For anyone trying to rack up Flying Blue XP without relying on credit cards, Europe business class is by far the best value in my experience.
You can often find roundtrip business class fares around 400 EUR on AF or KLM within Europe, sometimes even cheaper via partners like SAS, usually with a connection through CDG, AMS, or CPH. That’s 60 XP per trip, which means just three of those runs gets you to Gold.
Long haul business sounds tempting, but it’s often many times the price for not even double the XP. The math just doesn’t work out unless you actually need to go long haul.
Same with SAF contributions. They’re nice in theory, but if you’re spending 1k on fuel credits, you probably should’ve just booked a higher cabin in the first place and earned more XP naturally.
If your goal is status as efficiently as possible, short haul Europe business is hard to beat.
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