An Overview of Flying Blue - Singapore's most underrated Frequent Flyer Program

I'm going to make the argument that Flying Blue is the most underrated Frequent Flyer Program (FFP) available to Singapore credit card holders. Let's start with some simple facts.

What is Flying Blue?

Flying Blue is the FFP of Air France, KLM, and Transavia. I believe Flying Blue is the best FFP of Skyteam Alliance too.

How to earn Flying Blue miles using credit cards issued in Singapore?

You can earn Flying Blue miles using cards issued by Citibank, HSBC, and OCBC. It is also possible to transfer your Heymax miles to Flying Blue.

The Award Chart

Unlike Krisflyer, Flying Blue does not have an award chart. Flight awards follow dynamic pricing.

Awesome Feature #1 - Competitive Award Flights to Europe

Europe is probably a Singaporean's third most favourite travel destination (after Japan, and Thailand), so having cheap award flights to Europe is a plus point. Business award flights to Europe starts from 70000 miles plus taxes and surcharges (approximately around 200USD).

Here's an example:

Here's a table showing how Flying Blue compares to other major FFPs:

Yes, Flying Blue may not have the lowest taxes but the miles required to redeem an award are competitive compared to other programs.

In addition to the competitive pricing, Air France/KLM, as major European airlines, can fly you to all the European destinations that you can think of. This is unlike redeeming an award on SIA or Qatar where you are restricted by their European network. If you want a flight to Stavanger? KLM will get you there. If you want a flight to Nantes, Air France will take care of it.

Awesome Feature #2 - Surprisingly Useful Partners for Asia Travel

Flying Blue has a very useful list of partners for Singaporeans who do a lot of Asian travel. Flying Blue partners in the region include: Bangkok Airways, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Garuda Indonesia, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines, Vietnam Airlines and Xiamen Air. What this means is that whenever you fly with any of the airlines listed above, you can credit your flight mileage to Flying Blue.

Combine that with the miles you earn from credit cards, and you will be able to build a critical mass of miles for award redemptions. Don’t underestimate this.

Flying Blue is not just great for flights to Europe, you can also redeem cheap flights to select Asian Destinations.

Take Seoul for example, Flying Blue will only charge you 45500 miles and approximately 65SGD in taxes and surcharges for a business class seat on Korean Air.

For a similar flight, Krisflyer will charge you a similar amount in taxes but 52000 miles instead.

Given that Asiana Airlines will be acquired by Korean Air in the near future, this means that you can't redeem Krisflyer miles for a Star Alliance award on Asiana, reducing the total number of award seats to Seoul. Redeeming Flying Blue for Korean Air will prove to be a very useful hack!

Alternatively, you can build an itinerary that allows you to travel to Taipei for 27000 miles and 130SGD, flying both Malaysia Airlines and China Airlines.

Krisflyer will set you back by 34000 miles and 65SGD instead for a direct flight.

Flying Blue is really competitive here, IF you don't mind a connection. An advantage of this redemption is that you can enjoy the various Oneworld Lounges at Changi Airport!!!

Awesome Feature #3 - A Simple Search Engine

I’m not saying that Flying Blue has the best search engine but it is really simple to use. Flying Blue will list all possible flight combinations they have, including partner redemptions. This is unlike Krisflyer where you have to toggle around to find partner awards.

Awesome Feature #4 - Readily Available Awards

Flying Blue practices dynamic pricing, which means that award tickets are always available – at a price. I don’t suggest anyone splurging more than 100000 miles (no matter which program you choose to use) on a single business ticket to Europe but what makes Flying Blue awesome is how you can find good value redemptions easily.

Take a Singapore to Manchester flight for example (above). For October 2024, there are 4 days where we can find a ticket for 70000 miles, and 10 days where you can get a ticket for 77000 miles. You can’t find this level of availability using other programs such as Krisflyer and Asia Miles.

For anyone with a family, and planning a trip to Europe this winter, I can also find tickets for up to 4 pax now starting from 70000 miles per pax (the chart above depicts the availability for flights to Manchester). You can find a similar level of availability for other destinations.

Conclusion

Flying Blue is an underrated program and I think it deserves more attention. You can find good redemption opportunities easily for trips to Europe and within Asia, and it is not difficult to accumulate enough miles to make the redemption. Cheap flights to Europe, a simple search engine and readily available awards, what more do you want?

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