The Flying Blue loyalty programme run by Air France and KLM airlines offers a “miles accelerator” that allows members to purchase up to 16 times the number of miles they earned in the previous month at a reduced rate. I will tell you about this feature, which is a valuable complement to the existing option of buying miles that can be redeemed for award flights or other rewards.
Multiply your Flying Blue miles with the miles accelerator
The Flying Blue miles accelerator promises to multiply by 2, 4, 6, 12 or 16 the miles earned during the month preceding its use.
All miles can be multiplied, including those earned:
- for a flight, regardless of the airline used
- for a hotel booking or car rental
- for a purchase made on the Shop for Miles shopping portal.
Miles earned with an American Express Air France KLM co-branded credit card (including the welcome bonus) are also eligible for the miles accelerator, as are those earned through the conversion of ALL Accor Live Limitless or Hilton Honors points.
Only miles purchased, donated, transferred, or received as a goodwill of gesture are excluded.
It is the date on which the miles are credited to the Flying Blue account that is considered, not the date of the activity generating the miles. For example, miles earned on a flight taken on 15 March and credited the following day can be multiplied in April, while miles earned on a flight taken on 31 March and credited the following day can be multiplied in May.
How to use the Flying Blue miles accelerator
To multiply your miles, go to the miles accelerator page on the Flying Blue website (menu Manage my Miles > Accelerate Miles). If you are not already logged in to your Flying Blue account, you will need to authenticate yourself.
Access to the Flying Blue miles acceleration tool
If you have earned miles eligible for the miles accelerator during the previous month, you will then be asked to choose a coefficient 2x, 4x, 6x, 12x or 16x.
Choosing a Flying Blue miles multiplier
In practice, this means buying a package of Flying Blue miles equal to 2 times, 4 times, 6 times, 12 times or 16 times those accumulated last month. The new miles purchased are added to those already accumulated.
| Before/after acceleration | Miles accelerator | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2x | 4x | 6x | 12x | 16x | |
| Number of miles before multiplication (example 5,000 miles) | 5,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
| Number of new miles purchased with the accelerator | 10,000 | 20,000 | 30,000 | 60,000 | 80,000 |
| Total number of miles after multiplication | 15,000 | 25,000 | 35,000 | 65,000 | 85,000 |
Note that all eligible miles are included in the calculation base, it is not possible to customise the number of miles to be boosted.
Through the acceleration mechanism, Flying Blue miles are sold at a unit price of EUR 0.016 / USD 0.020 / GBP 0.014 (the default currency of payment is determined by Flying Blue according to the member’s country of residence, but you can choose your preferred payment currency by adjusting the localization setting of the website). That’s 38% cheaper than buying miles directly (EUR 0.026 / USD 0.032 / GBP 0.023)!
Although a 72-hour processing time is announced, the miles are usually deposited in your Flying Blue account on the day of payment.
The miles accelerator can be used once per calendar month to multiply the miles earned in the previous month only. The tool will become available again the following month to multiply the miles earned in the current month, and so on.
Who is the Flying Blue Miles Accelerator for?
The Flying Blue miles accelerator is a preferred option over purchasing miles directly, given the lower unit cost of acquisition. Depending on your activity in the loyalty programme during the previous month, you will be able to purchase a more or less significant amount of miles at a reduced rate.
For large spenders of miles, the accelerator is an opportunity to increase their annual purchase volume while lowering the average cost per mile. For occasional passengers, the miles accelerator gives them the opportunity to purchase a small number of miles while benefiting from a more advantageous rate.
Flying Blue Explorer members are entitled to buy up to 100,000 miles per acceleration and per year (6,250 miles coefficient 16), a cap that is reset each 1st January and is independent of the limit applied to direct miles purchases. All Flying Blue members with Elite status (Silver, Gold, Platinum, Ultimate) can purchase up to 300,000 miles per acceleration (18,750 miles coefficient 16) up to a limit of one million miles per year.
In all cases, before buying miles, make sure that the desired award is available and that the transaction is profitable (redemption value of the mile greater than or equal to its purchase price).
Have you taken advantage of the Flying Blue miles accelerator to increase your miles balance?
