It may interest some that the Air France/KLM FlyingBlue loyalty program is now a transfer partner with Citi ThankYou Rewards.  For me, this is a lukewarm development, but still a very encouraging sign that Citi is in the market to compete for your loyalty.  To quickly recap, Citi only recently began an airline transfer program for their ThankYou points program, but in the past few months has added some interesting partners, including Singapore KrisFlyer and now FlyingBlue.  The full list of partners, all of whom transfer at 1:1, is as follows:

• Cathay Pacific
• EVA Air
• Etihad Guest
• FlyingBlue
• Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qatar Airways
• Singapore Airlines
• Thai Airways

On the positive side, FlyingBlue provides more space on its own AF/KLM metal than you will find with Delta.  They also allow one way awards at half the price of a round trip.  Unfortunately, the drawbacks include passthrough of fuel surcharges – which can be steep on flights to Europe.  Still, this is a net positive development for those situated near cities like Boston, where SkyTeam is the stronger option to Europe with direct service to Paris, Rome and Amsterdam.  If you are light on Delta or Membership Rewards points, FlyingBlue is your next best option for Skyteam awards.  And before I get blasted for putting Delta at the top, I’m talking partner awards here, folks!

FlyingBlue Promo Awards

One strength of the FlyingBlue program is the quarterly Promo Award chart.  These are discounted mileage, but not discounted fuel surcharge, awards in economy and business from various cities to specific zones (ex. Boston to Europe, and v.v.).

These awards are recently devalued and are no longer the mileage bargain they once were, but as it stands they still come out cheaper mileage-wise than the standard FlyingBlue chart and that of their partners.

Eligible Citi Cards

Citi ThankYou points are transferrable to cardholders having the Citi Prestige, Premier or Chairmans card.  Rather than point you to a specific credit card link, please do what I do and stay informed of the best public offers over at the Saverocity or FlyerTalk Credit Card forums.  These days, it’s good advice in general as sometimes the referral links you find are not the very best offer, even if that is entirely unintentional.