TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Traveling For Miles has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Traveling For Miles and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
Flying Blue (the loyalty program for Air France/KLM) has been running its best-ever mileage sale for the past twenty days, but the impressive 120% bonus that’s currently on offer will be withdrawn tonight. If you need Flying Blue miles, now is the time to load up.
It should be noted that Flying Blue miles can also be generated by transfers from all three big US credit card programs (Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards, and Citi’s ThankYou program) but when you see the fantastic price at which you can buy miles in this sale, a transfer may not appear tempting.
Key info
- Sale runs through 23:59 CET+1 on 30 June 2022
- A maximum bonus of 120% is on offer
- Elite members can receive a maximum bonus of 360,000 miles
- Non-elites can receive a maximum bonus of 100,000 miles
Full terms and conditions can be found on the sale page.
Click To Buy Flying Blue Miles
The sale
It’s unclear if this promotion is targeted so if it is, you may see a slightly different version to the sale that my account is showing. This is what I’ve been offered.
- Buy 2,000 miles and get no bonus
- Buy 4,000 – 10,000 miles and get a 50% bonus
- Buy 12,000 – 22,000 miles and get a 70% bonus
- Buy 24,000 – 38,000 miles and get a 100% bonus
- Buy 40,000+ miles and get a 120% bonus
Link to sale page.
The numbers
Apart from the huge bonus that’s on offer, there’s one other great aspect of this sale – you can buy miles at the same great cost/mile regardless of whether you’re buying 40,000 miles (the smallest amount that triggers the 120% bonus) or if you’re buying 100,000 miles (the highest amount non-elites can buy).
The actual amount that you’ll have to pay for Flying Blue Miles will differ according to where your account is based and some countries/regions do better than others.
A member (non-elite) with a Flying Blue account registered in the US can buy up to 220,000 miles (including the bonus) for a total cost of $3,050.
That’s the same as paying ~ 1.39 cents/mile.
A member (non-elite) with a Flying Blue account registered in the United Kingdom can buy up to 220,000 miles (including the bonus) for a total cost of £2,230.
That’s the same as paying ~ 1.01 pence/mile (~1.23 cents/mile)
I haven’t got access to a Euro-based Flying Blue account but from what I’ve seen mentioned elsewhere, European-based members can do better than anyone else (check what price you have been offered here).
Is this a good deal?
As always, no one should be buying miles without a plan for how they’re going to be used in the short- to medium-term but if you can find awards that work for you, you’re unlikely to be able to buy Flying Blue miles any cheaper than this in the near future.
It’s also worth pointing out two further things:
- This is the best sale that we’ve ever seen Flying Blue offer. Pre-pandemic, the best bonus that Flying Blue offered was 75% and in the past 18 months we’ve seen bonuses of up to 100% on offer, but a bonus of over 100% has never been seen before
- Quite a few people value some of the transferable currencies that can be converted to Flying Blue Miles (e.g. Amex Membership Rewards Points) at more than what Flying Blue Miles are being sold for in this sale so, if you’re one of those people and you were considering a points transfer to Flying Blue, it may be a good idea to think again.
Flying Blue employs dynamic award pricing (which can work in a traveler’s favor when cash prices are low) but it loves to add surcharges to its awards so these have to be taken into account when weighing up the merits of a mileage purchase.
Ordinarily, Flying Blue Promo awards offer the best opportunity to extract maximum value out of any Flying Blue miles purchased in a sale like this one but as of late, Promo awards haven’t offered us much to get excited about.
Personally speaking, I think that 1.39 cents/mile represents an excellent level at which to buy Flying Blue miles (and that makes the deals availabe to UK/EU members nothing short of fantastic) but, again, I cannot stress enough how this will only ever be a great deal if you can be sure of using the miles sooner rather than later.
If you’re looking to book travel now (for any point in the current booking period) and can see that awards are available to book for cabins and dates that suit you, do the math (don’t forget to include any surcharges). If the math works in your favor, buy as many miles as you need because they’re unlikely to get any cheaper any time soon.
Click To Buy Flying Blue Miles
Use the right credit card
Flying Blue mileage sales are processed by Points.com so that eliminates the scope to earn a travel/flight/airline bonus by using a credit card that offers bonus points for shopping in one of those categories (e.g. card_name).
With that option closed off, this makes this sale a good opportunity to use a credit card on which you’re working towards a strong welcome bonus (like this one).
If you’re not working towards a card’s welcome bonus, the Citi® Double Cash Card which offers 2% cash back on all purchases would be one of the better options to use.
Bottom line
Do your due diligence and you shouldn’t go wrong in this sale.
- Check that awards are actually available on the route you’d like to fly and on dates you can fly.
- Check how many miles you need
- Check what taxes and surcharges Flying Blue will impose on the award booking
- Work out the actual full cost of buying miles and booking the award.
Only if the deal still looks good after all of the above should you buy Flying Blue Miles in this sale…otherwise just move on.
Lastly, don’t forget to check what entry restrictions are in place for whatever destination you’d like to visit. While a lot of the world has finally opened up to travelers, some destinations still require you to be able to show proof of vaccination and/or a negative Covid test taken before departure, so don’t go booking any trips before you’ve done your research.
