How Does Air France KLM Flying Blue’s Multiply Your Miles Feature Work?

Flying Blue, the loyalty program shared by Air France, KLM, Aircalin, Transavia, and TAROM, offers you the ability to “multiply your miles.”

This feature allows members to boost the miles they earned in the prior month by up to 12x. However, while the feature sounds appealing, it does come with a cost and limitations on which miles can be multiplied and who is eligible to participate.

With all these nuances, let’s explore how the Flying Blue Multiply Your Miles feature works, and whether it’s worth your consideration.

How Does the Flying Blue Multiply Your Miles Feature Work?

Flying Blue launched the “Multiply Your Miles” feature a few years ago, allowing members to accelerate their miles earned in the previous month by 2x, 4x, 6x, or even 12x.

Members eligible for this feature typically receive an email from Flying Blue with details about the offer. However, you can also manually check your eligibility by signing into your Flying Blue account and navigating to the “Accelerate Miles” tab under “Manage my Miles.”

If you’re eligible, you’ll proceed to the next page where you can select your multiplication factor. If you’re not eligible, a message will inform you that you’re unable to multiply your miles.

For those who are eligible, you can multiply the miles you earned in the previous month by the available options – 2x, 4x, 6x, or 12x.

To clarify, by choosing these multiplier options, you’re effectively topping up your balance with an additional 2x, 4x, 6x, or 12x the miles earned in the past month.

For instance, if you started with a 0 balance and earned 1,000 Flying Blue miles last month, selecting the 2x multiplier would add 2,000 additional miles (2 × 1,000), bringing your total balance to 3,000 miles.

To illustrate, let’s consider the 2x option assuming 1,286 Flying Blues miles earned in the past month. As you can see in the image below, you can multiply your monthly accumulated miles by 2, resulting in 2,572 miles for a cost of $50.41 (USD).

This works out to a rate of 1.96 cents per point, calculated as ($50.41 ÷ 2,572) × 100 = 1.96

Interestingly, even with the 12x option, the cost remains consistent at 1.96 cents per point, without any additional promotional discounts or bonus miles.

If you wish to proceed to top up your miles, simply enter your payment information, and you should be all set.

Note that the purchase can only be made in US dollars, so consider using a US credit card or a card with no foreign transaction fees.

Which Miles Are Eligible for Multiplication?

Most of the miles you’ve earned through some sort of an activity (flying or non-flying) will be eligible for the Multiply Your Miles feature, but there are some exclusions.

Here’s a breakdown of which miles are eligible and which are not.

All the Flying Blue miles earned through the following transactions are eligible:

• Co-branded credit card expenses and bonuses
• Purchases made with partnered merchants
• Shop for Miles
• Flights
• Converted miles (i.e., those transferred from financial products or other loyalty programs, such as Marriott Bonvoy)
• Other travel activities, such as hotel stays, car rentals, etc.

Ineligible miles include:

• Miles that have been bought or those received as a gift or transfer from another Flying Blue member
• “Miles related to “commercial gestures” (language from Flying Blue’s Term & Conditions), which we think encompasses expired miles that “have been reinstated and other situations where Flying Blue provides miles outside of normal instances.”

Is the Flying Blue’s Multiply Your Miles Feature a Good Deal?

A key question to consider when looking at Flying Blue’s Multiply Your Miles feature: is this a good deal?

Typically, we don’t recommend buying miles speculatively. So, let’s start by saying this is only a good deal if you have an urgent need for miles and are short a small amount for a specific redemption.

Additionally, it may be worth considering if you can buy miles for a cheap price and then redeem them for higher value award flight.

We value Flying Blue miles at 1.5 cents per point (USD) or 2 cents per point (CAD), so topping up your balance at 1.96 cents per point via the Multiply Miles feature isn’t ideal under normal circumstances.

Even if you wanted to top up some miles for a specific redemption, Flying Blue periodically runs discount promotions on Flying Blue miles purchases.

For instance, with a 40% discount promotion, you could buy 16,000 Flying Blue miles for $292.80, which works out to 1.83 cents per point.

Additionally, purchasing miles gives you the option to buy up to 100,000 miles if needed, whereas the Multiply Miles feature limits you to several preset multipliers based on the miles you earned in the previous month.

In summary, while the Multiply Miles feature can be useful in certain scenarios, it’s generally not the best value unless you can top up miles cheaper than through Flying Blue’s regular points purchase promotions.

What Are Some Other Ways to Earn Flying Blue Miles?

Aside from the Multiply Your Miles feature, there are plenty of other ways to earn Flying Blue miles.

Of course, flying with Air France, KLM, and their partner airlines is the most straightforward way to earn miles, but there are plenty of ways to boost your balance without actually flying.

One of the easiest ways to earn Flying Blue miles is by using a co-branded credit card for your everyday purchases.

In the US, you can get an Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®, offered by Bank of America, or alternatively, you can transfer points at a rate of 1:1 from the following transferable points currencies:

• American Express Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards
• Capital One Miles
• Chase Ultimate Rewards®
• Citi ThankYou Points
• Wells Fargo Rewards

In Canada, you can earn miles directly on the Flying Blue co-branded Brim Financial Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®, or you can also transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue at a rate of 1:0.75.

Other ways to accumulate Flying Blue miles include shopping through the Flying Blue Shop for Miles portal and booking travel through partner platforms such as Booking.com and GetYourGuide.

Conclusion

Flying Blue’s Multiply Your Miles feature can be a useful tool for topping up your balance, especially if you’re just short of miles for a specific redemption.

However, given the cost per mile, it’s not the most ideal option unless you can’t find cheaper alternatives, such as Flying Blue’s regular promotions.

To maximize your Flying Blue miles, consider using co-branded credit cards, transferring points from flexible rewards programs, and taking advantage of partnerships with retailers and travel platforms.