Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program has posted details of its 50% off promo awards for travel through mid-April.
You can book discounted awards for travel between specific cities in North America and all of Europe.
(Promo awards also include travel between Europe and other regions of the world, but here I focus just on North America where most of my readers are — sorry folks reading in South America and Asia!)
The only cities offering discounted business class are New York JFK and Toronto, Air France business class can be booked to any destination in Europe for 25,000 miles each way.
That is, you can fly from New York or Toronto to anywhere in “Europe 1/2/3” (via Paris) which are:
- Europe 1: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom
- Europe 2: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden
- Europe 3: Albania, Algeria, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Canary Islands, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Western Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Tunisia, Ukraine.
I don’t generally like the rest of the rewards because Flying Blue does add fuel surcharges to most redemptions and even when redeeming coach at half off you’re still paying much of the cost of a coach ticket in ‘taxes and fees’.
But at half off, and if there’s award space, it can even be worthwhile buying a ticket to and from New York or Toronto to start the award.
American Express points transfer instantly to Flying Blue, in my experience.
25k for business class is a STEAL! JFK to Europe 3 via CDG is definitely worth it if you can find space
Looked over the Flying Blue award chart and discovered that the arrogant French had moved Cayenne (French Guiana) from South America to the Caribbean and Indian Ocean. The nerve of these people! There is a big hole in South America now where French Guiana used to be.
Hi Gary. What can I do if I already have a OW award from Jfk-Ams on Flying blue for 50k points? Thanks.
The fees make this almost worthless. Do they charge them from Canada and South America?
@ Winston You can pay the 70 euros to cancel and redeposit. You should be able to do this online, but it had been having problems so you may need to call in. If you do it online, you won’t have to pay anything as the cancelation fee will come from the refunded taxes. Just remember that promo awards cannot be redeposited.
I wonder if the round trip To/From Washington actually prices out at 12,500 miles or is it just a typo. I am guessing the latter but who knows!
What are estimated taxes/ fees to Europe roughly? As bad as BA?
I’m using points to fly BOS>AMS one way on Flying Blue (Delta metal) in April in economy 25K and $19.20.
On my last flight with the promo taxes were $900 flying Chicago to Oslo Bus. class.
Gary – you say -But at half off, and if there’s award space, it can even be worthwhile buying a ticket to and from New York or Chicago to start the award.
I do not see Chicago listed for business class?
@Juki – meant to say toronto 🙂
Can l use Delta Skymiles to book a ticket on KLM and if so how would l go about doing that? (sorry l’m a newbie and it’s confusing to figure out how alliances work). What if Delta flies that route too? Am l restricted to using Skymiles on only Delta? Or on an alliance member only if Delta has no routes to my destination.
@Lively: 25k one way or RT? Are the taxes low Bc it’s delta metal? Can one use the promo to fly delta metal and avoid the crazy $900 taxes?
Thanks Charlie. Could not find space on low level price so I’m just staying put.