Update from Nick 5/16/22: If you go through the steps for a dummy booking at AirFrance.us, you may 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 may need to be logged in to your Flying Blue account). I was presented with the offer as shown below while in the process of booking an award ticket last night (I did not apply). Note that if you’re going to see it, you should see it before you need to enter payment info.
The original post about the public offer (which does not have the $100 statement credit) is found below.
Bank of America has a new welcome offer on the Air France/KLM World Elite Mastercard of 70,000 Flying Blue miles and 100 XP after spending $2,000 in the first 90 days of card membership. In terms of Flying Blue miles, I believe that this is 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.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
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, 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, I 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 could be had with a variety of cards in the Chase ecosystem that transfer 1-1 to Flying Blue (Ie, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Ink Cash, Chase Ink Business Unlimited).
That said, there are quite a few folks out there who have quite a few cards and, in my opinion, this is the first time that the Air France/KLM card has become interesting for them. In fact, this is the first time that it’s cracked the top-15 for personal credit offers on the best offers page. Nick recently wrote about finding a useful and affordable sweet spot on Flying Blue using Air Europa to add to the full, updated list that he posted last week.
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.
That said, I think this offer is only worth considering for those who are over 5/24 and are now plumbing the depths of the beyond for new welcome offers. And even then, it should be off to the sock drawer after getting the SUB.
- 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.
- 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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Dummy booking only shows 50,000 miles + $100 now 🙁
the dummy booking doesn’t bring up the extra $100 for me
I thought I read somewhere that this card comes with one free extra luggage on all skyteam flights. But I couldn’t find it anymore.
Reading the part on keeping miles alive raises a question…
If you have miles in Flying Blue from transferring via Amex, and then you get this card, do all the miles suddenly become harder to keep active? It seems like they lump miles earned with this card in the same category as miles earned from flying. And we know if you transfer Amex MR over, then credit a flight, you cannot keep them alive simply by transferring in more MR. You either have to credit more flights or put spend on this card. If true, that could be a drawback for some.
Just curious if we have any datapoints on this. I made the mistake of crediting an Air Europa flight to Flying Blue, so ended up getting this card last year.
Is there any DPs on the 2/3/4 Rule for anyone if one wanted 3 personal Bank of America cards within 60 days?
This can be a keeper card:
1) 1.5 miles per dollar with no foreign transaction fee is arguably among the best cards to use abroad on everyday purchases
2) 5,000 mile bonus when spending $50 in cardmember year offsets annual fee
3) Any credit card spend keeps all miles alive
4) Better earn rate on skyteam (and Delta) than any Delta credit card, including SkyMiles Reserve Amex with $550 AF, since 3x AF points > 3x SkyPesos
5) Price protection on purchases still exists on this (see FM article with my scanned benefits statement)
6) Not an Amex, so easier for overseas spend
1) & 6) are not that compelling. Capital One Venture X is a Visa and earns 2 points per dollar on non-bonus spend with no foreign transaction fee.
I think Greg might agree, relying on a Capital One card as a primary could prove troublesome. If you’re approved in the first place, which I’m likely never going to be because I churn too much.
But really, you don’t think it matters if it’s an Amex for foreign purchases? They’re 4th in acceptance out of 4.
Thanks for your input, I’d love to have a Venture X if you work in Cap 1 approvals!
I don’t disagree with you for the right person. I originally was more taken with that 5,000 mile anniversary bonus, but that’s effectively paying 1.78 pts for Flying Blue miles…that’s great if you want the card anyway, but as a 1-1 value proposition isn’t as enticing. So, if you want it for the SkyTeam benefits and to keep miles alive, I think that makes a lot of sense.
1.5x is very good (and would be best among airline cards). To me, though, it would make more sense to earn them as Chase UR (1.5X on Freedom Unlimited)/Citi TYP domestically, C1 internationally. That said, if you couldn’t get a C1 card, are over 5/24 and do spend a lot internationally, you could certainly do worse.
I just got 2.1 cents per mile on a late summer 2023 LAX to FCO Premium Economy (KLM there, AF back, with ~2-hour intermediary stops each way); it was 106,000 miles RT; taxes and fees (excluded from cpm calculation) were $340. This is my first award ticket with Flying Blue; hope I can get similar or better value in the future.By the way, I hope the 70,000-mile offer comes back around. If it does, I’ll apply. Maybe for the current 50,000-mile offer, even. (Not for regular spending, just to keep miles alive.)