How much are Air France Flying Blue miles worth? How to use them?
When I first became interested in the Air France Flying Blue miles that can be obtained with an American Express Air France card, the question of their value inevitably arose.
The least we can say is that it isn’t very clear, that “it depends” and that the value of your miles can vary considerably depending on how you use them. It is therefore important to calculate their value each time you use them. Here are a few examples with the different ways you can use your miles.
Buy an Air France plane ticket with miles
Example of a round trip Paris – New York. Go on January 15, 2020, return on February 16, 2020.
The ticket costs :
- 883 € without using miles
- 53,500 miles + €234 airport taxes
100 miles have therefore a value of (883 – 234) / 53 500 * 100 = 1,2 €.
You should know that Air France regularly offers “Reward Promo” tickets where your miles will have more value. It takes a bit of luck to make it happen with your dates and destinations but it’s worth looking into or taking advantage of it if you are flexible.
Buy a Transavia plane ticket with miles
Example of a one-way trip Paris – Essaouira on February 14, 2020.
The ticket costs :
- 129 € without using miles
- 19,000 miles + €53.65 airport taxes
100 miles therefore have a value of (129 – 53,65) / 19000 * 100 = 0,4 €.
Buy Accor hotel nights with miles
The Flying Blue program allows you to transfer miles into Le Club AccorHotels points.
The conversion scale is fixed: 4000 Flying Blue miles = 1000 Le Club AccorHotels Rewards points.
Knowing that 2000 Rewards points are worth 40 €.
100 Flying Blue miles are therefore worth 40 / 8000 * 100 = 0,5 €.
Buy a product on the Flying Blue store with your miles
The Flying Blue program offers an online store where you can buy a lot of products: wine bottles, electronic products, press subscriptions, …
Let’s take the example of the Sony HX60 camera that can be found for 229 € on Amazon. On the store, you can afford it for 115,515 miles.
100 miles have a value of 229 / 115515 * 100 = 0,2 €.
Sell your miles
Since miles are transferable, you may see announcements on forums offering to sell miles.
The rates I saw varied between 0.5 and 1 € per 100 miles.
If you really don’t know what to do with your miles, this can be an option.
WARNING: A reader rightly pointed out to me that Air France’s general terms and conditions prohibited the sale of miles: “The sale, purchase, brokerage, resale, barter or exchange of Miles, Awards in exchange for any consideration is prohibited”. To be done with full knowledge of the facts…
Conclusion
Summarizing these examples, 100 miles has a value of :
- By buying an Air France ticket: €1.2
- By buying a Transavia ticket: €0.4
- By booking nights Accor Hotel : 0,5 €
- By buying a product in the Flying Blue store: 0,2 €
We therefore have a factor of 6 between the most interesting and the least profitable use.
These are only examples, do the calculation systematically before using the miles to estimate their value. In my case, I consider that below 1 € per 100 miles, it is better to keep them for later use.
There may be a question about the life of the miles that may expire. Please note that with an American Express Air France Card (free the first year), the life of your miles is extended by 2 years each time you use the card.
