Flying Blue American Express

Het jaarlijkse belletje met Amex zit er weer op. Hier een zilveren FB Amex kaart.

1. 50 Euro korting op de jaarbijdrage en 3 maanden dubbele punten.
2. 20.000 FB miles en 3 maanden dubbele punten.

Ben uiteraard voor optie 2 gegaan! In voorgaande jaren was het aanbod namelijk altijd 10.000 FB miles. Was blij met dit aanbod. Misschien omdat ik in december aardig wat uitgaven met de kaart heb gedaan...? Nieuwe vaatwasser, een ticket voor de meivakantie gekocht en nog wat kledingaankopen die ook lekker aantikken.

 

Dat is een uitstekend aanbod voor zilver, het is het normale aanbod bij Gold.

 

Zag net in de mail volgens FB een ''speciaal offer'' voor aanvraag van de fb amex kaarten.
silver 1ste jaar gratis en 10k miles
gold 50% off 1ste jaar en 20k miles
platinum 50% off 1ste jaar en 30k miles

 

Aanbod voor Gold is minder dan via een referral, Platinum is beter.

 

Prima deal! Niet eerder gezien bij een Silver card. Heb je deze al lang? Misschien dat daarom 20k miles geboden wordt.

 

Ga mijn vijfde jaar straks in. Tot nu toe 3 x 10k aangeboden gekregen.

Zo heel hoog is mijn spend ook weer niet. Denk iets van 500 per maand gemiddeld.

Ik was ook verbaasd over de 20k. Ik herhaalde zijn opties nog eens met de 20k en toen bevestigde hij inderdaad dat het om 20k ging.

 

Hoop dat je het gesprek hebt opgenomen Ik heb 2x iets aangeboden gekregen wat niet standaard was en uiteindelijk nooit gekregen.

Ik geef zelf een kleine €200.000,- per jaar uit (zakelijk), maar dat lijkt verder weinig uit te maken.

 

Dear Forum,

Apologies, but I'm not able to speak Dutch yet, as I have just moved here. I would be very grateful if some experienced fliers could help me with some advice, as I've got to know FB and the FB AMEX only recently.

I'll fly frequently in the next years and am already a fresh FB member and am thinking of getting an FB AMEX as well. My situation will be roughly the following:

- 1x a month or 1.5 months on average I'll fly AMS-LHR
- 1x per year or 1.5 years on average I'll fly AMS-AKL (Auckland, NZ)
- 1x or 2x per year on average I'll fly AMS-VIE
- probably 4-5x per year on average to conferences (AMS - ???, mix between short, medium and long haul)

From that I would estimate that I'll reach FB Silver in the first year and possibly FB Gold in the second. Would you agree?

Which FB AMEX would you recommend for my situation? I was thinking the Gold card, but I'm not 100% sure. Is a Gold card suitable for a PhD student?

Thanks for any help!

 

You will reach Silver. A European return flight will give you 10 XP . For Silver you need 100 XP. After reaching Silver you need 180 XP to reach Gold status within 1 year.
A FB AMEX Gold card gives you an additional 30 XP once a year. Via a referral the FB AMEX Gold card is free the first year and you will recieve 20.000 miles as well.

 

I would always take the FB Amex Gold card, since you will get 30XP, 20.000 points and it's free. Don't go for Platinum, since it's too expensive (I believe) if you set it off against the benefits

 

Hi @Schroed_2c and first welcome to Insideflyer NL! We'd like to know you better and you can introduce yourself in this topic.

Regarding your questions about the FB program please read the forums dedicated to FB. If i calculate correctly you earn 10 XP per round trip to a short/medium destination <2000 miles. i.e LHR,VIE and mostly all of Europe.
You can easily double that amount when flying in Europe by flying via CDG (Paris Airport). For those tricks please read this forum.

For your question about the AMEX. There a 2 different products in the Netherlands which are the regular and the FB one. For the Silver variant of the card you earn 15 XP per year. For Gold and Platinum its 30 and 60 XP.

If you like to apply for one of those you must have an dutch bankaccount. You can easily open one. Therefore AMEX wil ask you about your income. If u are a student like me there aren't any issues about that.

As said above the best choice for the AMEX one is the FB gold one. This one is free in the first year,earns 20k miles and gives you 30 XP. You can easily apply for it via one of the referrals in the signature of many members.

There is a second choice when getting a silver one earn 15 XP and upgrade after 6 months. With this choice you will earn 45 XP in a calendar year.

 

In addition to the above I fully agree that FB Gold would be fine, since the card is free due to the current temporary referral promotion. That might change in case you'll have to pay the hefty fee for the FB Gold card after one year, but given your schedule I doubt whether you even need the Amex to renew your status once qualified:

10/yr AMS-LHR: 100 XP
1/yr AMS-AKL: 48 XP (may vary depending route and airline)
1/yr AMS-VIE: 10 XP
= 158 XP / year + additional flights

Of course for the first year you'll need 100 XP to reach FB silver and those XPs will be deducted once silver had been reached. Given your travel schedule, requesting the FB Gold Amex would speed up reaching Flying Blue Silver and sequentially Gold status with approx. 3 months, so you'll benefit 6 extra flights from lounge access and free luggage.
After the first half a year, in addition to your minimum flight schedule, the extra conference visits on itself would add up to qualifying for Gold without the need of an Amex card.

Keep in mind that the card will only be delivered to a Dutch address and that you'll need a Dutch bank account in order to apply for any Dutch Amex card.
Furthermore, all calculations are based on exclusively flying Skyteam, which might add up a couple of € every flight, mainly on the flights towards London (but for longhaul KL is competitive enough, especially when your dates are flexible).

In case you'd like the freedom to use any airline, you can also forget about status with KL and use the classic Amex Platinum card (29,95/month for 1 year) to get the lounge access in AMS/LHR/AKL/VIE, pretty much anywhere in the world, regardless the airline you're flying. It will also get you priority security + priority immigration in AMS for all outbound flights + inbound from non-Schengen via Privium. That is a much faster way to travel than using KL status which only grants priority security access at AMS. But it won't give you free check-in luggage. Your flight to AKL might end up 80 euros more expensive this way.

It all depends on your preferences.. what are the KL Gold benefits you're after?

 

Thanks for all the quick and extensive answers! Really awesome! I see that potentially with one or the other trick FB Platinum would be in reach after some time.

I am fairly convinced that I am going for FB AMEX Gold and FB Status for now since I am based in AMS and will almost exclusively fly out of there. The benefits I'm after mostly mostly easy traveling (priority lines and lounge), the occasional free extra luggage (esp. To AKL) and free flights or upgrades (esp. Business upgrade to AKL). Also, I would assume that the airline treats their status customers (esp. Gold and Platinum) better and maybe more accommodating / willing with special requests if they come up? And I'm aware that flying KLM is more expensive e.g. to LHR than budget airlines for example but I was thinking that in the long run the status and miles will pay off.

My old credit card expires soon so I would need one anyways, even if it's just for the travel insurance.

Since it came up, may I ask: What is more wise to do (esp. In my situation)? Use the FB AMEX or the classic AMEX? I'll be based in AMS for at least 4 years but then potential move. Could it be more useful to use the classic AMEX Gold if I want to transfer miles after those years?

 

Amex classic card points can be transferred to several airline or hotel partners, but given that you'd like to take an upgrade for your AKL flight, here's a quick calculation how to get there - to avoid any disappointment after choosing any method.
An upgrade for AMS-AKL could easily cost you (one way, 2 legs) 160.000 miles, if there is availability at all. You'll get 4 miles for every base euro you'll spend with KL, or 5 or 6 when reached Silver or Gold status. So for an average of 4.8 points per euro spent, you'll need to spend 33.000 euro at KL before you'll reach your one-way long haul business upgrade and cross your fingers that there's any seats available for upgrade. In economy you'll need 2 longhaul flights to AKL + 200 return trips to London to support your business upgrade. The FB Amex helps you with an additional mile per euro spent, on all your expenses at retailers accepting Amex (fairly limited within the US) and obviously, using any referral on the forum secures the first 20k miles.

Free flights intra-Europe, especially with the monthly promos, can be reached after spending approx. 4.000 euro with KL .
Keep in mind that the 'free' flights are not free within Europe, you'll have to pay the miles + approx 70 euros (intra Europe) on taxes.

KL is no Santa Claus when it comes to their reward tickets. The classic Amex points on the other hand have a very bad conversion to Flying Blue miles (5:4), so if you're choosing a classic Amex it'd be better to use other partners to transfer to.

 

Oh wow, ok. Do you then save money with FB (or frequent flyer programs in general) in the long run at all compared to choosing a cheaper suitable flight any time? I've never flown as regular as my planned schedule looks like before, so I don't know too much about the real practical frequent flyer club experience.

That's another thing I'd be after - saving money in the medium to long run. Or at least spending roughly the same and having the benefit of a better experience.

 

If flying regularly with the same airline/alliance it saves money. This is possible due to the fact you got acces to priority check-in/security and the lounge. This can be a huge time saver so you've got time left to work for example.
If saving money is the main priority then it is better to look at sharp prices when flying short haul and take advantage of cheap businessclass deals when flying long haul. The businessclass deals will get you more XP and give you the comfort throughout the journey.

 

+ free luggage. Depending on how often you'd like to check bags, the fee will be waived when flying KL. Most frequent flyers are very happy with their status and there surely is a large emotional factor in there. If you scan this forum, you'll notice that many people even prefer to take connecting flights rather than direct ones or even depart from Dusseldorf or Brussels, then connect via Amsterdam to get to their final destination, just to get an extra flight segment = extra XP to gain or maintain status.

If you're not too sensitive to the emotional part but rather focus on the financial part, it's an easy calculation. Count your in-airport spend (coffee, sandwiches) + luggage fees to see what FB Gold status is worth for you and compare that with the extra cost of flying KL-only. Don't count too much on saving money with the miles If you don't spend much on luggage, see if your in-airport spend adds up to the 29,95/month Amex classic platinum fee. If that's the case, take that one instead of the FB gold card, since you'll get the lounge access + AMS priority immigration (not part of any FB status) + security (part of FB Gold/Plat status).

 

I wouldn't overcomplicate it (unless you are going to put serious continuous effort in it, like some people here ). Try to stick with one airline/alliance (KLM/Skyteam makes sense when you live in the Netherlands) and get the matching creditcard, at least for year one, so you get the extra 30XP.
Free suitcases, discount/free economy comfort seats, lounge access, fast track security are all good and tangible benefits.Also, since all miles go into your Flying Blue account, you have the possibilities to use your miles in the plane for upgrades (160K miles sounds steep to me, could also be 100K). This is of course not possible if you have the points in an American Express account since you have to transfer them and that is not instantly done.

 

I agree, the FB Platinum card is too expensive so I would go for the FB Gold. In my opinion 160.000 miles for an upgrade is very steep. Last October I booked a return business class ticket to Toronto for 64.000 miles. It was a special offer, but in the promo awards sometimes there are nice offers.

 

Huge difference: Toronto is a KL destination.
@Schroed_2c specifically asked for AMS-AKL, which is absolutely impossible for 64k miles. Return trip includes 4 long haul flights, never to be bookable on a single PNR as promo reward, since not KL destination.