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Transfer Amex Membership Rewards Points to Air France/KLM With a 25% Bonus

Brendan Dorsey
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Brendan Dorsey is an Associate News Editor at TPG who covers nearly everything for TPG including aviation, credit cards, points, miles, ride-hailing services and more. He previously worked for TIME.
March 18, 2019
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4 min read
Transfer Amex Membership Rewards Points to Air France/KLM With a 25% Bonus
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American Express Membership Rewards are some of the most valuable points, allowing you to transfer to 20 different travel partners.

Now American Express is upping the value even more with a fantastic bonus when transferring Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue, Air France and KLM's mileage program. Now through Apr. 29, 2019 you'll receive a 25% bonus when transferring MR points to Flying Blue. There appears to be no limit to the amount of points you can transfer. Normally you can transfer 1,000 Amex points to 1,000 Flying Blue miles, but with the bonus you'll receive 1,250 miles for every 1,000 Amex points you transfer.

Membership Rewards-earning cards include:

  • The Platinum Card® from American Express
  • American Express® Gold Card
  • The Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card from American Express
  • American Express® Business Gold Card
  • The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
  • The Blue Business®️ Plus Credit Card from American Express

Flying Blue announced changes to its award chart last year — introducing a dynamic system that can result in some wacky prices (although Travel is Free's guide gives a good view of what you can generally expect to pay). Still, this transfer bonus can make for some great redemptions.

Normally, a one-way flight from New York to Berlin (TXL) or Rome (FCO) in business class would cost 53,000 miles plus taxes and fees. With the 25% bonus, that means you'll only need to transfer 43,000 Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue for this award, which is a steal for a flight that normally costs a couple thousand dollars. Premium cabin availability on Air France and KLM is usually pretty great when booking through Flying Blue too.

There's much joy in snagging a cheap business class fare, like on this Air France 777. (Photo by Darren Murph / The Points Guy)

Other sweet spots include economy flights from the US to Europe from 43,000 miles round-trip or US to Israel from 50,000 miles round-trip. You can even find business-class flights from the US' West Coast to Northern African destinations like Marrakech, Morocco (RAK) for just 53,000 miles one-way. Flying Blue promo awards can sometimes take the cost of US to Europe economy flights down to 22,000 miles round-trip, meaning you'd only need to transfer 18,000 Amex points in that case.

Business class on the upper deck of KLM's 747-400. Image by Becca Denenberg / The Points Guy.

Flying Blue has some other solid options in its award chart. You can fly from the US to Hawaii on Delta for just 17,500 miles one-way or 35,000 round-trip in coach. With the bonus you'd only need to transfer 28,000 Membership Rewards for a round-trip flight. You could also fly from the US to Mexico for as little as 24,000 points round-trip, since Flying Blue only charges 29,000 miles for a round-trip flight.

If you don't have enough miles for your preferred redemption after transferring your MR points to Flying Blue, remember that you can also transfer Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points and Marriott Bonvoy points to Flying Blue. Transfers from Membership Rewards to Flying Blue should occur instantly.

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The biggest thing to note before transferring points to Flying Blue is that it charges significant fees on its award tickets for Air France and KLM flights. It's definitely worth checking the pricing of your preferred route through the Air France website and its miles estimator before you initiate a transfer.

Bottom Line

Regardless of the bonus, Flying Blue is still a solid mileage program to transfer your points to — and the promotion makes it easier to justify moving points out of the Membership Rewards system. As always, we normally don't advise a speculative transfer since your points will be stuck with Flying Blue once completed and won't have the flexibility of being transferrable to other partners. Only move points if you have a specific redemption in mind.