Flying Blue just made a small but important change that fixes one of the most annoying parts of its loyalty program.

Flying Blue Simplifies Mileage Expiration Policy

Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue program has updated its mileage expiration policy, and this is one of those rare changes that is actually better for customers (which makes me think we are due for a devaluation when the other shoe drops…).

As of May 4, 2026, all Flying Blue miles will follow a single, unified expiration rule: your entire balance will remain valid as long as you have any earning activity at least once every 24 months.

That may sound minor, but it’s a big deal.

What’s Changing

Flying Blue is scrapping its confusing system whereby miles newly earned miles did not necessarily extend mileage expiration. In short, crediting a flight to Flying Blue or earning miles with a co-branded credit card tolled the mileage expiration, but other activity, most notably transfers from credit card partners, did not.

That system is gone. Instead:

• All miles share one expiration date
• Any earning activity resets the clock for your entire balance
• The validity period remains 24 months

That means a small credit card transfer is now enough to keep all your miles alive for another two years, even if you have no other account activity.

Why This Is A Big Deal

Under the old system, Flying Blue miles were easy to lose. I had an Award Expert client who lost 400,000 miles. Well, almost.

She had transferred in over 600,000 points for a trip during the pandemic that was ultimately cancelled. For two years, she had no flights credited to Air France, though she did redeem some of those miles during that time, including on an Air France and KLM transatlantic trip. She also transferred over 50,000 miles during a Bilt 100% bonus promo, as she was planning a big family trip. One day, unbeknownst to her, the miles all disappeared….she logged in and found her balance zero (that’s when she called me!)

Thankfully, she had booked a domestic fight from Paris to Nice on Air France the summer before and not put in her mileage number (she flies Delta often, but credits those flights to Delta). I was able to get her miles restored by retroactively crediting that flight to Flying Blue, which reset the two year clock and instantly brought back the expired miles. Absent that, she would have lost over 400,000 miles.

Even though she transferred in miles during that period,  it was not enough under the old policy to keep the 400,000+ “old” miles from expiring.

It was confusing and frustrating policy that punished casual users. This change fixes that.

Now, Flying Blue behaves much more like a “normal” loyalty program: do something once every couple of years and your miles stay alive (though I firmly believe that miles should not expire at all, but that’s another debate for another time).

Just remember that miles still expire after 24 months of inactivity and redeeming miles does not reset the clock, only earning activity does.

Flying Blue Elite members and co-branded credit card holders still enjoy non-expiring miles regardless of activity.

CONCLUSION

Flying Blue has long been one of the more useful programs for transatlantic awards and Promo Rewards. Now it’s also much easier to keep our points alive. One small earning activity every couple of years is all it takes to protect your balance. That’s how it should have worked all along, but I celebrate this very important change.

Hat Tip: One Mile At A Time

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