Amazing Business Class Award: JFK-Europe-South America For 34,500 Miles OW

This might be phantom award space, so be aware of that before transferring points. However, if the award space is there then you can travel from JFK to Europe and then on to South America for only 34,500 miles one-way in business class.

The Deal

• Fly from New York to Europe (Paris ORY, Amsterdam AMS and/or Paris CDG) and on to French Guiana (Cayenne CAY) for 34,500 Flying Blue miles + tax.

Quick Thoughts

I spotted this deal while doing some random searches relating to this month’s Flying Blue Promo Rewards. As mentioned above, this might be phantom availability. I don’t have miles in my Flying Blue account to check if it’s bookable and didn’t want to call to see if there’s availability in case there is and it gets pulled before any of you have a chance to book it.

Since Flying Blue made changes to their award chart earlier this year, some awards have been pricing out strangely. This seems to be one of them.

To find availability, log in to your Flying Blue account, start your search here and look for one-way flights from JFK to CAY. Select a date in the middle of October or middle of November, then check the box below that where it says ‘You are looking for a flight around these dates.’

Next, select either Premium Economy or Business. Note that these will provide different results, so search both to see which dates work best for you.

For example, when searching for Premium Economy, only October 16 has availability at 34,500 miles (n.b. that’s actually Business availability, not Premium Economy).

When selecting Business Class though, the results show two completely different days with availability – October 22 & 23.

When doing the first search listed above for Premium Economy, it’ll display Premium Economy options ranging from 196,000 miles to 350,500(!) miles. Scroll down though and you’ll see Business Class availability for 34,500 miles + $373.51 in taxes & fees.

With a nine hour connection in Amsterdam, that should give you enough time to explore the city in the afternoon. You then have an overnight in Paris before flying on to French Guiana (note that you’d be flying in to CDG and out of ORY). If you only travel with carry-on, you could skip the last two legs if you want to remain in Amsterdam. If you want to stay in Paris and only skip the third leg, you can check your baggage as you’d have to pick it up at CDG anyway.

With the October 22 option when searching for Business Class, a different option is displayed. With this, you’d be flying directly in to Paris-Orly and out of the same airport to Cayenne. You’d still only need 34,500 miles, but taxes would be higher at $418.27.

34,500 miles for lie-flat business class seats to Paris is an amazing deal; getting a return flight back across the Atlantic makes it killer if you want to maximize the Business Class experience on Air France.

Leaving Cayenne, French Guiana

If there is legitimate award inventory and you decide to fly all the way to Cayenne, you’ll need to sort out a flight back to the US. That makes things a little tricky as there’s only one US destination served out of Cayenne: Miami.

The good thing is that it’s bookable using miles and, given that it’s a ~9.5 trip, offers reasonable redemption options on Flying Blue. Depending on your dates, there might be Economy awards available for 13,000 miles + $113.44.

Alternatively, on same dates there’s Business Class availability from only 29,500 miles + $160.82. Note that it looks like the plane makes a few brief stops along the way.

Let us know in the comments below if you book one of these awards.

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