Get a 100% bonus buying Flying Blue miles

Flying Blue, the Air France / KLM loyalty programme, is running a bonus promotion for anyone who is looking to top up their account.

This offer is the best we have seen for a while for anyone who wants to buy a large number of Flying Blue miles – 100% is as good as it gets. Pre-pandemic we normally saw bonuses no bigger than 40% to 50% but the airline seems to have got a taste for the money these offers can bring.

The bonus is staggered:

• 50% bonus when you buy 4,000 to 10,000 miles
• 70% bonus when you buy 12,000 to 22,000 miles
• 100% bonus when you buy 24,000 to 300,000 miles

Your personal cap depends on your status level – it is 100,000 miles for Explorer base members and 300,000 for elite members. 

100,000 miles, the annual cap for a non elite member, + 100% means you are paying £2,230 for 200,000 miles.  That is 1.2p per mile.

Is that a good deal? Well, Flying Blue is not exactly well regarded amongst European frequent flyer programmes. However it does have regular ‘50% discount’ sales on some routes. Remember that you can now access ‘base level’ KLM reward availability using Virgin Points, although you’d need Flying Blue miles to access the rest of the SkyTeam alliance outside of KLM, Air France and Delta.

At the end of the day, I don’t imagine anyone except an existing Flying Blue member topping up an account getting excited by this. The people who can really maximise this know who they are.

The Flying Blue ‘buy miles’ page is here.  The offer runs until 25th August.

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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:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

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.