Flying Blue Guide: How to Book on Air France and KLM
This guide has the information you need to book flights with points and miles through Flying Blue, Air France-KLM’s airline loyalty program. …
This guide has the information you need to book flights with points and miles through Flying Blue, Air France-KLM’s airline loyalty program.
What is Flying Blue?
Flying Blue is the loyalty program for the airlines KLM and Air France.
Its program is a great way to get to Europe on points and miles—in either business or economy class.
You can also use Flying Blue miles to book award flights on any of their partner airlines, including other SkyTeam airlines like Delta, if there’s availability. More on that later.
How to enroll in Flying Blue
- Go to wwws.airfrance.us and tap on the person icon in the top right corner. Select sign up.
- On the next page, tap Create your account.
- Enter your name as written on your passport.
- Enter your date of birth, country of residence, and preferred salutation. Enter your email address and phone number.
- Confirm your email. Air France Flying Blue will send you a one-time PIN.
- Agree to the terms and conditions and tap Create an account.
How to find your loyalty number
- Login at airfrance.com
- Once logged in, tap your initials in the top right-hand corner.
- Tap profile. Your number is on the profile page.
How to book flights through Air France-KLM Flying Blue
- Login to your Flying Blue account at either airfrance.com or klm.com.
Enter your Flying Blue loyalty number or email address.
You’ll have to authenticate by entering a code sent to your email or phone.
- Tap on the “Book with Miles” tab.
- Enter your flight search criteria.
When complete, tap the blue “Search flights” button.
- Browse flight options.
The lowest cost option in each cabin will be highlighted in green.
You can sort by departure time, number of connections, price in miles, and arrival time.
- Use the calendar bar to comparison shop the amount of miles by day.
In this example, the cost of miles is the same 3 days before and 3 days after my initial search date.
In this case, there is a difference. Flying the same itinerary on Wednesday costs more miles than Monday or even Sunday.
Why is there a price difference? It’s because the October dates are Saver Awards, while the May dates are dynamic price tickets. I explain how to find Saver Award dates below.
Tap on details to see more about the itinerary.
- When you’re ready to select an itinerary, tap on the tile for fare class you want to book.
You’ll have a chance to review the fare class details.
When ready, tap the navy blue Select button.
- Transfer the points you’ll need from your credit card to book the flight.Air France/KLM Flying Blue will not let you move forward with the booking until you have the necessary miles in your account.
- After transferring credit card points to Flying Blue, finish booking your flight.
How to find Saver Awards on Flying Blue
Flying Blue has both Saver Awards and dynamic pricing for its award seats. You want to find Saver Awards to pay the least miles.
Here are the steps to find it:
- Leave the departure date empty when entering your search criteria.
Just enter the departure and arrival airport and cabin class. Tap Search flights.
- You will see a monthly calendar view.
Green is the lowest fare. Flying Blue takes you to the first month with Saver Awards available.
In the example above, you’ll see that the only current Saver Awards in May 2025 available are May 5, 6 and 8. I searched May 21, 2025, which does not have Saver Award space.
- Toggle between months to see the Saver Award space each month. As of the time of writing, there’s only one day in June with Saver Award space.
But there’s a lot of Saver Award space in July.
- Select the date you want.
- You’ll be redirected to all the flights available that day.
The green highlighted flight is the lowest cost flight.
How to book partner flights with Flying Blue
KLM and Air France are both part of the Sky Team alliance, along with Delta Air Lines. This means that you may be able to use Flying Blue miles to book a Delta Air Lines flight for less than it would cost if you booked through Delta SkyMiles®.
Here’s an example:
For example, a one-way flight in economy on Delta from New York-JFK to London-Heathrow, booked through Delta SkyMiles could cost 66,000 miles and $6 in taxes and fees.
That same one-way flight—Delta 001 on March 12—booked through Flying Blue costs only 24,000 miles and about $10 in taxes and fees. That’s a third of the points cost.
Since Amex points transfer to both Flying Blue and Delta Sky Miles, Flying Blue gets you more bang for your buck.
As always, your mileage may vary in these situations. Flying Blue and Delta SkyMiles implement “dynamic award pricing,” meaning that the cost in miles when booking award flights through Air France-KLM and Delta varies from day to day, route to route.
Why does this happen?
It varies from program to program, but airlines tend to value flights on their own metal (that’s to say: on their own planes) more highly than they do flights on partner airlines. This is why—sometimes, not always—you can maximize the value of your points and miles by using one airline’s loyalty program to book travel on their partner airlines.
Transfer partners with Flying Blue
The following credit card points transfer 1:1 to Flying Blue Air France-KLM.
- American Express Membership Rewards
- Bilt Rewards
- Capital One Miles
- Chase Ultimate Rewards®
- Citi ThankYou Points
- Wells Fargo Rewards
Flying Blue credit card
You can also earn Flying Blue miles by opening the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard® through Bank of America.
The current signup bonus is: 70,000 Bonus Miles plus up to 100 XP (Experience Points) after making $3,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of your account.
Information is collected independently and not available through Going.
Flying Blue Regions: How to fly to multiple cities on one ticket
FB uses a region-based award chart for its award flights. This means flights from the US to anywhere in one specific region will cost the same amount of miles.
Why does this matter?
With Flying Blue’s regions, you can fly anywhere in the Europe region for the same amount of miles as it costs for a nonstop flight to Amsterdam or Paris! The only difference is some extra taxes and fees.
How to use Flying Blue regions
Here is an example of using the Flying Blue region system.
Let’s say I want to fly from Boston (BOS) to Casablanca, Morocco (CMN). Flying Blue lets me get to Casablanca with a brief connection through Paris.
The cost is the same as if I only flew to Paris. I just pay a little more in taxes and fees.
This tactic lets you use Paris (CDG) and Amsterdam (AMS) as hubs to access a wide range of locations in Flying Blue’s “Europe” region.
This works for any destination airport in Flying Blue’s Europe region. (Flying Blue considers several countries in North Africa, including Morocco, to be part of its Europe region.)
Remember, the Flying Blue region system means you’ll pay the same amount of miles flying from the US to any city in Europe is the same.
Flying Blue stopovers
What if you want to spend more time in Paris or Amsterdam and not simply connect on your way to a final destination?
That’s where Flying Blue stopovers come in. Flying Blue offers free stopovers to Paris or Amsterdam, meaning it’s a great way to visit another city at no extra cost.
To book a Flying Blue stopover, you’ll have to call Flying Blue customer support at 1-800-375-8723.
How are stopovers different than layovers? Layovers are less than 24 hours, but stopovers can be much longer.
Flying Blue Promo Rewards
Flying Blue offers Promo Rewards each month. These are flash sales on routes to and from Europe, but you’re limited to the specific cities and classes of service they’ve discounted.
It’s great if you’re willing to fly economy and can be a bit flexible about departure location, but it’s less useful if you want to fly from a specific airport and want to travel in business.
Flying Blue Promo Rewards are announced at the beginning of a month. Tickets are usually available for flights within the next six months.
Matt Ortile writes the Going With Points newsletter at Going. He is the author of the essay collection The Groom Will Keep His Name, a columnist at Condé Nast Traveler, and working on a novel about a flight attendant. He lives in Brooklyn.
