Air France-KLM Flying Blue enhances mileage expiry policy

Air France-KLM Flying Blue is making a change to its mileage expiry policy, and — in a surprising move for an industry that loves to dress up devaluations as enhancements — it’s actually member-friendly.

From 4 May 2026, Flying Blue will adopt a simpler expiry policy where any sort of earning activity will extend the life of the entire miles balance by a further 24 months. 

This replaces the current system that groups your miles into separate buckets, and certain activities, like transferring credit card points, will not extend the validity of miles earned from other activities like flights. 

Flying Blue enhances mileage expiration policy

Current policy

The current mileage expiration policy for Flying Blue is somewhat convoluted:

• All miles are valid for 24 months
• Any flight or co-brand card spending will extend the validity of all your miles by a further 24 months
• All other activities will only extend the miles earned from Flying Blue partners by a further 24 months

For example, suppose you had 3,000 miles from taking an Air France flight, and 10,000 miles from Citi Singapore. You then transfer a further 20,000 miles from HSBC Singapore. This transfer will extend the validity of the 10,000 miles from Citi Singapore, but not the 3,000 miles from the Air France flight.

Yes, I know. It’s very unintuitive. The current system basically divides your miles into two categories, and while flight/co-brand activity can extend the life of your entire balance, partner activity only extends the partner balance.

But anyway, I wouldn’t waste too much brain power trying to understand it, because it’s on the way out…

Revised policy

From 4 May 2026, Flying Blue will introduce a much simpler policy:

• All miles will be valid for 24 months
• Any eligible earning activity will extend the validity of your entire balance by a further 24 months

Basically, any kind of earning activity will give you a fresh 24-month validity, whether it’s taking a flight, staying at a hotel, renting a car, transferring points from credit cards etc.

For the avoidance of doubt, this will apply to all miles in your balance at that point, whether they were earned before or after 4 May 2026. To put it another way, all your miles will have one expiration date, and any eligible earning activity will push that expiry by a further 24 months.

If you have miles with multiple expiry dates before 4 May 2026, they will be consolidated and the latest possible expiry date applied to the balance.

However, it should be noted that burning (i.e. redemption) activity will not renew your miles. This puts it at odds with other programmes like Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, where earning or burning a single mile will extend the life of your entire balance by a further 18 months.

Who enjoys permanent non-expiring miles?

Flying Blue miles do not expire if you are:

• Aged below 18, or
• A co-brand cardholder, or
• A subscriber of Flying Blue Extra, or
• A Flying Blue Silver, Gold, Platinum or Ultimate member

This will continue to be the case even after 4 May 2026.

Which banks offer transfers to Flying Blue?

As a reminder, the following credit card points can be transferred to Flying Blue.

Once 4 May 2026 rolls around, feel free to make a transfer from any of these programmes to “re-up” your entire balance by a further 24 months.

Conclusion

Flying Blue will be making a positive change to its mileage expiry policy from 4 May 2026, when any earning activity will extend the entire balance’s lifespan by a further 24 months. This is a welcome change from the status quo, which involves juggling different dates depending on the source of the miles. 

Existing miles will be consolidated with the latest possible expiry date applied, and Flying Blue elites, youths, co-brand cardholders and Flying Blue Extra subscribers continue to enjoy non-expiring miles, as they do now.

With this change, there should be no reason for your Flying Blue miles to expire- simply make a small top-up now and then from whatever transferrable points currencies you have.