Air France KLM Flying Blue has the potential to be a very useful program, as you can fly one-way between Europe and the US for 25K miles in economy or 60K miles in business class. It even offers international first-class awards with some partners. That’s all fine and good, but availability at those prices has been hard to come by recently, especially in business class.
Despite that, the newly increased welcome offer available on the Air France KLM credit card might lead some to investigate it, in the hope that it offers something potentially exciting. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.
Current Welcome Offer
| Card Offer |
|---|
 ⓘ $787 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates 70K miles + 100XP Non-AffiliateThis is NOT an affiliate offer. We always present the best offer even when it means less revenue for Frequent Miler 70K miles + 100 Experience Points (XP) after $3K spend in the first 90 days$89 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: Some people get an offer for $100 statement credit while doing a dummy booking. Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Valuable primarily for the welcome offer, then it should go off to the sock drawer unless you're interested in spending your way to Flying Blue elite status. |
Air France KLM World Elite Visa Signature Review
The Air France KLM World Elite Visa is a bit of a snoozer unless you’re interested in earning elite status. For those uninterested in elite status, it’s not a bad card, but it’s nothing exciting. Even if you just want to earn Flying Blue miles, it’s not very good. While this card earns 1.5x everywhere, you can do much better elsewhere. For example, you can earn 2x everywhere with transferable points cards like the Capital One Venture Rewards card, Citi Double Cash (paired with the Citi Premier), or Amex Blue Business Plus (2x on the first $50K spend each year). Then, you can transfer those points to Flying Blue or to any other supported loyalty program. Even better, there are frequent transfer bonuses to Flying Blue, so you could end up with even more miles.
On the other hand, those interested in Flying Blue elite status will find a lot to like with both a one-time 100 XP boost upon approval and meeting the minimum spend for the welcome offer, combined with the ability to earn up to 160 XP each year. Flying Blue Silver status requires 100 XP per 12 months, and so this card can get you there.
- Annual Fee: $89
- Foreign Transaction Fee: None
- Card Issuer: Bank of America
- What points are worth: This card earns Flying Blue miles. Our current Reasonable Redemption Values peg them at 1.3 cents each.
- Earning Categories:
- Earn 3 Miles per $1 spent directly on Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and SkyTeam member airlines purchases
- Earn 3 Miles per $1 spent on dining
- Earn 1.5 Miles per $1 spent on all other purchases
- Perks:
- Receive 5,000 Miles every year on your account anniversary after you spend $50 or more on purchases within the anniversary year
- No foreign transaction fees
- Miles don’t expire as long as you make a purchase once every 2 years
- Earn 20 XP towards elite status every year on your account anniversary
- Earn an additional 80 XP (totaling 100 XP) on your account anniversary after you spend $15,000 or more on purchases within the anniversary year, and another 60XP towards status on your account anniversary when you spend $25K+ the previous cardholder year (for a total of 160XP).
- Who’s this card for? Anyone interested in earning Flying Blue elite status can do well with this card.
- Is this card a keeper? Those seeking elite status will certainly find this card worth keeping. For everyone else, it’s an okay card to keep, since it earns 5,000 points each year as long as you spend at least $50. Plus, that spending keeps your points alive.
Air France KLM World Elite Visa Signature Pros and Cons
Pros
- Relatively cheap at $89 per year
- Keeps points from expiring by simply putting some spend on the card once every two years.
- Easy to earn 5,000 miles per year with only $50 spend.
- Easy way to pick up extra XP (experience points) towards elite status
Cons
- Low earning rate compared to what is possible with cards that earn transferable points
- Very few perks
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How much would a FlyingBlue XP be worth? I’m trying to do the math on the new BofA Flying Blue Card and I want to see if it makes sense to be a catchall card at 1.5x.
Useful information. You mention several options to get 2 miles per dollar including the Citi Double Cash (paired with the Citi Premier $95/year annual fee). The Wells Fargo Active Cash paired with the Autograph has the same return and for no annual fee. Noticeable miss.
“Air France KLM World Elite Visa Signature Review”
World Elite is the old MC status level, right?
Does this stack with the Bilt Platinum FB Gold benefit and provide a faster pathway to higher FB status?
Just be aware, getting this card has the same effect that crediting a flight to FB does. It turns all of your miles into ones that expire unless you take a flight, use the card, or transfer using their family plan.
Those miles can no longer be extended by transferring in points.
Its a very strange system.
Didn’t realize that getting the card converts FB points to ‘flying’ points. Was on the fence about the offer, but this is making it less appealing to me.
Flying Blue has two “buckets” of miles, I believe: those earned from transfers and those earned or refunded from flights. Which bucket do miles from their card get credited to? I have some miles that were refunded from award flights that I rebooked at a lower price that I want to keep alive.
They expire.
Considering the fact that you can often buy Air France business in cash for half the price of Delta from major North American airports, I don’t know why anyone would buy this.
Pretty much year-round I can get Air France for $2,300-$2,700 in business from Toronto, Miami, and Mexico City.
I have wondered if this would be a good card for people flying Delta a ton after all the changes to lounge access. If you credit your Delta flights to FB, it does seem like Gold Status is the key, as that should give you unlimited SkyClub access (something you can’t get on the Delta Reserve without 75k spend). But 220 XP per year seems like a steep climb without either a lot of connecting flights, some paid business flights, or some international travel. It would take 110 domestic economy segments.
But the 3x SkyTeam (not just Flying Blue) makes this a better earner than the Delta Gold.
You would not get Sky Club access flying domestically.
Correct. Delta wants its fees.
This card was a no brainer to get with the increased 70K offer and annual fee waived. Got the offer when booking award travel to Switzerland this past summer; just booked 3 adults and 2 kids to Venice for February for only 70K points total. I’ll take the SUB for this card any day especially when economy awards to Europe from US are 16K one way off peak.
You didn’t warn people about the worst thing… you apply at the wrong time and you’ll lose all the free 60XP. I received my card on Dec 16 2023. All the XP expired 14 days later. RIDICULOUS
My experience is that BOA doesn’t product change. I’ve had a no fee card with them for 39 years and asked to change it to the Customized cash rewards also no fee and they said I’d have to apply for a new card.
BofA does allow product changes. However, cards issued in earlier years . . . such as yours . . . are not eligible for product changes. I had a BofA card from the early 1980s and experienced the same thing about five or six years ago. I had to apply for the card I wanted and then moved my credit limit over.
how frequently can I get the SUB on this card? When it’s elevated 70K, I think it’s worth going for especially if over 5/24 and going to do a bunch of non Chase cards in a short period of time (so they all come off at the same-ish time). Can you just cancel and get the SUB again every 24 months? My AF just posted (plus my 5K miles), so thinking of keeping and then plan to get again next Oct (which would be 26 months after receiving the SUB. Does that work?
I’m on my second 21 months apart. No issues went to instant approval on the past 70K SUB offer (March 2024). I have a long term banking relationship with BOA which of course probably helps. Now my 60 XP never posted, but I thought let’s not rock the boat with Flying Blue. Can’t fly XPs.
I’m on my second, about 30 months apart. Applied again while I still have my original card, surprisingly got approved with an even higher credit limit > $20k. I don’t have any other relationship with BoA except a military checking account closed 15 years ago. The card is churnable, but YMMV.
I just got FB gold, so when that higher offer comes around hopefully, I will definitely look at applying 🙂 Will be nice to keep mid or higher tier status for a bit.
Usually shows up around May.
You don’t explain what all elite status is and XP points
How many for what
20 XP gets you an AF concierge who will Google things for you that you’re too lazy to look up yourself. You may want to check that out.
Google the following:
Flying Blue XP
One result will bring you to a complete overview. Good luck.
I’ve had the card two years (2nd anniversary was this week), and it’s a keeper. It used to be my go-to card for non-bonused everyday spend on international trips, but the Altitude Reserve can do that job now. I use it for MSing fee-free GCs at Staples/ODOM. I don’t have (and can’t get) a C1 Venture, Citi Double Cash, or Chase Ink (yet), so this is my second-best option. It enables me to print AF miles cheaply in parallel with my Chase/Amex/Bilt/US Bank points activities. Getting the 5,000 annual miles offsets the annual fee for me, given that Promo Rewards can be had for as low as 11k. The aforementioned and a couple of casual purchases of $1200 MGCs at Staples is an almost-free one-way to Europe in Y, without burning transferable points, and can’t be beat.
At 1.5x, that’s $7333 in spend, or ~ 4 trips @ $1800 to staples. If you’re new enough to all this that you can’t get an INK card, how pray tell are you unloading your $1800 trips?
Being new or old hat has zero correlation with the ability to get an Ink card. Everyone does not start playing at 0/24, nor accepts the opportunity cost to stay 5/24 in lieu of more lucrative SUBs over the last four years. Ink cards will be there when one gets to them, I’m but a couple months from 4/24, and my strategy changed since my post. I put that MS spend on the Hilton Surpass & Bilt Rent Days until I got the FNC & Gold Status respectively. I can start anew in 2025 with a freshly minted Ink Cash. That’s the beautiful thing about the scientific method; try out different approaches and see what works best.
It’s simple enough to liquidate $2000+ in GCs at a time, and it took about a week to put a robust system in place and hone that skillset last year.