It’s now possible to book May’s Air France/KLM Flying Blue Promo Awards to get savings of 25% (sometimes 50%) on award travel booked with Flying Blue points. These are typically for travel on Air France or KLM. If you don’t have Flying Blue points already, you can transfer them from all three major bank rewards programs.
New Promo Awards become available on the first day of each month and can be a pretty good deal.
May’s Promo Awards between Europe and North America feature U.S. cities Boston and New York JFK as well as travel to any city in Mexico. Only business class awards are included in this month’s Promo Awards and can be booked for 25% off for a total of 46,875 Flying Blue miles in each direction. You must book flights in May for travel in July and August 2017.
Are Flying Blue Promo Awards a Good Deal?
Promo Awards can be a great deal, but this month’s options aren’t as good as other months have been. Often times, economy awards are also discounted and discounts can be as high as 50%. Even so, if these Promo Awards fit with your travel plans they might not be a bad deal.
One thing that’s wonderful about Flying Blue is that they are a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, AND Starwood Preferred Guest. If you have points spread across a bunch of transferrable points currencies, Flying Blue miles are a great way to pool. When you’re getting 25% off it’s even better.
One thing to keep in mind is that Flying Blue does charge fuel surcharges. You’re looking at around $200 for a one-way flight from the U.S. to Europe. Even considering fuel surcharges, this isn’t a bad redemption. United and American both charge 57,500 miles for flights to Europe in business class and United even ups that to 70,000 miles if you want to fly a Star Alliance partner! I would definitely consider paying $200 in fuel surcharges to save 10,000 or more miles.
One more great thing about Flying Blue is that they have an extremely broad definition of Europe. Within Flying Blue, Europe is what you would generally think plus Israel, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and the Canary Islands.
Overall, if Promo Awards fit with your travel plans and you can find the award availability, my advice would be to book it. Even though this set of Promo Awards doesn’t give as many options or any 50% discounts, it is still a great price to get to Europe (and beyond) in business class.
