A friendly reminder that there are only a few days left on the Air France KLM World Elite MasterCard welcome bonus of up to 60,000 Flying Blue Miles. This card was unique in that when it first launched it did not feature bonus miles but rather bonus points towards elite status. This was done to attract the customers the airline first wanted have the card – Air France KLM frequent flyers. Now for the second time in the card’s history we see them offering Flying Blue Miles as part of the welcome bonus.
The up to 60,000 Flying Blue Miles Bonus
New applicants who are approved for the Air France KLM World Elite MasterCard® powered by Brim Financial will be able earn to up to 60,000 bonus Flying Blue miles + 60XP! The bonus is awarded as follows:
- 10,000 miles after first purchase
- 10,000 miles when spend $5,000 on the card within the first year of having it
- 10,000 miles on the next $10,000 in spending on the card within the first year of having it
($15,000 in spending in the first year will net you 30,000 miles in total) - 30,000 miles anniversary bonus when your card renews
Unlike some of other card bonus offers that have spending spread out over a year and only award the spend bonus on the card anniversary, here the bonuses for $5,000 and $10,000 in spending will be awarded when you hit the spend. For example, if you complete the $15,000 in spend in the first four months you would receive the final spend bonus on the next statement date after that.
What can you get with 60,000 Flying Blue Miles? A lot!
60,000 Flying Blue miles can go a long way – in fact, it can be enough miles for two round trip flights to Europe during a Promo Rewards promotion. If you aren’t very familiar with the Flying Blue program, it is considered by Rewards Canada as the best program for Canadians for Transatlantic reward flights in economy class. Not only that, the program holds its own for business class as well.
The minimum redemption level for flights between Canada and Europe (as well as Turkey and North Africa) is only 20,000 miles one way. In our research there tends to be a good amount of availability at those lowest levels. Overall. this means that there are many occasions where you only need 40,000 Flying Blue miles for a round trip Transatlantic economy class flight. The same thing with competing airlines? You are looking at 50,000 to 70,000 miles/points round trip – and in many cases with those programs you have to pay for your first checked bag while Flying Blue reward tickets include your first checked bag!
Meanwhile business class flights start at 50,000 Flying Blue Miles per direction from Canada to Europe (as well as Turkey and North Africa) which means this bonus can easily get you a one way flight in style across the Atlantic – and that doesn’t include what you will earn for spending on the card to reach the requirement for earning the bonuses.
There is also the possibility to redeem even less points than listed above as Air France KLM Flying have their famous Promo Rewards sales which provide up to a 50% discount on the miles required. Typically we see 25% off economy, premium economy and business class flights out select Canadian cities each month. With 25% off you are looking at redeeming as little as 15,000 mile one way for economy class and 37,500 miles for business class.
You can redeem Flying Blue miles for reward tickets on Air France and KLM flights out of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City or anywhere the two airlines and their partners fly in the world. Those 30+ partners include WestJet, Delta Airlines, Korean Air and all the SkyTeam Alliance airlines.
Redemption examples
With 60,000 miles you can easily redeem for a round trip economy class ticket or one way business class ticket from Canada to Europe, North Africa or Turkey and have miles left over. The following reward amounts and ticket prices are based on searches conducted on April 9, 2024 and can change at anytime.
Here are three such examples
Is there value in these 60,000 mile redemptions?
The cash prices for the above flights are as follows:
- YUL-CDG: $1154.60 for the exact same flights including your first checked bag. If we take that flight and subtract the $303.21 in fees on the reward ticket as well as the $132 annual fee, you are getting $719.39 in value for 40,000 miles. That works out to 1.8 cents per point or roughly $1,08o in value for the entire 60,000 mile bonus if you redeemed the remaining 20,000 miles at the same cents per point rate.
- YYC-AMS: $1,420.26 for the exact same flights including your first checked bag. If we take that flight and subtract the $313.66 in fees on the reward ticket as well as the $132 annual fee, you are getting $974.60 in value for 40,000 miles. That works out to 2.4 cents per point or roughly $1,461 in value for the entire 60,000 mile bonus if you redeemed the remaining 20,000 miles at the same cents per point rate.
- YYZ-NAP: $1,311.06 for the exact same flights including your first checked bag. If we take that flight and subtract the $306.91 in fees on the reward ticket as well as the $132 annual fee, you are getting $872.15 in value for 40,000 miles. That works out to 2.18 cents per point or roughly $1,308 in value for the entire 60,000 mile bonus if you redeemed the remaining 20,000 miles at the same cents per point rate.
So, yes there is huge value in these redemption options via the 60,000 mile bonus! And don’t forget we aren’t taking into account the miles you earn on your spending to achieve the bonus.
There is potential for even more value!
You could potentially extend the 60,000 miles to two or three economy class round trip reward tickets when Air France KLM offer 25% or 50% off economy class reward tickets with their Promo Rewards sale. In the case of a 50% off sale the flights would only be 10,000 miles one way per person. We have seen 50% off offers in the past so there is always the possibility of it being offered again in the future.
What about business class?
Business Class rewards with Flying Blue start at 5o,000 miles one way from Canada to Europe, North Africa and Turkey. Thus with the 60,000 mile bonus you could get yourself a one way business class reward flight such as this:
Once again, if there are promo rewards you’ll need less miles. We frequently see 25% off business class but there have been offers for 50% off business class. With 50% off you could score a round trip business class ticket with the card bonus! This would easily put the value of the welcome bonus in the $2,000 to $4,000 range if not even higher.
What else does the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard provide?
In addition to receiving the Flying Blue miles as your welcome bonus the Air France KLM Flying Blue World Elite Mastercard provides the following:
- Earn an additional 5 Miles per Euro when booking flights with Air France or KLM
- Earn 1 Mile per C$ spent on all purchases;
- Earn 2 Miles per C$ spent on food and beverages;
- Earn up to 30 Miles per $C spent with selected retail partners;
- Purchases with your Air France KLM World Elite MasterCard® extend the validity of your Miles by 2 years.
- An additional 30XP at card renewal (anniversary bonus)
- Mastercard Travel Pass provided by DragonPass lounge access membership
- Free global Boingo Wi-Fi
- Strong travel insurance including out of province emergency medical insurance, flight delay, trip cancellation/interruption and more
The 5 miles per Euro spent on tickets with Air France or KLM from the card earned on top of the 4 miles you’ll earn as a base member meaning you’ll earn a total of 9 Flying Miles per Euro (If you have FB elite status you’ll earn more). Plus you’ll still earn the 1 mile per C$ spent on those flights.
The card has an $132 annual fee and requires $80,000 personal or $150,000 household income to be considered.
Wrapping it up
For the second time, Air France KLM and Brim have released a welcome bonus that offers Flying Blue miles on their co-brand card. When you apply for the card by June 10 and are approved for it, you can earn up to 60,000 miles + 60 Elite Status qualifying XP! With 60,000 miles you can easily redeem for up to two round trip economy class tickets between Canada and Europe, North Africa and Turkey. With most cards in the market only providing the equivalent of one transatlantic flight or even less with their welcome bonuses, this is definitely an offer to consider.
Click here to learn more and to apply for the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard.
Note: Applications must be submitted by 23:59 ET on June 10, 2024 to receive this offer
This was sponsored by Air France. The views and opinions expressed in this article, however, are purely those of Rewards Canada.
Originally posted on May 16, 2024 @ 12:45 pm