Buying Flying Blue Miles via a subscription (how it works)

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a number of airline loyalty programs introduce subscription services which allow their members to purchase miles/points at a discount on a monthly basis.

Air France/KLM Flying Blue is one of the programs with a subscription service and it’s called “Subscribe to Miles“.

Here’s everything you need to know about Flying Blue Subscribe to Miles.

The options

Flying Blue members interesting in topping up their accounts on a monthly basis can choose from four different plans where each plan offers a different number of miles and a different cost per mile (pricing will vary depending on the country in which a member’s Flying Blue account is registered).

Here’s what the plans look like if your account is registered in the United States:

And here’s the cost per mile for each plan:

• 2,000 miles/month – 1.71 cents/mile
• 5,000 miles/month – 1.58 cents/mile
• 10,000 miles/month – 1.46 cents/mile
• 17,000 miles/month – 1.34 cents/mile

If your account is based in the UK, this is what your options look like:

And here’s the cost per mile for each plan:

• 2,000 miles/month – 1.25 pence/mile
• 5,000 miles/month – 1.16 pence/mile
• 10,000 miles/month – 1.07 pence/mile
• 17,000 miles/month – 0.98 pence/mile

If your account is based registered to a country in continental Europe, you’re likely to see prices quoted in Euro and based on what I’ve seen elsewhere, these are the Euro prices (I don’t have access to a Flying Blue account registered in Europe so can’t be 100% sure):

• 2,000 miles/month – 1.40 cents/mile
• 5,000 miles/month – 1.30 cents/mile
• 10,000 miles/month – 1.20 cents/mile
• 17,000 miles/month – 1.10 cents/mile

At the time of writing, the exchange rate means that Flying Blue members in the UK and Europe get a slightly better deal than their counterparts in the US.

How it works

Flying Blue Subscribe to Miles is very straightforward.

• Access the subscription page
• Log in to your account
• Select your preferred subscription package
• Confirm your order summary and read the full terms and conditions
• Agree to all the terms and conditions
• Continue to payment
• Choose payment method (credit card or Google Pay)
• Pay

That’s it.

Key terms

• Miles will be credited to your account within 72 hours
• Payment and crediting of the Miles will recur on a monthly basis for as long as you are subscribed
• Price includes all applicable fees
• GST/HST/QST is charged to Canadian residents
• Please note that once purchased your plan cannot be paused, upgraded, or downgraded and Miles cannot be refunded.
• Members have the right to withdraw their purchase in its entirety and not in part within 14 working days of the date of purchase without penalty and for any reason. After this period, the acquired Flying Blue Miles are non-refundable
• Flying Blue Miles do not count towards qualification for any increased or improved status in the Air France-KLM Flying Blue Programme
• All Members are eligible to purchase the following packages: Starter, Smart, Advanced, Complete
• All subscriptions are subject to a 14-day cooling-off period from the date of initial subscription purchase, during which members can withdraw and receive a full refund, provided no deposited Miles have been used
• Monthly plans require and will be charged for a 3-month minimum commitment.
• To cancel your subscription plan after the 3-month minimum commitment, visit the subscription overview page and select “cancel subscription”

Make sure you read the full terms and conditions on the subscription page before you commit to a subscription.

Is Flying Blue Subscribe to Miles good value?

It can be, but just as with a normal “buy miles and get a bonus/discount” sale, you need to be sure that you have a plan in place for the miles that you’ll be buying.

You also need to be aware that after the 14-day cooling off period is over, there’s a 3-month minimum commitment, so you can’t use the subscription service for a one-off top-up of your account – whichever plan you choose, you’re going to be making at least 3 monthly payments.

Value-wise, buying miles this way can appear to be a good way to accrue miles “cheaply”.

The best prices we’ve seen Flying Blue offer in its standard sales over the the past 12 months have been 1.68 cents/mile for accounts based in the United States and 1.23 pence/mile for accounts based in the UK, so based on this alone, the top 3 subscription options look tempting.

But you need to be careful.

12 months is a long time in world of miles and points and there’s no knowing what changes (if any) Flying Blue is planning to introduce in the coming months.

A price per mile that looks good today may not look quite so good a few months down the line if Flying Blue suddenly increases the cost of its awards or if it increases the surcharges that it attaches to its awards.

The best (safest) way to approach this kind of subscription service is to view it as a short-term way of topping up an account cheaply and not to look at it as a longer term savings account.

If you view the top three subscription options as a way of adding 15,000, 30,000, or 51,000 miles to your account over a period of three months rather than a path to 60,000, 120,000 or 204,000 miles over a period of 12 months, you’ll significantly reduce the risk you’re exposing yourself to, so that’s where I think the value lies.

Put simply, I don’t recommend using the subscription service to slowly accumulate all the miles you need for a major trip, but I can see this service being a reasonable way of topping up an account that only needs between 15,000 and 51,000 miles for the next great redemption.

Bottom line

Flying Blue operates a mileage subscription service which allows its members to buy 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, or 17,000 miles per month at competitive prices.

Due to the ever-changing nature of the miles and points world, committing to a long-term subscription is probably not a path anyone who’s risk averse should be taking, but signing up for a subscription with a plan to only keep it active for three or four months could be an economical way to top up and account an lock in that next great redemption.