Flying Blue Changes Miles Expiration
Flying Blue is known for having a complicated miles expiration policy. We frequently see reports in our Facebook group of readers losing miles to expiration.
As of May 4, 2026, all Flying Blue miles in your account now share the same expiration date. Better yet, any qualifying activity will extend the expiration date for 24 months. This is a vast improvement over the current system. Let's discuss how it will work.
Updated: May 2026. Reminder that this is now in effect
Current Miles Expiration Policy
For now, the expiration policy is a little complicated. There are two different expiration policies depending on how you earn the miles. Earning miles by flying extends all of your miles for 2 years. But earning miles by “commercial activities” only extends the miles you earned from partners for 2 years. Essentially, the safest way to extend your miles as it stands right now is to credit a flight to Flying Blue. Otherwise, you risk having miles that expire at different times.
New Miles Expiration Policy
As of May 4, 2026, all of your miles will have the same expiration date. Miles you currently hold with varying expiration dates will be combined into one expiration date and, generously, it will be the latest expiration date of any of the miles you currently hold. For example, if you have 500 miles expiring in 18 months and 25,000 miles expiring in 3 months, now all of your 25,500 miles will expire in 18 months.
Also as of May 4, 2026, any activity in your account will automatically extend all of your miles.
Meanwhile, other positive perks of the program are staying the same. Miles never expire for: members under age 18, Elite and Elite Plus members who have a co-branded card, and members who subscribe to Flying Blue Extra.
Flying Blue Changes Miles Expiration: ToP Thoughts
Nobody likes having their miles expire. While we caution our readers to avoid speculative transfers, sometimes you end up with miles in an account that you can't use as originally intended. With these changes in May, those stranded miles will be easy to extend. This is a great change from Flying Blue and we hope other programs with complicated or restrictive policies will take note.
What do you think about these changes? Will you be more likely to use Flying Blue in the future? Come tell us what you think in the ToP Facebook group.
