16 Best Ways to Earn Lots of Flying Blue Miles (Air France / KLM Airlines)

BY 

Andrew Kunesh

- UPDATED: April 26, 2021   |    7

1. Travel  / 
2. Airlines

7

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Flying Blue is the loyalty program of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (the national airline of the Netherlands) and Air France. KLM and Air France merged to form Air France-KLM Group back in 2004, and — shortly after this — combined their loyalty programs. Nowadays, Flying Blue is still shared by the 2 airlines and other airline partners like Kenya Airways and TAROM.

Plus, both KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Air France are a part of the SkyTeam alliance. With this in mind, you can use Flying Blue miles to book flights on over 20 different partner airlines, including Alitalia, Delta Air Lines, and Czech Airlines.

This makes Flying Blue miles extremely valuable — especially if you’re flying to Europe. If your sights are set beyond Europe, we have a whole article on how you can redeem Flying Blue miles for maximum value to spark your inspiration.

Before you can redeem miles, you need to earn them first. In this article, we’ll take a look at the many ways you can earn Flying Blue miles.

First, we’ll discuss how to earn by flying with Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and their various partners. Then, we’ll look at other earning methods like credit cards, hotel stays, and more.

The Flying Blue Frequent Flyer Program

First things first: you need to create a Flying Blue account before you can start earning Flying Blue miles. Note that once you have an account, you can use the same credentials to sign in on both Air France and KLM’s websites, and your mileage balance will carry over to both airlines.

You can join Flying Blue by simply creating an account on the Flying Blue website. Once created, you can view your mileage balance, manage your profile, and book flights. You’ll also be assigned a Flying Blue number that you can use to earn miles on flights operated by Air France, KLM, and their SkyTeam partners.

1. Fly With Flying Blue Partner Airlines

On April 1, 2018, Flying Blue switched to revenue-based earning for flights operated by Air France and KLM. This means that the number of miles you’ll earn on a paid ticket depends on how much you paid for the ticket, not how long the flight was.

Currently, you earn miles based on ticket price (excluding taxes) and elite status level. Here’s how many miles each status tier earns:

• Explorers (general members, previously known as Ivory): 4 miles per euro
• Silver: 6 miles per euro
• Gold: 7 miles per euro
• Platinum: 8 miles per euro

So, if you booked a €750 trip from New York (JFK) to Amsterdam (AMS) and back, you’d earn 3,000 miles without any sort of Flying Blue status. Alternatively, Platinum members would earn a whopping 6,000 miles for the same ticket.

However, not all flights credited to Flying Blue earn miles based on how much you spend. Crediting partner flights to Flying Blue will earn points based on their respective fare class and distance flown — you can view rates for each partner and their respective fare classes here.

For example, if you flew from Prague (PRG) to Košice (KSC) on Czech Airlines in I class, you’d earn 125% miles flown. The cities are 328 miles apart, meaning that you’d earn a total of 410 Flying Blue miles on this route.

Since Flying Blue is a SkyTeam member, you can earn miles with their 20+ alliance partners like as Delta Air Lines and Korean Air. Flying Blue also has a handful of non-alliance partner airlines like Japan Airlines (JAL), Air Corsica, and others.

Hot Tip: For more information on crediting miles to Flying Blue, check out this in-depth guide on where to credit your airline miles.

Earn Points With Flexible Credit Cards

You can transfer points to Flying Blue from nearly all transferable points programs, including American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy.

Here’s a quick overview of how to earn points with each program and transfer them to Flying Blue.

2. American Express Membership Rewards Credit Cards

American Express Membership Rewards is one of the best ways to earn Flying Blue points. The bank issues a suite of Membership Rewards earning cards, each with different benefits, welcome bonuses, and earning rates on specific categories. For example, some American Express cards earn bonus points on dining and groceries and others on airfare.

As discussed earlier, you can transfer Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue. Points transfer at a 1:1 transfer ratio and usually process instantly, so it’s a quick and easy way to book Flying Blue award tickets. Just note that you can only transfer in increments of 1,000 points.

Further, make sure the first and last names on your Membership Rewards and Flying Blue accounts match. If they don’t, your transfer may not process.

You can earn Membership Rewards points with these personal and business credit cards from Amex:

Recommended Amex Cards (Personal)

Recommended Amex Cards (Business)

4. Chase Ultimate Rewards Credit Cards

Likewise, Chase Ultimate Rewards is a Flying Blue member as well. You can transfer a minimum of 1,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points for 1,000 Flying Blue miles, and points also transfer instantaneously. Like American Express transfers, ensure that your name is spelled the same on your Chase account as on your Flying Blue account.

Here are some personal and business cards from Chase you can use to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points (and in turn, transfer to Flying Blue):

Recommended Chase Cards (Personal)

Recommended Chase Cards (Business)

5. Citi ThankYou Rewards Credit Cards

Just like with Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou points transfer in increments of 1,000 points for 1,000 Flying Blue Miles. There’s a maximum of 500,000 miles per transfer, and transfers can take up to 48 hours to complete. Some of our favorite Citi ThankYou-earning credit cards include the Citi Premier℠ Card and Citi Prestige® Card.

6. Capital One Miles

Capital One recently added Flying Blue as a transfer partner. Unfortunately, points transfer at a 2:1.5 ratio, so you’ll technically lose points on the transfer. Regardless, transferring to Flying Blue can be a good alternative to redeeming your Capital One points in the Capital One Travel Portal to cover cash tickets — especially if you want to fly in business class.

Hot Tip: Hop on over and check out this article: The Best Ways to Redeem Capital One Miles, For Max Value!

7. Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards

You can also earn Marriott points and transfer those to Flying Blue at a transfer rate of 3:1. Plus, for every 60,000 Marriott points that you transfer, you’ll receive an extra 5,000 Flying Blue miles bonus. Check out our favorite ways to earn Marriott points in our complete guide to earning Marriott points.

8. Sign up for the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard

Finally, you can earn Flying Blue miles with the Air France / KLM co-branded credit card from Bank of America. This card — dubbed the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard — earns 3 points per dollar on SkyTeam partner purchases and 1.5 miles per dollar on all other purchases.

The card has a variety of other benefits and a varying welcome bonus, too. Check out Bank of America’s credit card page for more info.

Earn Points With Flying Blue Travel Partners

No credit card points? No worries — you can also earn Flying Blue miles when booking hotels and rental cars. Here’s how many points you can earn.

9. Partner Hotel Miles

Whether earning miles per stay or per dollar spent, staying at partner hotels can mean lots more miles in your Flying Blue account! Click on a hotel to learn more about what they offer for Flying Blue members.

10. Transfer Hotel Loyalty Points

While it’s easy to earn miles for staying at partner hotels, that’s not the only way to get them. The following hotel groups allow you to transfer points earned in their loyalty programs to Flying Blue Miles:

*2,000 Accor All points = 1,000 miles, minimum 2,000 points to convert to airline miles
**Must transfer a minimum of 20,000 Honors Points; can then increase in increments of 10,000 points.
***Transfer 60,000 Marriott points (20,000 miles) to receive a 5,000-mile bonus
****Must transfer a minimum of 5,000 World of Hyatt points per conversion; get 5,000 bonus miles when you convert 50,000 World of Hyatt points

11. Visit PointsHound to Book a Room

Book a room at one of more than 150,000 hotels through PointsHound and earn Flying Blue miles at the same time. You can earn up to 10,000 miles per stay, with more expensive hotel stays generally earning the most miles.

12. Earn Miles With Car Rental Partners

Rent a car to earn up to 1,000 miles per rental with Flying Blue. Find out how many miles you can earn below, or click on a rental agency for more information about terms and conditions:

Other Ways to Earn Flying Blue Miles

Beyond just travel, you can also earn Flying Blue miles when you make everyday purchases through one of Flying Blue’s various retail and everyday partners. Here’s a look at where you can earn points.

13. FlyingBlue Shop for Miles

Fashion, department stores, gifts, office, and business… no matter what you like to shop for online, you’re bound to find it at the Flying Blue Shop for Miles shopping portal.

You’ll be directed to your favorite retailers through links on the site, so enable cookies on your browser before getting started. Then, take a look around Shop for Miles and find the merchant you’d like to make a purchase from, click on its name, and you’ll be directed to make your purchase as usual.

Flying Blue will confirm your purchase and mark it approved before applying miles to your account. With this in mind, it can take up to 120 days for your bonus miles to be deposited into your Flying Blue account.

14. Opinion Rewards Club

Another quick (and free!) way to earn extra Flying Blue miles is with Opinion Rewards Club. Sign up for an account and you can earn Flying Blue miles for filling out surveys and sharing your opinion. These surveys are offered pretty frequently, so you can rack up small amounts of miles quickly.

Plus, you’ll earn 300 miles for signing up and completing your first survey. After that, you’ll get 10 miles automatically added to your account for each survey you complete.

The program is open to a variety of countries including the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and the Netherlands.

15. Enroll in e-Rewards

Further, you can sign up for e-Rewards to earn even more miles from answering surveys. Sign up for an account and you’ll earn Opinion Points for each survey you complete. These points can then be transferred to Flying Blue miles at the following rates:

16. Purchase Miles From Points.com (With Caution)

Finally, you can purchase Flying Blue miles from its partner, Points.com. However, we only recommend doing this when you need to quickly top-up your points balance for a specific award ticket.

Flying Blue frequently offers points bonuses on purchases, so try and buy during these sales if you need to buy miles. You’ll come out ahead if you manage to buy points at a lower cost than their redemption value.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to earn Flying Blue miles relatively quickly. We recommend starting with credit cards and using Flying Blue’s large number of partners when planning future travel to earn even more miles.

Once your account is stocked with miles, check out our guide to the best Flying Blue redemptions. We’ll show you how to book everything from low-cost tickets in economy class to luxurious business class tickets — all for free.

Bon voyage!

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