Flying Blue miles will soon be redeemable on Etihad (and vice versa)
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Air France KLM and Etihad have announced a stronger co-operation agreement which will, amongst other things:
- allow you to redeem Etihad Guest miles for Air France and KLM flights
- allow you to redeem Flying Blue miles for Etihad flights
- benefit from reciprocal elite benefits
The current codeshare operation between the groups will be expanded to cover another 40 routes. We have already seen Air France announce flights to Abu Dhabi, although the reason for this wasn’t clear at the time.
The expanded codeshares are meant to be in place for the upcoming winter flying season. None of the loyalty changes will happen immediately although I suspect most should be in place within 12 months.
In terms of relevance to HfP readers, the following are worth considering:
- if you earn miles flying with Virgin Atlantic, would you benefit from crediting to Flying Blue instead to take advantage of Etihad redemption opportunities?
- if you earn miles flying with Etihad, would you benefit from crediting to Flying Blue instead, given the ability to redeem on Etihad and the entire SkyTeam alliance?
- if taxes and charges are reasonable, there may be value in transferring American Express Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue instead of Etihad Guest if you want to book Etihad flights. If nothing else, the miles would be easier to re-use if you ended up cancelling your flight.
We’ll keep you updated when we know the timeline for these changes. You can find out more on the Etihad website here.
PS. It is worth considering whether Virgin Atlantic may be looking at a similar deal. It already works very closely with Air France KLM via its transatlantic joint venture, and Virgin Atlantic Holidays would benefit from access to Etihad inventory at preferred rates. British Airways and Qatar Airways already have a deep relationship via their joint venture agreement, joint oneworld alliance membership, joint use of Avios and the 25% shareholding that Qatar Airways holds in BA’s parent company.
How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (January 2024)
Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card. However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.
These cards earn Membership Rewards points:
- American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.
- The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Flying Blue miles
- American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.
Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate. The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.
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