Bank of America Air France/KLM Flying Blue Mastercard: 70K welcome offer

Bank of America is back with a welcome offer on the Air France/KLM World Elite Mastercard of 70,000 Flying Blue miles and 100 XP after spending $3,000 in the first 90 days of card membership. In terms of Flying Blue miles, this matches the largest welcome offer we’ve ever seen on the card.

XP stands for “Experience Points,” which are Flying Blue’s tier-qualifying points. 100XP is enough to get Flying Blue Silver status, which has a couple of lightly-useful perks.

There could be a better offer available if you go through the steps for a dummy booking at AirFrance.us. Many folks see an offer that includes a $100 statement credit on top of the 70K miles and 100 XP shown below. Note that we do not have a direct link to this offer — you need to begin the booking process for a flight at Air France and you may see it before entering payment information (you might need to be logged in to your Flying Blue account).

The Offer & Key Card Details

Card Offer and Details

Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard ⓘ $790 1st Yr Value Estimate 70K miles + 100XP ⓘ Non-Affiliate 70K miles + 40 XP after $3K in the first 90 days + 60 XP upon approval $89 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: Going through the steps to make a dummy booking at the Air France website may result in an offer that also includes a $100 statement credit. 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. Recent better offer: 70K miles + 100XP points [Expired 9/23] FM Mini Review: Valuable primarily only for the welcome offer, then it should go off to the sock drawer unless you're interested in Flying Blue elite status. Click here for our complete card review Earning rate: 3X on Air France, KLM, and SkyTeam purchases ✦ 1.5X everywhere else Base: 1.5X (1.95%) Brand: 3X (3.9%) Card Info: Mastercard World Elite issued by BOA. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: 5K after anniversary when you spend $50 or more the previous year ✦ 40XP points towards status after anniversary when you spend $15K or more the previous year Noteworthy perks: 20 Experience Points every year; Miles don't expire as long as you make a purchase once every 2 years. ➥More

Bank of America Application Tips

• 3/12 or 7/12 Rule: You won’t be approved if you have opened 3 or more accounts, with any bank, in the past 12 months. For those with Bank of America deposit accounts, the rule changes to 7+ accounts.
• 2/3/4 Rule: Max 2 consumer cards per rolling 2 months, 3 per rolling 12 months, and 4 per rolling 24 months.
• 5 card limit: You will not get approved for a new consumer card if you already have 5 consumer BOA cards open
• Get Same Card Again: With some BOA cards, you must wait 24 months after either opening or cancelling, depending upon the card.
• Hard inquiries are usually combined into 1 when initiated within 30 days but there have been reports of TransUnion not combining.

Quick Thoughts

First off, we generally don’t think that this card is worth a 5/24 slot. Flying Blue is one of the most “promiscuous” programs out there and bigger bonuses of transferable currencies can be had with a variety of cards that transfer 1-1 to Flying Blue.

That said, there are quite a few folks out there who have quite a few cards. A bonus of this size is when the the Air France/KLM card becomes interesting for them.

The 100 XP gets you to FB Silver status which has the following bennies:

• Earn 6 Miles for each Euro spent
• Priority access at check-in, baggage drop-off and boarding
• Get 25% off of Seat Options
• Choose your standard seat free of charge
• Bring an additional baggage item on all SkyTeam flights

It’s pretty unremarkable, except for the ability to get an extra checked bag on any SkyTeam partner, which could be useful both domestically and internationally if you don’t have Delta or some other Sky Team elite status.

This offer is probably only worth considering for those who are over 5/24 and are now plumbing the depths of the beyond for new welcome offers (or for folks who need the miles for a specific Flying Blue redemption).

Best uses for Flying Blue Miles

• Air France Flying Blue Promo Rewards.  Each month, Air France offers discounted award rates for a number of routes.  Sometimes we see economy flights from the US to Europe available for less than 11,000 miles one-way.
• Fly to Israel for the same award price as to Europe.  For example, you may see business class flights from the U.S. to Tel Aviv for as low as 55,000 miles one-way.
• Delta economy flights between the US and Hawaii for 17,500 miles one-way.  Air France also has great award prices for Delta first class to Hawaii, but Delta rarely releases first class award space on its Hawaii routes.

Things to know

• Air France awards usually incur taxes and fees.
• Award availability may be hard to find.  Acquire Flying Blue miles only if you know that the awards you want are available.
• Flying Blue miles expire 2 years after they are earned. Keeping miles alive beyond two years is… weird:
  • As long as you don’t credit any flying activity to your account, you can renew your miles by acquiring more miles through non-flight activity. For example, transferring miles from a transferable points program will renew these miles.
  • If you earn miles by crediting flight activity to your account, then all of your miles become flight activity miles and can only be extended by taking an eligible flight (and crediting it to Flying Blue), or by being an elite member, or making a purchase with your Air France / KLM Flying Blue credit card.
  • For more details, see: Air France’s Flying Blue miles are easier to extend than I thought

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