Air France: 7 ways to make the most of your Flying Blue Miles

Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue frequent flyer program offers travelers worldwide the opportunity to maximize their travel experience by using Miles. Whether you want to book award tickets for travel in premium cabins, opt for upgrades, stay in hotels, or make purchases in the Flying Blue boutique, Flying Blue Miles are a versatile and useful, but sometimes complex, currency. To help you make sense of it all, the editorial team has put together seven ways to make themost of your Flying Blue Miles to ensure you have a top-class trip with Air France.

Before diving into the best ways to use your Flying Blue Miles with Air France, make sure you have enough Miles in your pocket.

If your balance is at zero, we invite you to start your search by reading our article on the best ways to earn Flying Blue Miles, or by taking out an Air France KLM American Express card. Unlike American Express cards, which earn Membership Rewards points, Air France KLM American Express Silver, Gold and Platinum cards earn Flying Blue Miles.

The best way to use Flying Blue miles is by booking tickets withAir France and Transavia, or any other airline member of theSkyteam alliance:

You’ll get the most value from your Flying Blue miles this way, especially when traveling in the premium travel cabins: Premium Economy, Business and La Première.

Unlike other airline programs, Flying Blue has no fixed fare structure. Prices are therefore subject to change depending on dates, seasons and destinations. It’s important to note, however, that the more high-end cabins you travel in, the higher the airport taxes and additional fees you’ll have to pay in cash. These surcharges are unfortunately unavoidable.

For a one-way ticket between Paris and Montreal in the Economy cabin, fares range from around 20,000 Miles to 113 euros.

For the same one-way trip between Paris and Montreal, but in Premium Economy, fares vary between 35,000 Miles and 175 euros.

Business cabin flights are sometimes available at fares similar to those in the Premium Economy cabin. For the same dates, we found a one-way ticket between Paris and Montreal in Business cabin for 37,000 Miles and 307 euros.

It’s important to note, however, that the number of seats for such fares in the Business cabin is often limited; when the limit is reached, the same seat can be found for 135,000 Miles.

However, the most cost-effective strategy for optimizing the use of your Miles when flying is to explore the opportunities offered by Flying Blue Promo Reward tickets. These tickets, offered in limited numbers at the beginning of each month, enable you to make substantial savings, ranging from 25% to 50% on the number of Miles normally required to purchase a reward ticket.

For a one-way ticket between Nice and Montreal in the Economy cabin, for example, fares for a Promo Reward ticket, when available, can be as low as 7,500 Flying Blue Miles and 150 euros.

Flying Blue Promo Reward tickets are particularly advantageous for long-haul flights. European destinations often come with slightly less favorable conditions, such as the relatively high cost of airport taxes and additional fees.

Upgrades can only be booked by telephone with Flying Blue Customer Service until check-in opens. After check-in opens, upgrades are available online, at the airport and on board. Advance upgrades are payable in miles, cash or a combination of both.

To find out the number of Miles required for an upgrade, simply consult your online booking on the Air France website and click on the “Upgrade with Miles” option. Although the Flying Blue program has not published a scale for estimating the precise value of Miles when upgrading, the average value is between 0.4 and 0.9 cents, depending on the flights and offers available at the time of booking.

The La Première cabin is Air France‘s most exclusive cabin. To qualify for an upgrade, you must not only have the required number of Miles, but also be a Platinum member of theAir France frequent flyer program.

There are two ways to use your Flying Blue Miles earned with Air France to stay in a hotel. The first is to book one of Flying Blue’s 400,000 partner establishments on the Hotels for Miles platform. This highly intuitive tool lets you filter institutions by price, category, rating, hotel chain and neighborhood.

For a night in a 3-star hotel, prices vary around 10,000 Flying Blue Miles, while for a night in a 5-star hotel, prices can reach 90,000 Flying Blue Miles.

The second option is to transfer Flying Blue Miles to Membership Rewards points in the American Express loyalty program. American Express cardholders – whether it is the Green American Express, Gold American Express or Platinum American Express card- can earn Membership Rewards points and use them to pay for stays at participating Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors and Radisson Rewards hotels. 4 Flying Blue Miles equal 5 Membership Rewards points.

For example, to stay at a Hilton hotel in Barcelona, you’ll need between 21,000 Hilton Honors points (21,000 Membership Rewards points) and 64,000 Hilton Honors points (64,000 Membership Rewards points), depending on the hotel category.

To select different destinations, please visit the Hilton Honors website.

Also in Barcelona, Marriott offers a wider range of hotels, but at a higher price. For example, you could stay one night at the 4-star AC Hotel Barcelona Forum for 24,000 Marriott Bonvoy points (24,000 Membership Rewards points), or at Le Méridien Barcelona for 52,000 Marriott Bonvoy points (51,000 Membership Rewards points).

For an even more luxurious stay, you could stay at the W Barcelona or the Hotel Arts Barcelona, two of the Catalan capital’s most luxurious 5-star hotels, for 122,500 Marriott Bonvoy points (122,500 Membership Rewards points).

To select different destinations, please visit the Marriott Bonvoy website.

A one-night stay at a Radisson hotel can be offered at 9,000 Radisson Rewards points for a standard room and up to 105,000 points for a premium room. Here too, the number of Radisson Rewards points required to obtain a free night depends on the hotel category and room type.

You can make purchases in the Flying Blue Store using Miles or Cash + Miles. It offers a wide range of everyday items, from household appliances and home and garden accessories to health and beauty products.

Flying Blue partners include :

Air France also has an online store, from which you can purchase accessories bearing the airline’s logo.

If you don’t fancy the idea of making the most of your Flying Blue Miles for a better in-flight experience with Air France, you can always decide to make a donation to charity.

Here is a list of associations to which you can donate Miles:

What should you remember? The best way to use your Flying Blue Miles is to purchase a reward ticket or a Flying Blue Promo reward ticket with Air France. That’s how you maximize the value of your Miles, even if you have to pay airport taxes. See you in the Business cabin!