Flying Blue: How to earn Flying Blue XP easily (mileage run, sustainable fuel, credit cards, etc.)

There are 4 levels of Flying Blue status:

• Explorer
• Silver
• Gold
• Platinum

To move from one level to the next, you need to earn Flying Blue XP (short for Experience Points).

For example, as a new Flying Blue Explorer member, you’ll need to earn 100 XP to upgrade to Flying Blue Silver status during your qualification year (described below).

Once you’ve achieved this new status, you’ll need to earn 180 XP to upgrade from Flying Blue Silver to Flying Blue Gold during your qualifying year.

And once you’ve achieved Flying Blue Gold status, you’ll need to earn 300 XP to upgrade from Flying Blue Gold to Flying Blue Platinum status during your qualifying year.

To upgrade from Explorer to Platinum status, you’ll need to earn at least 580 XP (100 XP + 180 XP + 300 XP). However, once you’ve achieved this status, you’ll need to earn 300 XP in your qualification year to renew it.

In concrete terms, you have 12 months to earn enough XP to move up to the next level. At the end of the 12 months, your XP counter returns to zero.

So it’s not a calendar year, but a qualifying year since you switched to a new Flying Blue status.

For example, I was upgraded from Flying Blue Gold to Flying Blue Platinum in March 2023. This means that I have until March 31, 2024 to earn 300 XP in order to renew my Flying Blue Platinum status. My qualifying year runs from March 2023 to March 2024.

If, during your qualification year, you earn more Flying Blue XP than you need to upgrade or renew your current status, these Flying Blue XP will be carried over to the next qualification year.

This is called the Flying Blue XP Rollover. And the great advantage of Flying Blue over other airline loyalty programs offering this type of rollover is that XP rollovered can be carried over several years in a row. This can be useful if you’re a frequent flyer and travel very frequently one year and less frequently the next.

Another special feature of the Flying Blue program is that it offers a soft landing for your Flying Blue status: if you travel less in a year, you will only be downgraded one Flying Blue status level (Platinum to Gold, Gold to Silver). So you can’t be downgraded from Platinum to Explorer in just one year!

However, your Flying Blue XP balance will be reset to zero each time you downgrade your Flying Blue status.

If you stay Platinum for 10 years in a row, you become Platinum for life! Members enjoy all the Platinum benefits on every trip, without having to requalify for Platinum status every year.

As a Flying Blue member, you can earn XP points every time you travel on an eligible Air France, KLM, Aircalin, Kenya Airways, TAROM, Transavia, SkyTeam or airline partner flight.

As you’ve seen above, you earn XP on all eligible flights with Air France, KLM and SkyTeam partners. But earning Flying Blue XP also depends on your travel cabin and type of flight according to a grid:

You’ll note that unlike loyalty programs like Air Canada’s Aeroplan, the price paid for the ticket does not count towards XP. This can be interesting if you maximize your flights by booking a low-cost itinerary (or departing from an airport offering attractive fares).

Here are a few examples to help you understand how to earn Flying Blue XP.

If you are travelling between Frankfurt and New York via Paris in Economy:

• Frankfurt to Paris in Economy = 5 XP
• Paris to New York in Economy = 10 XP
• You’ll earn 15 XP

If you are travelling between Nice and Tokyo via Paris in Business:

• Nice to Paris in Business – Domestic flight = 6 XP
• Paris to Tokyo by Business – Long 3 = 36 XP
• You’ll earn 42 XP

As you can see, it’s better to take connecting flights rather than direct flights, since each of these flights will earn you XP. Likewise, it’s more interesting to leave the “domestic” territory (inside a country) to earn more XP with an international flight.

Similarly, traveling in Business rather than Economy will earn you 3 times more XP. In some cases, the price of Business class can be very attractive, making the XP gain particularly attractive.

For example, instead of taking a direct flight from Nice to London with Air France (5 XP), or a connecting flight in Paris (2 XP + 5 XP), it would be more interesting to connect in Amsterdam:

• Nice to Amsterdam in Economy = 5 XP
• Amsterdam to London Economy = 5 XP
• You’ll earn 10 XP (twice as much as a direct flight).

And by multiplying connecting flights, you can achieve XP runs (Mileage Run), which we’ll explain in greater detail below.

To find out how many Flying Blue XP you will earn on a flight, you can checkthe simulator available on the Flying Blue website.

You can earn more XP by strategically booking your next flights or by making an XP Run or XP Mileage Run.

You’ll have to travel to maximize the Flying Blue XP grid we saw earlier, in order to earn as much XP as possible.

There are two ways of looking at an XP Run:

• Either you optimize a trip you have to make by adding convenient connections (especially since, in most cases, a connecting flight will be cheaper than a direct flight).
• Either you’re traveling just to earn XP (not very environmentally friendly, of course, but you’ll see below that there are ways to make up for it).

In both cases, you’ll need to master the Google Flights search, filtering SkyTeam flights and finding the best connections for your XP gain (Flight Connections can help).

Multiplying connections is the key to earning more Flying Blue XP.

This is even truer for travel within Europe around the hubs of Air France at Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and KLM at Amsterdam-Schipol (AMS).

For example, an itinerary like this one between Milan and Krakow, via Amsterdam and Paris in business class would earn 90 XP Flying Blue:

It will be very rare to find good business class fares from North America or Europe. In some cases, Air France runs promotions to coincide with the opening of new routes (such as Quebec – Paris or Ottawa – Paris).

We could see flights between these destinations for around $2,000, which is 2 to 3 times cheaper than the usual business class fare across the Atlantic.

But to find interesting tickets, you need to look for markets that Air France KLM wants to conquer against other airlines (check Flyertalk’s Premium Fare Deals forum regularly for nuggets).

Low-cost business class tickets are regularly available from airports such as :

• Tunis (TUN)
• Budapest (BUD)
• Cairo (CAI)
• Dublin (DUB)
• Istanbul (STI)
• Barcelona (BCN)
• Valence (VLC)
• Stockholm (ARN)

Here’s an example from Tunis (TUN) to Montreal (YUL) via Paris (CDG) for just €1,270. This itinerary allows you to earn 90 Flying Blue XP in business class.

For a European person, it’s easy to get to Tunis with a company like Transavia for less than 60 euros. And Tunis is a great place to add a few days on the way there or back!

In the two examples above, you earn 90 Flying Blue XP:

• With the first route between Milan and Krakow, you spent €538, which works out at around €6 per XP.
• With the second itinerary between Tunis and Montreal, you spent €1,270, which works out at around €14 per XP.

Of course, in order to get the best possible value for your Flying Blue XP, you will need to add other costs such as:

• positioning flights (to and from Milan or Tunis)
• accommodation for longer stopovers
• food (unless you have access to the VIP lounges)

As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think you should spend more than €10 to get 1 Flying Blue XP. This corresponds to the cost of obtaining Flying Blue XP when purchasing sustainable fuel.

So any Mileage Run XP that earns 1 Flying Blue XP for less than €10 will be worthwhile in my eyes.

Knowing the acquisition value of 1XP Flying Blue allows you to define whether the time spent adding a connection is really worth it.

If you choose the Reforestation option, and are a French tax resident, you can obtain a tax reduction of 66% of the amount spent (up to a ceiling of 20% of your taxable income).

This means that, once the tax deduction has been applied, 1 XP point will have cost you €3.40. You’ll receive a tax receipt from A Tree for You, Air France’s partner in this reforestation initiative.

However, this tax deduction is not available for the purchase of SAF fuel.

By purchasing SAF fuel, you can earn around 1 XP for every 10 euros spent. Here’s an example of a flight from Nice to London via Amsterdam where I was able to get 22 XP for the purchase of SAF for €213.90:

This is an ingenious option for Flying Blue members. It encourages travelers to offset their emissions by investing in sustainable fuels or reforestation projects, and rewards them for achieving or renewing Flying Blue status.

Some might call it greenwashing. However, few airlines in the world offer this type of commitment to their customers and loyalty program members!

Flying Blue rewards its members with XPs for Miles donated to charities that support causes such as:

• quality education,
• preserving marine life,
• poverty reduction,
• and many others.

For every 2,000 Flying Blue Miles donated, members will receive 1 XP as a reward.

Given that we value 1 Flying Blue Mile at around €1.1 cent, this donation of 2,000 Flying Blue Miles to obtain 1 XP would cost around €22. I advise you to use this option only if you need a few XP at the end of the qualification year.

As an Air France KLM – American Express cardholder, you earn additional XP every year depending on your card type:

• Air France KLM – American Express Silver card = 15 additional XP per year
• Air France KLM – American Express Gold card = 30 additional XP per year
• Air France KLM – American Express Platinum card = 60 additional XP per year
• Air France KLM – American Express Silver Pro card = 15 additional XP per year
• Air France KLM – American Express Gold Pro card = 20 additional XP per year
• Air France KLM – American Express Platinum Pro card = 30 additional XP per year

As a holder of the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard^® (issued by Brim), you get an extra 30 XP every year.

As a holder of the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard^® (issued by Bank of America), you earn an additional 20 XP each year.

You can also earn Flying Blue XP by requesting or renewing your France-Europe-North Africa Discount Pass or your Antilles-French Guiana-Reunion Discount Pass. You’ll earn 20 XP.

If you apply for or renew your Combined Subscription Card, you can earn 40 XP.

And you can earn 2 extra XP for every flight you take in mainland France.

The Flying Blue program has a rather unique way of working, notably with the awarding of Flying Blue XP. If you’d like to find out more about the program, take a look at our detailed guide.