Flying Blue 50% promo award tickets new destinations out now
The latest round of discounted destinations for Flying Blue's promo awards is out now, and the list is pretty long. Most of the advertised tickets are in economy class however.
Unusually for airline programmes, there are some genuinely acceptable economy class award prices. It can still work out cheaper to buy tickets in cash, but if you require booking last minute travel then don't forget to consider this option.Award prices are valid for both directions and are quoted for round trip. One-way redemptions requires half of the advertised mileage:
- Europe – Chicago (25 000 miles) on KLM
- Europe – Houston (25 000 miles) on Air France/KLM
- Europe – Los Angeles (25 000 miles) on Air France
- Europe – San Francisco (25 000 miles) on Air France / KLM
- Europe – Toronto (25 000 miles) on Air France
- Europe – Washington DC (25 000 miles) on Airfrance / KLM
Don't forget that on the above redemptions you will still be liable for taxes and surcharges which can easily add up to €400+ for a round trip.
Business class journeys don't appear to be available for any of the Asian routes. That doesn't surprise me given it will be Lunar New Year in January. But on most non-North American routes there are hardly any discounted business class routes.
The discounted business class routes, however, are the following:
- Europe – Boston (62 500) on Air France
- Europe – Cancun (93 750) on Air France
- Europe – Chicago (62 500) on KLM
- Europe – Detroit (93 750) on Air France
- Europe – Houston (62 500) on Air France
- Europe – Montreal (93 750) on Air France / KLM
- Europe – New York (93 750) on Air France / KLM
- Europe – Toronto (62 500) on Air France / KLM
- Europe – Vancouver (62 500) on KLM
- Europe – Washington DC (93 750) on Air France / KLM.
As with before, quoted redemption prices are for round trips, valid for both directions and one-way awards can be bought for half the mileage cost. Taxes + surcharges still need to be paid.
The stand-out best value award in the above table is Europe to Vancouver. Business Class tickets are usually in the order of €2500-€3500 in the winter. Don't forget Vancouver is the nearest big airport to Whistler skiing resort, so you might be able to bag yourself a decent bargain there.
Do note that some routes are discounted for only Air France or only KLM. For instance Europe to Los Angeles, despite my home airport being Amsterdam, I would have to fly Amsterdam to Paris to Los Angeles (AMS-CDG-LAX) to be able to capitalise on the discounted route price. Amsterdam to Los Angeles (AMS-LAX) non-stop on KLM would be charged at the full mileage price! Similar logic would have to apply if you wanted to use a KLM-only discounted route.
Despite my general apathy for Flying Blue, the advantage this programme has over my preferred British Airways Executive Club is that Flying Blue sets their redemption prices by region rather than by legs. This means you can transfer multiple times between your start and end regions and you'll still be charged the same mileage as if you did a non-stop between them. The taxes will be different however!
Booking dates are 30th October to 20th November 2013, for travel between 1st November to 31st March 2014. There are blackout dates of 18-23rd December 2013 and 2-6th January 2014.