Out of the major airline alliances, SkyTeam isn’t particularly known as the alliance with the most valuable redemptions. Flying Blue is the points currency that stands out with the most decent-value redemptions out there. There are regularly some good-value redemptions out there, and more importantly, the actual cabin products that you’re redeeming for are good.
This is a post detailing my personal favourite uses of Flying Blue miles. Flying Blue is a HeyMax transfer option, which means that you can earn Max Miles that convert to Flying Blue points at a 1:1 ratio.
How to earn Flying Blue miles
Flying Blue miles are fairly easy to come by. Firstly, you can earn Flying Blue miles by flying any SkyTeam airline, including Air France/KLM, Virgin Atlantic, Delta, China Airlines, China Eastern, or more. Non-SkyTeam partners include Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Oman Air, Qantas, WestJet, Bangkok Airways, and more.
- There are a plethora of ways to earn Flying Blue miles in the U.S., including transferring from Chase, Capital One, Citi ThankYou, Bilt Rewards, Rove Miles, and AmEx
- AmEx UK also converts to Flying Blue, though that’s the only option in the UK
- In Hong Kong/Singapore, you can earn Flying Blue miles via HSBC Rewards+ – alternatively, HeyMax points convert to Flying Blue miles
Qantas is an Air France/KLM partner, so earn Flying Blue miles by flying Qantas
With that in mind, here are my favourite ways to redeem Flying Blue miles:
Redeeming for a longhaul saver Air France/KLM business class flight
I find the cheapest one-way rates for Air France/KLM to be very reasonable. Here’s the catch – Flying Blue prices flights dynamically, so you will need to be flexible with your dates in order to “catch” the cheapest mileage redemptions.
Air France prices their flights dynamically for both their own and partner awards
Once you do find a saver award seat for around 85,000-90,000 miles between Europe and Asia, for example, this can be quite rewarding, especially given that both Air France and KLM have very good business class products. This works for other geographies as well – for example, Paris to Miami saver space costs 60,000 miles.
Personally I’d treat the “anytime” award space (e.g. anything pricing upwards of 150,000 to even 350,000 miles) as non-existent award space – it simply isn’t using that many miles for one flight in business class. Flights to the West Coast have the least availability, but are the best value once you find an award ticket, since they go for as low as 60,000 miles too.
Redeem 85,000-88,000 miles one-way for Air France business class Europe-Asia, or 60,000 miles Europe-U.S.
One of the sweet spots is that you can also fly to North Africa for the same number of miles as to Europe, though that’s pending on mileage availability on all segments.
Dodging carrier surcharges on Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic is the one SkyTeam carrier that provides more competitive rates than Flying Blue does. However, the airline charges fuel surcharges on award bookings, meaning that award tickets can be a big cash surplus on top of the actual miles spent. For example take this example below, where an Upper Class ticket costs 29,000 miles plus US$576 (£432.36/HK$4,481) in taxes.
By using Flying Blue you pay more miles, though you also save on taxes – in this case taxes cost €208.31 (£181.96/HK$1,886). This means you’re saving £250 for 41,500 miles, which may or may not be worth it (more so if you can’t easily get your hands on Virgin Atlantic miles, which can be the case in Asia).
I will say that Virgin Atlantic award space is significantly easier to find on Virgin’s own website, if you earn points with them. However, if not, Flying Blue is a great option.
Flying Virgin Atlantic Upper Class with Flying Blue miles, and save on taxes
Flying cheaper partners through China
One of the sweet spots I find on Flying Blue is China Eastern/Shanghai Airlines. Both of these airlines have quite cheap fares into China, and even if you’re connecting beyond to Southeast Asia, you’re usually in the range of 80,000-85,000 miles.
Not only that, but China Eastern/Shanghai Airlines have an (identical) great business class hard product, with enclosed suites.
Fly China Eastern/Shanghai Airlines business class with Flying Blue miles
Fly premium economy Europe-Asia for 50,000 miles (or Europe-US for 40,000 miles)
With Flying Blue miles, you can fly premium economy one-way for 40,000 miles to the U.S., or 50,000 miles to Asia from Europe. This is on the lower end of pricing for premium economy, and KLM premium economy in particular is one of my favourites. So I’d call this a great deal, and there’s also more award space in premium economy than in business class.
Once again, you want to find dates where a seat costing 40,000-50,000 miles is available, and ignore the dates where seats are only available for 200,000+ miles (unless you’re travelling on an emergency). This simply means that you’ve got saver award space on your flight, which is what you should seek after.
Fly KLM premium economy with Flying Blue miles
Note that you can’t redeem premium economy on partners with Flying Blue, but rather only economy or business class.
How wouldn’t I use my Flying Blue miles?
Apart from using miles for saver award space, I would advise against using Flying Blue miles for the following:
- Flying Blue charges mileage costs by distance, so I’d avoid using them for long complicated itineraries, unless you have to fly SkyTeam – try Aeroplan or American Airlines AAdvantage instead
- I don’t find shorthaul pricing to be attractive with Flying Blue, and would rather pay cash (particularly within Europe)
Air France may have my favourite intra-Europe shorthaul economy product, but I’d pay cash if possible
Conclusion
Generally, with Flying Blue miles, I’d suggest trying to keep itineraries simple between locations, avoiding paying non-saver award fares at all costs, and try and use them for longhaul premium economy or business class travel. They’re a great currency to have as a redemption option, especially given that the main airlines you can redeem Flying Blue points on (Air France, Virgin Atlantic, KLM, China Eastern, etc.) all have very good business class products.
What are your favourite ways of using Flying Blue points?
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