AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE:
Packed with Points is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as MileValue.com and bankrate.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers.
EDITORIAL DISCLOSURE:
Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

Flying Blue is the shared award program for Air France and KLM airlines, which are based in Paris and Amsterdam, respectively. Flying Blue is one of my favorite ways to travel to and from Europe, especially for families!

They're a transfer partners for all four major banks, they tend to have a lot of available award space, they offer a 25% discount for kids ages 2-11, and they have monthly promo awards that offer discounted rates on certain routes. What's not to love? 😍

So let's deep dive into all things Flying Blue.

How to earn Flying Blue points

Flying Blue points can be earned in a variety of ways. As I mentioned, they are transfer partners for all four major banks - American Express, Chase, Capital One, and Citi. This means that you can earn flexible points through any of those banks and then transfer your points from the bank to Flying Blue.

There are some great flexible points cards from each of those banks. This means you could earn points through multiple cards from multiple banks, then transfer all of those points into your Flying Blue account. It's super easy to have a ton of Flying Blue points this way!

Here are my favorite cards that earn flexible points which can be transferred to Flying Blue:

Make sure you set up a free Flying Blue loyalty account so that you can transfer your points. Flights are a standard 25,000 per person per way, however, you can find some dates with flights for 18,750 from the East Coast. Keep in mind that Flying Blue uses dynamic pricing, which means that 25,000 is the standard, but there are dates and times that will cost more.

How to book an award flight on Flying Blue

Once you have points, now you can get to actually booking your flight! Step one is to find availability. I always start on the Air France website, but you could also start on the KLM website.

Click on "Book with Miles". You will be prompted to log in to you account.

Enter your departing airport and destination.

A few tips:

The major U.S. airports will have much more availablility than mid-size/small airports. Those airports may have no options.
Search one way at a time. This will give you more options and also allows for future changes or the option to return from a different airport.
Leave the departure date blank so you can see the award calendar. This will show you when the cheapest dates are. I recommend doing this even if you have specific dates. You may be able to shift by just one day and save a lot of points!

Here's what the award calendar looks like. As you can see, there are many dates with the low 18,750-point flights, but there are also dates where the lowest price is 51,000.

Flying Blue airline alliance

Flying Blue is part of SkyTeam airline alliance, which has other popular members like Delta and Virgin Atlantic. This means that you can sometimes use Flying Blue to book flights on one of their alliance partner airlines. This may or may not be a cheaper option, but it's worth checking.

The Flying Blue kids discount

One major perk to Flying Blue is their kids discount. Kids ages 2-11 get a 25% discount on award tickets. This means that a family of four can fly to Europe for as low as 87,500 miles.

Here's the breakdown for a family of four to fly from Los Angeles to Paris on Air France. 👇🏼

You don't have to do anything to apply the discount. It will show up automatically when you go to book a child ticket as long as there's an adult traveling with them.

Flying Blue monthly promo awards

Another great Flying Blue perk is their Monthly Promo Awards. These are discounted award tickets on specific routes. They have a short-haul and long-haul flight routes that go on sale each month. The prices are good during the month you book and for travel dates up to five months out. For example, if you book during April, you can pick a travel date anytime until September 30th.

You can find all of this month's routes here.

Examples:

Wrapping Up

Flying Blue is a great option for booking award travel, especially for families! With easy ways to earn points, plenty of award availability, monthly Promo Rewards, and the 25% kids discount, it's hard to beat. If you’re flexible and know how to search, Flying Blue can unlock some amazing trips for fewer points than you might expect. ✈️🇫🇷✨

And if you’re looking to apply for any of my top travel credit card recommendations….

💳 Find them all here!

EDITORIAL DISCLOSURE: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

Booking Flights with Flying Blue