Flying with Airmiles: how to save for Free or Business tickets

Saving Flying Blue Miles

If you are just starting out or want to start saving points or achieving status with, say, KLM, it can be quite overwhelming. At least, that’s what I found. The terms air miles, XPs, Flyingblue, Skyteam and alliance are thrown at you and this can be a bit confusing at first.

Below is an explanation of the terms you want to know to get the most out of your status

Flying Blue

FFlying Blue is the name of KLM and Air France’s savings programme. Flying Blue is the environment where you – as a Dutchman – register if you want to achieve status with KLM and Air France. Note that you do not get this status from Flying Blue, but from Skyteam. Skyteam is an alliance that KLM and AirFrance both belong to.

KLM Airmiles

AAirmiles, also known as miles, can be used for discounts. As soon as you buy a ticket, you see how many air miles and XP that flight earns. You can then use the air miles you receive to buy your next ticket.

Every month, Flying Blue publishes a newsletter with Reward Tickets. These are special offers to various corners of the world, for which you can book a ticket for relatively few air miles.

KLM XP

XXPs are Experience Points. These points refer to your ‘experience’ with Skyteam. The more often you fly and the further you fly, the more XPs you earn. In addition, you earn more XPs with a Business Class ticket than with an Economy ticket.

KLM Skyteam

SSkyteam is the name of the alliance that KLM and AirFrance are part of. An alliance is a group consisting of several airlines. Among others, KLM, AirFrance, Delta, ITA (former Alitalia), China Airlines and many other airlines are part of Skyteam.

In this case, if you want to achieve status, you obtain it from Skyteam (and therefore not Flyingblue). However, here’s the catch: once you achieve status and earn benefits, they are visible in your Flying Blue account.

This does not mean those benefits are only valid with KLM or Air France, the benefits apply to the entire Skyteam alliance and therefore apply worldwide.

Who belongs to Skyteam?

You can find a recent overview of all Skyteam airlines in 2023 here.

What are KLM XP points?

XPs are the points you need to get to maintain your status. Note that these XPs reset every year. If you want to achieve gold status within the Flying Blue (and therefore actually Skyteam) programme, you need 180XP.

If you achieve 210 XP in a year, 180 will be deducted and you will start the next year with 30XP. You will then need another 150 new XP to remain gold for the next year. XPs cannot be used for discounts or tickets.

Silver

To keep your silver status, you need to save 100 XP annually.

Gold

To maintain your gold status, you need to save 180 XP annually.

Platinum

To maintain your platinum status, you need to accumulate 300 XP annually.

How many XP per flight?

The number of XPs you receive per flight depends on the number of miles you fly and in which class you fly. In the table below you will find an overview of the number of XP per class (approximate). Please note that not all Skyteam airlines use the same number of XPs. You can also do so-called Mileage Runs, in which you gather as many XPs as possible with 1 flight route. This is a well-known way for frequent flyers to maintain their status.

Use our XP calculator

	DOMESTIC	MEDIUM (LESS THAN 2000 MILES)	LONG (2,000 – 3,500 MILES)	LONG 2 (3,500 – 5,000 MILES)	LONG 3 (FROM 5,000 MILES)
ECONOMY	2XP	5XP	8XP	10XP	12XP
PREMIUM ECONOMY	4XP	10XP	16XP	20XP	24XP
BUSINESS CLASS	6XP	15XP	24XP	30XP	36XP
FIRST CLASS	10XP	25XP	40XP	50XP	60XP

Flyingblue status

Flyingblue Explorer
Advantages

Save 4 Miles per euro spent
10% discount on the first piece of checked-in baggage

Flyingblue Gold
Advantages

Earn 7 Miles per euro spent
Free access to SkyTeam worldwide lounges with a guest
SkyPriority: priority at the airport
Free seat options 72 hours prior to departure
Free choice of standard seats
Free one extra piece of check-in baggage on SkyTeam flights

Flyingblue Silver
Advantages

Earn 6 Miles per euro spent
Priority at: check-in, baggage drop-off, boarding
Some free seat options 24 hours before departure
Free choice of standard seats
Free one extra piece of check-in baggage on SkyTeam flights

Flyingblue Platinum
Benefits

Earn 8 Miles for every euro spent
Free access to SkyTeam worldwide lounges with a guest
SkyPriority: priority at the airport
Free use of seat options
Free one extra piece of check-in baggage on SkyTeam flights
Platinum Service Line for personal support

Saving Air Miles with flying

To accumulate XPs, you rely on flying hours. However, it is important to check carefully which alliance you fly with and which class you fly. You can find a page for each airline with its benefits and conditions. China Southern, for example, is a Skyteam partner. You can read here what the benefits are of flying with this partner and how many miles and XPs it earns. Check my tips for cheap flight tickets here.Where to earn Air Miles?

Where to earn Air Miles?

If you want to save up for discounts or free tickets faster, there are a number of solutions. For example, Flying Blue recently partnered with Accor. As a result, you earn double miles if you spend a night in one of Accor’s hotels, so a good night’s sleep earns you instant miles.

You can also use an American Express card. American Express offers both general credit cards and special Flyingblue credit cards. The general credit card from American Express offers more benefits, besides earning air miles. You can read more about saving with American Express here.

Tip: You can also earn Flying Blue miles at many shops when you shop online. When you go to your favourite online shop through Earn Online and log in, your miles are automatically credited

Finally, you can save via Airmiles.nl. This also has many savings partners. For example, link your Air Miles card to your AH Bonus card and use it when you refuel at Shell. Please note, when you save via airmiles.nl, you have to convert the saved Air Miles within your Flying Blue account. Currently (January 2025) this is not possible due to a technical malfunction.

How do you start saving?

If you want to start saving, you can easily open a KLM Flying Blue account. Here you can earn miles and XPs without any obligations. Would you like to achieve status and make the most of the partner programme? Then I would take a look at an American Express credit card. Read more about the benefits of an American Express credit card when you travel a lot here.