Live in the Netherlands? No? How about France? No? Ok, last one, Switzerland? No? Then I’m afraid you’re out of luck if you want to sign up to the branded American Express Flying Blue credit card. But fear not, it’s possible to transfer points from some UK credit cards to your Flying Blue account.
Within this Flying Blue card review we’ll look at the alternative options to the American Express Flying Blue Gold and Silver cards which are currently only available to residents of France, Switzerland and Holland.
Read on to explore the potential opportunities for earning miles with an alternative Flying Blue credit card UK…
Possible Benefits – Flying Blue American Express UK
Before we jump into possible options for alternatives to the Flying Blue American Express credit card, let’s take a look at what you’re missing out on…
Whilst the bad news is that there’s still no way of signing up to either of these cards, the good news is that there are two credit cards in the UK market which offer far better sign-up bonuses! Through the American Express Membership Rewards and Flying Blue partnership you can transfer reward points to the Flying Blue loyalty scheme at a rate of 1 to 1.
At this point you may be wondering why a UK resident would want to earn air miles with a Flying Blue card? Well for those who don’t live in or near London, redeeming long-haul flights with KLM can actually make quite a lot of sense.
With most long-haul flights from small regional airports requiring travellers to hub through a larger airport, it could actually make sense to use one of the 17 UK regional airports to hub through Amsterdam on KLM and then on to your chosen destinations. The total number of air miles is likely to be similar to British Airways however the taxes will be significantly less!
The Options – Alternative Flying Blue Card
As I alluded to earlier, a standard American Express card can double as a Flying Blue credit card as a result of the transfer partnership between the two companies.
Regular readers will know that there are two main credit cards for earning Membership Rewards points. The first is free for the first year and the second comes with a whopping annual fee of £575! I wouldn’t necessarily rule out premium credit cards where the fees are far outweighed by the benefits offered, however I can understand why people would think that no benefits would ever be worth £575! Read on to find out why I have the premium version of the card and can (just about!!) stomach the annual fee…
Free vs Premium? Flying Blue Credit Card UK
Ok, so let’s start with the free card…
The best free card for earning Membership Rewards points is the American Express Gold card which comes with a market-leading 10,000 points when you spend £3,000 in the first 3 months. Now I’m afraid the cards isn’t free forever because after a year those clever people at American Express begin charging £140 pa for the card. Therefore I’d strongly recommend you cancel before the first 12-month period is up! You’ll also receive 1 Membership Reward point (1 Flying Blue mile) for every £1 you spend on the card and 2 airport lounge passes. Read our full review here and if you’d like to benefit from an enhanced sign-up bonus of 12,000 points please use our referral link here.
Ok, now moving on to the premium version…
As I mentioned earlier the American Express Platinum card comes with an annual fee of £575 but it does however offer a nice long list of benefits. These include a 30,000 point sign-up bonus, free family travel insurance, unlimited airport lounge access, elite status with various hotel reward programmes, rental-car insurance, concierge service and more. Read my recent review to see how for a small group of regular travellers these benefits can far outweigh the annual cost of the card, making it a possible replacement for the Flying Blue card…
Flying Blue Card Review Summary
As we’ve seen, unless you’re a resident of either the Netherlands, France or Switzerland you unfortunately cannot sign up to the branded Flying Blue American Express, however all is not lost.
Using either the American Express Gold or Platinum cards you can still earn Flying Blue miles on your everyday spend. In fact these cards offer (in particular the Gold card) far superior benefits than their Flying Blue counterparts….