Best Ways to Book KLM Business Class With Points and Miles

The oldest airline still operating under its original name, KLM is the national airline of the Netherlands and has been operating for more than a century. And, of course, since its first flight in 1920, the airline has undergone some significant changes. For one, KLM introduced World Business Class in 1994, offering an elevated travel experience for passengers on intercontinental routes. And, in 2004, KLM completed a merger with Air France, and the two airlines are both now subsidiaries of the same holding company.

KLM has also continued to improve its business-class product over the years. And, while KLM’s business class didn’t rank among the top business-class products in the airline industry in 2024, it’s still a product worth experiencing. In KLM long-haul business class, you’ll enjoy a complimentary glass of champagne upon boarding, a comfortable lie-flat seat, an amenity kit filled with self-care products and delicious in-flight dining. Plus, KLM business class has a quirky trick up its sleeve: a miniature Delft Blue house filled with gin gifted to all intercontinental business-class passengers at the end of the flight.

So, if you want to experience KLM business class (and maybe get your own collectible Delft Blue house) without spending a ton of cash, follow along as we explain the best ways to book KLM business-class awards with points and miles. We’ll also briefly discuss what you can expect when flying in KLM business class.

What to Expect in KLM Business Class

The amenities and experience in KLM business class vary depending on whether you’re flying intercontinental or regional. When taking regional flights with KLM (which are usually operated with Airbus A321neo, Boeing 737, Embraer 175, Embraer 190 or Embraer 195-E2 aircraft), you’ll experience KLM’s Europe Business Class.

The Europe Business Class product features 7.5 more centimeters of legroom than standard economy and your seat reclines further than standard economy seats. Plus, you’ll always be seated either by the window or in an aisle seat with the middle seat empty (with the exception of KLM Cityhopper flights in which each row contains two seats). So, as you can tell, the Europe Business Class product isn’t all that impressive.

KLM’s World Business Class product, which is available on KLM intercontinental flights, is much more impressive. In World Business Class, you’ll enjoy lie-flat seats that are 20 inches wide and can recline into a 75-inch fully flat bed. All seats are equipped with a personal entertainment monitor between 16 and 18 inches, extra storage space and in-seat power and USB ports. World Business Class passengers will also have complimentary in-flight Wi-Fi for messaging apps, so you can send messages from the sky. Plus, you’ll always have a window or an aisle seat.

All passengers in World Business Class will be welcomed onto the plane with their choice of champagne or orange juice. You’ll be offered more hot and cold beverages throughout the flight, including a curated selection of white wines, red wines, champagnes, cocktails, beers, spirits, mixed drinks and more. And, of course, you can ask the staff for a snack or a drink at any time.

For your meal, you can choose either a cold starter or a vegetarian soup, a main dish and then a dessert. These options are updated every three months and are designed by world-class chefs. At the time of writing, the current menu was created by top Dutch chef Jonnie Boer and the main dishes include salmon a la Flamande with hollandaise sauce, roasted cauliflower in a creamy madras curry sauce and “taste of delicacies” (which includes bulgogi-inspired chicken thigh, tsukune-style beef served with hot bean sauce, Korean steamed eggplant and rice with kimchi).

Passengers in World Business Class will also receive an amenity kit containing self-care essentials, including a toothbrush, toothpaste, an eye mask, a pen, socks, lip balm and face cream from Marie-Stella-Maris.

And, of course, at the end of the flight, World Business Class passengers will receive a gift of their own Delft Blue house, a miniature ceramic house filled with Dutch gin. KLM releases a new Delft Blue house each year on its birthday (October 7), which means there are currently 106 different collectible Delft Blue houses in existence. There’s even a KLM Houses app where you can read about the inspiration for each Delft Blue house design and track your progress toward collecting them all.

All passengers flying in KLM business class (both Europe Business Class and World Business Class) will have SkyPriority, which includes dedicated areas for luggage check-in and drop-off, priority security line and immigration clearance, priority line at ticket offices and transfer desks, priority boarding and priority baggage delivery.

When flying in KLM business-class Standard and Flex fares, you’ll have complimentary access to KLM Crown Lounges (which are located in Amsterdam, Toronto and Houston). Passengers in KLM business-class Light fares will have the option to access KLM Crown Lounges for 65 euros (about $73), and Flying Blue elite status members receive a 25% discount.

KLM business-class Standard and Flex fares also include access to SkyTeam Alliance partner lounges at departure and transfer airports. You can search for these lounges and see each one’s access requirements using the Lounge Finder tool on the SkyTeam Alliance website.

Best Programs Through Which to Book KLM Business Class

KLM is a member airline of SkyTeam Alliance, which means that KLM business-class flights can be booked through several SkyTeam frequent flyer programs. KLM also has partnerships with several non-SkyTeam airlines that allow you to book KLM business-class awards through their frequent flyer programs.

In the following sections, we’re going to look at some of the best frequent flyer programs through which to book KLM business-class awards. We’ll be taking into account the rates charged by each of these programs as well as how easy it is to earn miles with each program.

Air France-KLM Flying Blue

Many times, the best frequent flyer program through which to book KLM business-class flights is KLM’s own Flying Blue program (which is shared jointly with Air France). You can book award flights through either the Air France or the KLM website. Both sites are essentially the same, so the site you book through won’t affect the award rate or the user experience.

One major advantage of the Flying Blue program is that it’s a transfer partner of every major U.S. credit card rewards program, including American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Brex, Capital One Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Wells Fargo Rewards. This means that Flying Blue miles are very easy to earn, as you can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio to your Flying Blue account from any of these credit card programs.

And, with a bit of searching, you can often find high-value redemptions for KLM business-class award flights. The Flying Blue program uses a dynamic pricing model to price most of the award flights it offers. It also offers certain flights at “saver levels,” meaning that their prices are fixed.

The best way to find these saver-level awards is to leave the “Travel dates” field empty when conducting your award search.

This will trigger the calendar view once you click the “Search flights” button, which will allow you to see the dates on which saver-level award flights are available. We chose to search for a round-trip business-class award flight between Washington, D.C. (IAD) and Amsterdam (AMS), which is a route primarily served by KLM.

We were able to find a round-trip KLM business-class award itinerary between Washington, D.C. (IAD) and Amsterdam (AMS) at the saver level for 120,000 miles plus about $598 in taxes and fees.

If you were to book the exact same flights on the same dates with cash through the Air France website, it would cost you about $3,447.

Thus, by booking this flight with Flying Blue miles instead of cash, factoring in the taxes and fees you’d have to pay for the award flight, you’d be getting a value of about 2.4 cents per mile, which is good.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Because KLM and Virgin Atlantic are both members of SkyTeam Alliance, you can also find KLM business-class award flights through the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program. Unfortunately, after searching many different routes, it seems that finding KLM business-class award space on transatlantic routes is impossible through this program.

However, if you want to book a short-haul KLM business-class award flight, you may be able to find award space through the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program. And, sometimes, you can find value that’s slightly above average on these types of award flights.

For example, we found a round-trip KLM business-class award itinerary between Amsterdam (AMS) and Budapest (BUD) for 52,000 Virgin points and about 125 euros (about $140) in taxes and fees.

If you were to book the same flights on the same dates with cash through the Air France website, it would cost you $756.

So, factoring in the taxes and fees you’d have to pay to book the award flight, this redemption would give you a value of about 1.2 cents per point.

As you can see, this redemption and other similar short-haul KLM business class award redemptions don’t provide very impressive value per point through the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program.

However, this program is an option for booking these types of awards, especially if you plan on transferring credit card points. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a transfer partner of most of the major U.S. credit card rewards programs, including American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Wells Fargo Rewards.

Other Frequent Flyer Programs

There are several other programs through which you can book KLM business-class award flights. However, these other programs either don’t offer favorable rates for these types of awards or they don’t allow transfers from credit card rewards programs, making their points or miles difficult to earn.

KLM business-class awards can be booked through the Korean Air Skypass program at excellent rates due to the fact that this program prices partner awards according to a fixed region-based award chart. For example, you can book a round-trip business-class itinerary between North America and Europe for just 80,000 miles. Unfortunately, this program doesn’t allow transfers from any of the major U.S. credit card rewards programs.

You can also find KLM business-class award space through the Delta SkyMiles program, which may be a decent option for U.S.-based travelers who have a lot of SkyMiles in their account balance. American Express Membership Rewards points also transfer to the Delta SkyMiles program at a 1:1 ratio. However, since Delta SkyMiles uses a dynamic pricing model for all partner award flights, you shouldn’t expect to get much more than 1 cent per mile in value on these redemptions.

The Bottom Line

KLM offers a solid business-class product on intercontinental flights that includes lie-flat seats, personal entertainment monitors between 16 and 18 inches, extra storage space, airport lounge access and SkyPriority access (which includes perks like priority security line, priority boarding and priority baggage delivery). Business-class passengers on intercontinental flights will also receive gourmet meals and complimentary beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic). They even offer a collectible Delft Blue house, which is a miniature ceramic house filled with Dutch gin, at the end of your flight.

However, since cash prices for KLM business-class tickets can be rather high, you may want to book with points or miles instead. In general, the best program through which to book KLM business-class award flights is KLM’s own Flying Blue program. While this program prices most award flights using a dynamic pricing model, you can still find KLM business-class awards at fixed “saver” rates that offer outsized value. To find these awards, leave your travel dates empty when searching for your flight to access the calendar view.

KLM business-class flights can also be booked through several other programs, including Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Delta SkyMiles, Korean Air Skypass and more. However, each of these programs either limits the routes on which you can find KLM business-class award space, prices these awards dynamically (offering right around 1 cent per mile in value) or doesn’t allow transfers from U.S. credit card rewards programs. For these reasons, the Flying Blue program will almost always be your best bet for booking KLM business-class award flights.