As members of the SkyTeam alliance, Air France and KLM have access to flights from other members, including Delta, ITA Airways, and Saudia. You can use your Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles to book flights with these partners – and since Flying Blue is such a generous loyalty program, it often makes sense to do so.
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Air France-KLM partner airlines
Air France-KLM has a number of SkyTeam partners, as well as some independent airlines, with which you can redeem your Flying Blue miles.
SkyTeam partners of Air France-KLM
- Aerolineas Argentinas
- Aeromexico
- Air Europa
- China Airlines
- China Eastern
- Delta Air Lines
- Garuda Indonesia
- ITA Airways
- Kenya Airways
- Korean Air
- Middle East Airlines
- SAS
- Saudia
- Tarom
- Vietnam Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
- Xiamen Air
Other Air France-KLM airline partners
- Air Corsica
- Air Mauritius
- airBaltic
- Aircalin
- Bangkok Airways
- Chalair Aviation
- China Southern Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- El Al
- Etihad Airways
- GOL
- Japan Airlines
- Malaysia Airlines
- Oman Air
- Qantas
- Transavia
- Twin Jet
- WestJet
- Winair
Other Air France-KLM travel partners
You can also earn and redeem your Flying Blue miles for hotels at Hotels for Miles. This isn’t a great use of your miles, but is certainly an option if you don’t like flying. Here’s an example of one-night stay in Paris, France, where you can use your miles for a hotel:
The website has many different choices, but the value you’ll get for your miles is low. This same hotel would cost you just 115 EUR were you to pay cash.
How many Flying Blue miles you need for a flight
On Air France and KLM
Air France and KLM don’t publish an award chart, making it difficult to determine where the lowest-priced flights can be found. However, you can usually find intra-Europe flights for under 6,000 miles.
For example, a one-way economy-class ticket from Paris to Prague can cost as little as 5,625 miles using Flying Blue’s monthly Promo Rewards.
On partner airlines
Because Flying Blue has no award chart, you’ll need to search for flights individually. There are some pretty good prices on Flying Blue award flights, especially when flying Delta One. Although Delta often charges you hundreds of thousands of Skymiles for business-class flights, Flying Blue offers much more reasonable rates.
Here’s an example of a one-way business class flight from Detroit to London on Delta’s website. Delta will charge you 375,000 Skymiles for this award:
Meanwhile, Flying Blue will charge just 74,000 miles:
How to earn Flying Blue miles
There are plenty of ways to earn Flying Blue miles:
- Transferring from partners: American Express, Chase, Citi, Capital One, Bilt, and Wells Fargo rewards all transfer to Flying Blue at a 1:1 ratio.
- Credit cards: Air France has co-branded credit cards that let you earn miles on every dollar spent.
- Flights: Flights with Air France, KLM, or any of their partners will earn you miles.
- Rental cars: Booking rental cars with eligible partners can earn you miles.
- Hotels: Hotels for Miles bookings earn up to 10,000 miles per night.
- Shopping: Eligible purchases through the Flying Blue shopping portal can also earn miles.
Benefits of Flying Blue status
Flying Blue has four levels of elite status: Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Ultimate. Each of these statuses comes with different benefits, including free checked luggage, priority boarding, priority check-in, lounge access, and more.
Even better, if you have Flying Blue status, some of those benefits transfer over to other SkyTeam partners. Here are some of the perks you can expect as a SkyTeam elite member:
- SkyTeam Elite: Priority reservation waitlist, priority check-in, priority boarding, and extra baggage allowance.
- SkyTeam Elite Plus: SkyTeam Elite benefits, plus guaranteed Y class reservation on flights booked at least 24 hours before departure, airport lounge access worldwide, priority baggage handling, and extra baggage allowance.
Your level of elite status with SkyTeam will depend on your Flying Blue elite status:
- SkyTeam Elite: Silver and Gold
- SkyTeam Elite Plus: Platinum and Ultimate
The best partners to redeem Flying Blue miles on
Flying Blue has some great deals on award flights, though most of them are for flights operated by Air France or KLM rather than partners.
Air France-KLM
One of the best and most affordable ways to cross the Atlantic in business class is by redeeming your Flying Blue miles for flights. Depending on when you’re going, you can pay just 50,000 miles one-way for a flight.
Plus, award availability tends to be pretty good, which means you’ll often find multiple seats on the same flights.
Delta
We already mentioned why Delta is such a good partner for Flying Blue, but it bears repeating: Delta will regularly charge hundreds of thousands of miles less for Delta One flights compared to booking with Flying Blue, which offers more reasonable rates.
Aeromexico
Another good partner for Flying Blue is Aeromexico. This is because Flying Blue considers Mexico to be in the same region as the United States – so you can end up paying just 15,000 miles one-way for an economy-class flight from Los Angeles to Mexico City.
How to redeem Flying Blue miles on partner airlines
Redeeming Flying Blue miles for flights is simple. You’ll need to have a Flying Blue account, which is free and easy to set up. Then, you’ll need to toggle over to the ‘book with miles’ search tab:
Otherwise, you can let a site such as point.me do the heavy lifting. Rather than needing to log in and search for award inventory to determine whether you’re redeeming your miles for their best value, point.me will let you know if there is award availability and the best ways to book.
Summary
Flying Blue miles are incredibly versatile and can be used to book flights all over the world. With partners such as Delta, Virgin Atlantic, and Aeromexico, your Flying Blue miles can be put to good use, no matter where you’re going.
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