA

      • Alex M says:
        20 Jan20 January 08:36

        If going to Mow my recommendation would be to use Aeroflot – they will be running A350 with business suite on Lon-Mow route soon. Even in economy SU is better than BA.

  • Ant says:
    20 Jan20 January 07:21

    Party tonight: looks like sadly we won’t be able to make it tonight due to a nasty cold. I have 2 tickets if anyone is interested. Contact me on acalleja76 at gmail.com

    • Zara says:
      20 Jan20 January 10:07

      I also have 2 tickets as we can’t attend as the kids are unwell. If anyone is interested pls let me know. Thanks

  • Michael_S says:
    20 Jan20 January 07:21

    OT: where is Qatar sale? Normally should we expect one from Qatar or other ME carriers around this time of the year?

  • Will says:
    20 Jan20 January 07:58

    O/T – I have accumulated 900 VS tier points as a result of flying back and forth to US since November. No more work trips planned in the foreseeable future but it would be great to get gold status (primarily for lounge access when flying PE). Anyone got any tips for easily/cheaply accumulating 100 TPs?

    • Alex W says:
      20 Jan20 January 09:06

      AF/KLM imminent – could be a game changer.

      • jc says:
        20 Jan20 January 10:09

        Looks like AF-KLMshort haul are all 5-10 TP, so whether it’s with AF-KLM or not it’ll probably have to be a long haul run. So not sure AF-KLM massively helps. Many options for getting 50 TP each way – just a case of finding a cheap date and location. And then make certain you’re in the right booking class for getting 50 TP each way.

        If main channels are selling a booking class lower than you need, use ITA matrix to find the price for a more suitable one, and then call to book.

    • DB2020 says:
      20 Jan20 January 11:18

      Will,

      Check SAS flights too. They can be credited to Virgin Flying Club and earn miles as well as tier points.

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

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