6 Unique Redemptions with Air France/KLM Flying Blue

Ever since Air France/KLM Flying Blue became a transfer partner with American Express Membership Rewards, the program has become much more accessible. While the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard also made its debut in the recent past, the lack of a welcome bonus means that Amex MR is the primary gateway to the program.

Even though the 1:0.75 transfer ratio from Amex MR is lamentable, there are still certain redemptions that might make the most sense for travellers to book via Flying Blue instead of with other programs.

As always, it’s best to consider all of the different options at your disposal when planning out a trip, and Flying Blue provides good coverage for SkyTeam airlines that are otherwise difficult to access on points.

In this article, let’s take a closer look at some unique redemption possibilities that the Flying Blue program brings to the table.

Air France/KLM Flying Blue: Key Things to Know

There are a few particularities about the Flying Blue program that we should go over before we delve into the sweet spots.

First of all, Flying Blue doesn’t have the most transparent award pricing. It uses a dynamic pricing model, with different price points for each route, and there is no published award chart.

On the plus side, that means that every last seat on flights operated by Air France or KLM can be booked with Flying Blue miles. On the downside, the dynamic pricing model allows the mileage rates to fluctuate in unpredictable ways. 

The Flying Blue program’s Miles Estimator may come in useful for guidance on costs, but it isn’t always helpful. For example, it only shows “starting from” pricing for each route, which may be difficult or impossible to find. 

The program recently added the ability to add a free stopover on award bookings. You can book a stopover of between 24 hours and a year, and there’s no additional cost in miles or cash to add a stopover, which is a great deal.

However, one downside to the program is that you’ll have to shell out some cash for taxes, fees, and surcharges, usually to the tune of around $300 (CAD) for a transatlantic flight. 

Here, we’ll focus on sweet spots where Flying Blue represents the best way to book despite the program’s quirks, and we’ll leave other redemptions for better-suited award programs. 

For example, even though Flying Blue can book domestic WestJet flights within Canada, the award rates…