Good to know. thanks. I figure there might be really cheap flights to AMS, or somewhere interesting in Europe I don't mind visiting... Within USA, I'm not as keen to visit since I've been to most places here. But if "all fare class" earn miles, then I might go somewhere for a long weekend... Will try soon. thanks!

Honestly, you are travelling in 4 months from now. I don't want to dash your hopes. I hope to be wrong but Irishguy28 already highlighted some points raising doubts about this gesture. I would trust something they would say only if I receive a written confirmation, otherwise it's just the agent's word. And considering that you didn't really fly a lot with them and you will fly in 4 months, they cannot call you a frequent flyer to make such a gesture they already refused to many before.

???? I meant a cheapish mileage run in the US or to Canada....that is all that is needed. Or crediting any upcoming Delta flight to FB should do. And I agree with the poster before that it all may fail, since at this point the only thing there is, is your word about some promise in a phone call, if FB would say later that such promises simply never are made. I further have the experience with another airline on an involuntary downgrade that if you call, agents want to move on to another client as soon as they can. In the Netherlands or the US people can be fairly direct if they have to tell an unpleasant message, but that may prolong the call - and finding some nice wording 'it can be solved like this and this, do that' (a solution that in my case did not work at all, as later appeared) gets you off the call at that point. But without real solution. So as others said, I would not trust in full if the nice gesture of the agent in the end will materialise even if you take a flight soon.

You can do relatively simple same-day runs from DTW on Delta for around $250 on August weekends.

Atlanta and Baltimore consistently seem to be the cheapest; Atlanta generally requires a very early departure, so perhaps paying the extra 10 bucks for later departure to BWI might be easier. However, on various dates New York, Chicago and others are not all that much more expensive, and if you want to put in a few hours of sightseeing or culture maybe you can select a destination on that basis rather than merely choosing on price (as I have done in the two illustrated examples below).

If you can stand to add in a night at a hotel (maybe turn this into a bit of a mattress run too, eh?), you can bring the cost of an ATL trip (out Saturday evening, back Sunday morning) to $168.

You only need to book a Basic Economy ticket; you do not need luggage (presumably) and they're relatively short flights so no need to pick a seat. Just remember to book your ticket WITHOUT logging in to your Delta account. The whole purpose of booking this ticket is as an FB rescue mission, so you must use your Flying Blue number ONLY. Be warned that there is a danger that, if you use your Delta login/account AT ANY POINT in the research or booking of this ticket, or later on, in the management/maintenance of the booking, including checking in online or at the airport or identifying yourself to a staff member as a Skymiles status member, the whole purpose of the trip may be defeated as the miles may end up going to your Skymiles account rather than to your Flying Blue account. This also means that you MUST forego all your usual Delta status benefits; don't log in or give them your number or show your card at the desk to get put on an upgrade list, to get extra baggage, to be allowed to pick a seat (I'm not suggesting that your Skymiles status would get you any of these things on a Delta Basic Economy ticket - I have no idea what status perks you may normally expect on a Basic Economy ticket - but you MUST forego them) or to have any other Delta-specific benefits that your Delta Skymiles status may normally give you; you MUST experience this flight as a regular Flying Blue customer. And we have far more reports on these boards about the issue of people with both Skymiles and Flying Blue accounts, where they (sometimes inadvertently) "pollute" their booking with the other account details, and the miles end up going to the wrong account. So if you decide to book a trip solely to attempt to rescue your Flying Blue miles, then for the purposes of that trip, you would be advised to completely forget that you have a Skymiles account, and under no circumstances should you seek to obtain Delta Skymiles status benefits when travelling on this ticket.

It may be safer to book this ticket from a third party agent (and price comparison websites may even give you a discount on what Delta themselves are charging); that way there is no risk of you "accidentally" getting logged in using your Delta/Skymiles account. And please resist the temptation to look up your reservation on the Delta website, again in case you "accidentally" get logged in there and they associate the booking with your Skymiles number without your realisation or actual consent.

I would also strongly caution against doing something like substituting in your Skymiles number after flying the outbound, in case you were thinking that just posting that first outbound flight to your FB account is enough, and now you'd really prefer to post the return leg to your Skymiles account. There is a very real risk that, given that the miles have not yet posted to Flying Blue, the change of number to Skymiles mid-journey will cause ALL miles to post to your Skymiles account, and therefore your Flying Blue account will not get any miles and the journey would have been completely pointless.

"Cancelable/Nonrefundable" ... thats a little sneaky. Every flight is cancelable...just don't show up But typically this term refers to being able to get a refund. Delta (and other airlines I'm sure..) are great at trying to screw pax but still be in the right from a legal perspective.

Thanks again for your advice folks. I also found the cheap DTW-ATL flight for under $200. Honestly not keen on doing a pure "mileage run". Spent an hour looking for something a little more fun/interesting near various USA holidays. Best I can do is DTW-LAS (Vegas) for about $300 return near some holidays that work. I'll keep looking.

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Maybe a final thing to consider - apparently just 60k miles are at stake, if used wisely having a value of about 600 Euro. But many uses such as buying SAF or donations to a good cause only give half that value, 2000 miles per Euro. Then any mileage run thrown in to save the miles should be really cheap, also given the uncertainties expressed above that the miles will be re-instated....otherwise you pay more as the value you (hopefully) get back. Or the flight you take should not be purely a mileage run but is useful in some way, e.g. holidays or a family visit.

Good advice. I do see the 60K miles as equivalent to ~$500-700 in value I'm trying to "retrieve". Lots of good advice given above on where I can fly as a pure mileage run. I've looked at flying to New York city and make a day/weekend of it. but I really don't feel like visiting that city at this moment... Atlanta has almost a repulsion to me (sorry if I offend anywhere from there). I also considered a one way to Denver (DEN) using Delta and then flying a ultra-low-cost airline like Frontier back. Denver is more interesting since I can rent a car and visit their local mountains for a day or three. But I want to make the flight(s) worthwhile. I'm in the middle of some work stuff...but hope to clear up a week in September to fly out-west. It won't be as cheap as a mileage run to Chicago/Denver/NewYork/Atlanta/Batimore, but it will be fun and worthwhile.

I'm also getting my new KLM credit card and should quickly meet the spending limit (before end of August). So I'll at least try to call in and ask them nicely to resurrect my miles... if anything... a data point for the collective here. :-)

A happy ending update to my situation...
I completed a trip (week long flight basic economy on Delta with my FB account on it. $400 for good Saturday-Saturday flights) and the miles posted within 24h on my KLM account after flight. I just got off the phone with the original FB number in my original post. Quickly got talking to agent. Gave her my FB account number and explained in 2 sentence what I'm looking for. She confirmed my flight credit to Seattle, and in a minute, my expired miles is in my account again.

I further asked her if I was lucky and she said this was a policy for customers with expired miles during 3 years of COVID lockdown. It wasn't just for me. I did not ask her when this "policy" ends...

Sorry for not being as "informed" as I used to be, but what do I have to do keep my FB miles from expiring again? :-)
1. Only flying butt-in-seat?
2. credit card spending?
3. Spending at least some miles with a flight or magazine subscription or donation?
4. No way to keep all my miles for ever like some Japanese/Korean airlines...gone after x years?

Miles from flying need miles from flying in order to prevent expiration. Miles from non-flying activities need miles from any source to prevent expiration.

Good to know. Thank you hhdl.

I ask this question because the phone agent told me I must fly to keep my miles from expiring... I got off my butt and did a little googling. I found the following link:

https://www.flyingblue.us/en/program.../tier-benefits

Excerpt paragraph #12:
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12. All your Miles are valid for life as long as you take an eligible flight on Air France, KLM or any airline partners at least once every 2 years, or if you're a Silver, Gold or Platinum member, or if you make a purchase with an eligible co-branded credit card at least once every 2 years. These "Overall extending activities" extend the validity of all Miles 2 years from the date of the activity. You can also extend the validity of Miles earned with all other partners (airline partners not mentioned above, car rental partners, hotel partners, and experience partners) for 2 years by earning Miles with any of these other partners. These "Partial extending activities" with other partners will extend the validity of Miles earned with any of these other partners by 2 years from the date of the activity. Please note, "Partial extending activities" only extend the validity of partial extending activities that occurred after your last overall extending activity, and do not extend the validity of Miles earned from "Overall extending activities".
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So the difference seems to be - My credit card activities will keep my miles alive forever.

If you're not willing to fly at least once every 2 years (and miles acquired by flying extend the lifetime of ALL miles), then you should really consider using the miles up and closing the account down.

But after going to this hassle (and expense) to resurrect the miles, you're surely going to use them now - right?

(Bear in mind that, after what you've reported, you can probably NOT expect to be allowed to recover the miles again in the same way in 2+ years)

I totally agreed...but remember.. COVID happened. I'm also reminded that I was not able to use my credit card based AA miles and Hilton points on anything meaningful the past 3-4 years. Luckily, I was able to keep those. :-)

Haven't stepped on a plane in over 4 years mostly due to COVID, and let an embarrassingly-large amount of miles expire. Contacted FB by e-mail recently and got this reply

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Last time I flew, the qualifying airlines had to be Sky Team but does any airline that earns XP count (thinking of a WS flight)? No ST airline flies to my region after DL dropped service 4 years ago and getting to the other ST-served airports is a big of a chore (we're insular).