Amex Air France/KLM bonus terms and conditions

[ollessendro]

Hi everyone.

I am a fringe HfP member and have been reading emails and commentary for years, but not got involved in discussions. I am far from expert but have been collecting avios for many years. I live in France but work for a UK company and travel regularly.

I have a question regarding the Amex (gold) Air France/KLM card and specifically the sign up bonus. I took the card out about 15 months ago and received the sign up bonus, and have amassed around 50,000 air miles during this time. I referred my wife and she also has the card. My first year was free and now I am paying 15 euros per month. However, my wife is not paying. It has almost certainly been worth having the card this first year, but now I am paying 15 euros a month I am not sure. My average spend on the card is around 1,500 euros and hence I am now getting around 150 air miles per month. This is definitely not worth the 15 euros, though there are some other offers that (cashback, points bonus etc) to put into the mix. I am thinking of cancelling the card and becoming a supplementary card holder on my wife’s card. That way we would avoid the 15 euro fee and still get a similar amount of miles.

My main question is around the referral and sign up bonus. Does anyone know how this works? Is it like the Amex UK cards where you have to wait for 2 years and then you can apply again and get the bonus? I have looked at the terms and conditions of the ‘parraignage’ and it says: ‘Offre réservée aux personnes devenant titulaires d’une Carte AIR FRANCE KLM – AMERICAN EXPRESS pour la 1ère fois’. For those who do not speak or read French it translates to ‘Offer reserved for people who become AIR FRANCE KLM – AMERICAN EXPRESS Cardholders for the first time’. This seems quite clear but I wondered if they had a legal definition for first time. Is it just that people can only ever benefit from this once? Or can people do like what many of you are doing in the UK and cancel Amex cards, wait 2 years and then apply again and reap the rewards?

Apologies if there is anything on this anywhere else. I had a scan and used the search but could not find anything. Any comments on any of the above welcome and particularly feedback on the cancellation and referral and sign up bonus issue raised.

Thanks,
Oliver.

[Jan M]

I have no experience with French (?) Amex cards but terms – you only get it once – seem clear enough: https://www.flyingblue.fr/en/financial/details/american-express-france-detailed-gold#:~:text=The%20AIR%20FRANCE%20KLM%20–%20AMERICAN%20EXPRESS%20GOLD%20Card%20is%20free,amount%20without%20any%20additional%20costs..

This site sometimes covers Irish cards and their terms are worse than UK ones, while US ones are famously more generous. So I don’t think the British two year applies here.

The 30 free XP look interesting to me, making it much easier to keep FB status. You would pay more than 180 euro to earn those. But otherwise the card is hard to justify.

I can’t find any mention of a pro rata refund as we get in the UK, so that’s worth checking.

[ollessendro]

Thanks Jan. The XP are not really any use to me as I don’t really fly Air France. I took the card as the first year was free and the bonus generous. I thought it would make sense to get some air miles with them and keep for a rainy day. Previously there was a way of earning avios (with a company called Sofinco) but they wrapped up activity. And otherwise there are very few opportunities to earn any kinds of points in France. It is one of the downsides of their extremely conservative bank sector. The probably explains the issue here, I.e. less generous in stricter financial systems and more generous in countries with a more liberal banking sector.

I’ve just applied for the pre-paid BA mastercard and will look into this as an option. I work in the UK regularly so this will be a way of earning avios. I may use it in France as saw there was an option of spending overseas. I’ll need to do the maths.

The Air France card is not looking like a good ‘investment’ so I will think about stopping it. They take 15 euros each month so presume it would be pro-rata, but again I’ll need to check. And would I need to do anything with the air miles to avoid losing them? For example moving somewhere else. I might be getting confused with membership points or other schemes but again I’ll have to check I do not lose all air miles I have gained if I cancel the card.

[Jan M]

You wouldn’t lose the flying blue miles (they are not Amex points) but they will expire if you don’t spend them or earn more through some other route within two years. I don’t value FB particularly highly, to be honest, but the Promo Deals can be good value.

[ollessendro]

After all that, I called today to cancel my card and Amex gave me another year for free! I am really pleased with that, as even if not gaining lots of points and FB not a great scheme, it is not costing me anything.

The guy on the phone implied they would do the same next year if I called. Might be of interest to others. Perhaps it is a common thing amongst HfP readers to do this sort of thing, but thought I would share.