American Express launched a new 25% transfer bonus to Air France/KLM Flying Blue today. Off the back of that, I ran some award searches for a flight I need from the US back to the UK later this year.
Award pricing was all over the place depending on the origin and destination airports. In at least one case though, I find wide open award availability for at least four people from the US to Europe through January to March 2027, something that’s notoriously hard to find usually with Flying Blue.
I’d found that availability out of New York, but the pricing depended on where you’re flying to in Europe. For example, if you just want a nonstop business class award to Paris (Air France’s hub) in February, you’re looking at having to redeem at least 170,500 miles.
If you were to fly through Paris or Amsterdam on the way to Dublin, the pricing drops to a still-high 101,000 miles one way in February.
If you instead wished to fly to London in February, it’s possible to get that for 67,000 miles. Unfortunately that’s on one solitary day at the start of the month, with everything else that month being 138,000+ miles. As you can see in the screenshot below though, every month from January to May has at least one day bookable for 67,000 miles which isn’t much higher than the standard business class award pricing of 60,000 miles.
It’s on flights to Newcastle where the availability and pricing really shines though. I’d searched this as it’s the closest “major” airport to where we live and I couldn’t believe how many days in February had at least one flight bookable for only 60,000 miles—that’s only 48,000 Membership Rewards with the current Amex transfer bonus. January and March had similar availability too.
I figured there might only be availability for one person, but that’s not the case. Here’s the availability for two people (note that the award calendar displays the total cost for two people, so 120,000 miles is the total cost for two people).
But what if you have a family of four you need to book for? Good news—there’s availability for four people for 60% of that month. The taxes and fees would total more than $1,000 which would mean you could take advantage of this Amex Offer that’s awarding 20,000 bonus Membership Rewards if you’re targeted.
All the 60K award availability that I found routed through Paris rather than Amsterdam. Seeing as you’d be flying on Air France metal rather than KLM, it would sadly mean you wouldn’t get a Delft house, but that’s a minor disappointment in the grand scheme of things.
I wasn’t able to find other cities with wide open 60K pricing, but I only checked just over half a dozen cities. Air France and KLM have such a massive route network that I wouldn’t be surprised if there were other opportunities out there.
In case you’re not familiar with Newcastle, it’s a city in the northeast of England. It’s only a 2.5 hour drive to Edinburgh in Scotland, or a 1.5 hour train ride that can cost less than $35. You can also take a train down to London in about 3-3.5 hours (it’s a ~5-6 hour drive), or a car or train to Liverpool in 3.5 hours. If you’d like to check out the beautiful Lake District, that’s a 1.5-2 hour drive from Newcastle. This award availability could therefore be a good option if you want to explore the UK and don’t mind traveling a bit from the airport you arrive at.
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This has to be a joke…your entire findings are based on the off season of Feb. What about May to September.
There you have to pay through your nose. And than there are taxes and fees.
Flying Blue is a dead program.
Good find Stephen!
Prefer the food on AF, and the Delft Blue houses on KL.