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Air France / KLM Flying Blue released their May 2023 Promo Rewards overnight and the list includes many major US cities, with discounts available in economy, premium economy, and business class on some routes and dates.
These deals could heat up with the new 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue from Amex and the 25% transfer bonus from Chase which started last month.
Flying Blue Promo Rewards May 2023
The following city pairs are on sale for bookings made between May 1-30, 2023 for travel through October 31, 2023.
25% off Economy awards between the following cities and Europe (prices from 11,250 miles one-way)
- Boston (BOS)
- Chicago (ORD)
- Washington-Dulles (IAD)
- Miami (MIA)
- Dallas (DFW)
- Houston (IAH)
- Atlanta (ATL)
- Austin (AUS)
- Los Angeles (LAX)
25% off Premium Economy awards between the following cities and Europe (prices from 22,500 miles one-way)
- Houston (IAH)
- Washington-Dulles (IAD)
- Newark (EWR)
25% off Business Class awards between the following cities and Europe (prices from 41,250 miles one-way)
- Newark (EWR)
- Houston (IAH)
- Washington-Dulles (IAD)
- Atlanta (ATL)
- Dallas (DFW)
Examples
This is the best list of city pairs that we have seen in years. We ordinarily see one or two US cities on the list, but this month we see a total of nine US cities represented across the various cabins.
I don’t ordinarily get excited about redeeming miles for economy class, but with the 100% transfer bonus from Bilt (now ended) or maybe even with the 25% transfer bonuses from Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards, there are some solid potential deals.
For instance, here is Washington Dulles to Prague, Czech Republic or to Zagreb, Croatia for 12,750 miles one way.
If you were to take advantage of the 25% transfer bonuses, that would effectively be 10,200 Amex or Chase points each way (plus ~84 EUR departing the US). That’s fewer points than many domestic US tickets.
The best deals in business class have been a bit harder to come by, but not impossible to find. If you’ve been eyeing a KLM Delft Blue House, I found some fall dates from Houston with business class for up to 4 passengers for 48,750 miles one way.
At effectively 39,000 Chase or Amex points one-way, that would be a solid deal for business class to Europe (Iberia and Avianca LifeMiles have previously had offers for business class around 25K miles one-way a couple of times, but those instances are extremely rare).
But I think the sweet spot here in terms of price and availability has got to be Premium Economy.
For example, here’s a look at Rome to Washington DC during the first week of September. At 22,500 miles and $231 one-way, that’s a nice deal even without a transfer bonus.
When you figure in a 25% transfer bonus from Amex, that’s 18,000 Membership Rewards points each way. Transferred from Bilt, it would’ve effectively been 11,250 points each way per passenger.
Air France has moderate surcharges at around $220 each way, but in this case the mileage savings probably makes these worth considering even with a couple hundred bucks in fees each way in most cases.
I’m always kind of lukewarm on economy class awards between the northeast and Europe because we have previously seen great deals in economy class, but at these prices for economy and premium economy, I could see there being wide appeal — particularly for those based in cities like Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, where prices in economy class likely tend to be higher.
Speaking of price trends, remember that Flying Blue has no award chart, so the “from” prices are always flexible. You may find better deals.
For instance, Flying Blue is advertising economy class prices between Los Angeles and Europe starting “from 20,250 miles” one way. But you’ll find better in some markets. One example is Los Angeles to Athens at 15,000 miles and $83.40 one-way.
An effective 12,000 Amex or Chase points one-way for economy class to Europe from Los Angeles is likely a terrific deal.
Athens wasn’t the only city pricing at less than advertised — I also saw LA to Barcelona, Copenhagen, Prague, and other cities for 18,000 Flying Blue miles. I’m sure there are plenty more. Again, if you’re taking advantage of a transfer bonus and paying an effective 14,400 Amex or Chase points or just 9,000 Bilt ones for a one-way economy class ticket to any of those cities, that’s awfully reasonable. And it makes it easy to fly your whole family if you’ve just been earning points on rent and the 5 transactions per month you have to do with the Bilt card or if you’ve been taking advantage of the multitude of good Amex card offers. If you’ve gotten a single referral on an Amex card, you might now be able to fly two people to Europe in economy class, which is pretty wild. You’ll obviously still pay the ~$85 in fees departing the US (and varying amounts when departing Europe depending on where you start), but that’s still solid.
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Air France’s website is pretty bad and I’ve had a rough experience trying to book one of these flights.
First, I saw 18k on the monthly chart for a flight June 8th that matched cities that work for me, so i clicked through and the cheapest actual option was 67.5k, but I noticed the weekly chart above now said 18k for June 9th. When I clicked over to June 9th, the actual lowest option was 24.5k.
I decided to book that 24.5k flight and transferred AMEX points over. By the time the 25k miles transferred over it had gone up to 40.5k.
I was already committed at this point so I topped up miles to 41k and by the time they cleared it went up to 59k. Not sure if I want to fall for this a 3rd time, but I’ve checked other cities and dates and the numbers fluctuate dramatically over time so I don’t know if there’s any way to do this without wasting some miles.
Today, I was looking again and the booking doesn’t work at all.
When I booked my recent award flight, I started the booking for the displayed low miles price without having the miles in my account first, with the aim of locking it in. Then when it came time to confirm and complete, I kept the reservation on screen and quickly transferred the points in from AmEx. Fortunately, it worked out well.
I, too, have noticed the “phantom” lowest price displayed on the calendar, which didn’t exist when I clicked to view flights on that date. I’ve had to scan through different dates close by to find the lowest available award prices.
This doesn’t appear possible. Their website doesn’t let you search award bookings unless you are logged in.
I *was* logged in.
Update:
I ended up booking a premium eco flight from EWR-CDG for
51,500 miles + $125.55 Fee
BUT…if I want to choose my seat I need to pay an additional $48.50 which of course I will because among the 11 available prem eco seats remaining, 6 of them are middle seats. I’ve never had to pay fees to choose an award seat before. Is this normal now or is this just Flying Blue?
Oh what a nightmare Flying blue is! I found a promo rate for an economy routing from Washington DC to Istanbul on one day only in Augusts. Transferred a small number of Bilt points to Flying Blue and topped it off with a 25% bonus transfer from Amex. Went all the way to book it and the site crapped out on me. Gave me a booking code to complete over the phone. That’s where the next stage of nightmare began: nobody seems to be working the phones at Flying Blue. After my call was disconnected at exactly one hour mark on hold, I tried web chat. No dice – we don’t have access to FB account information but here is Netherlands phone number – FB there is 24/7. Called that number, after 25 minutes agent tells me it is a paid booking customer service but I’ll transfer you – predictably call gets disconnected during said transfer. Called back internationally again, choose the right option 2, spent 52 minutes on hold and just gave up. I think the website has a phantom award availability (I ran into this before with FB) and now I have stranded miles…. Flyer – be aware!
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Maybe I missed something. How do you search for these “gems”?
Just a regular award search on Air France, KLM, or their associated apps.
Are these promo rewards via a special link or general award search? This page says no offers right now: Reward tickets – Earn & Spend Miles on flights | Flying Blue
Just transferred 50k Bilt points to FlyingBlue today. Pretty sweet to get 100k miles.
Is 39k miles plus $228 for biz class one way really that good of a deal? If you price miles at 1 cpp, that’s an equivalent of 61k miles one way biz class. Am I thinking about this the right way?
Sure – but then you have to be comparing against a program that charges $0 in tax or surcharges (which isn’t realistic on the way from Europe to the US as you’ll pay around $100 in taxes departing many / most European markets. But departing the US, sure – but, again, you’d have to be comparing against a program with no surcharges. This is much better than what United would charge (77K) or what Air Canada would charge in many cases (distance based, so varies) or BA would charge without surcharges (80K one way non-stop), etc. Even beats Iberia at peak pricing (50K + similar taxes). Not much better than LifeMiles or Air Canada on the shortest itineraries, but much better cancellation policy ($50 fee vs $150-$200).
I would not say that 22500 and $230 for one way is a good deal to Europe for premium economy. I am used to find deals for $600 two ways
On what dates and with what city pairs are you finding prices like that in 2023? In 2019, yes when you found a deal. But I haven’t seen prices like those in quite a while.
Mostly NYC to Milan! Although now that I think about it, it could be more applicable to economy