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By: Spencer Howard
Every month, Air France-KLM Flying Blue releases Promo Awards that can reduce the mileage requirement of award tickets by 25-50%. Now, these tickets are more restrictive in that you must travel during a limited time frame and you can’t get your miles refunded if you cancel.
With the launch of Flying Blue’s new award program just a few days ago on June 1, we were curious what the Promo Awards would look like. Well, economy flyers are in luck. For the first time in a long time, Flying Blue has discounted a route to the U.S. at 50% off!
The lucky city for this opportunity is Chicago (ORD). Award flights from San Francisco (SFO) have also been reduced by 25%. To get the promo rates, you must book by June 29 and travel between July 31 and September 29. It’s not quite last-minute, but you should decide sooner rather than later as promo award space could disappear.
Here are a few examples of what you could book with this month’s Flying Blue Promo Awards:
A one-way economy award on Air France ORD-Paris (CDG) for 11,000 miles plus $68.51 taxes and fees.
Similarly, you can book a one-way economy award on KLM ORD-Amsterdam (AMS) for 13,750 miles plus $68.51.
You can even book a trip to Prague (PRG) on KLM with a connection at AMS for 10,750 miles plus $82.16.
One thing I love about Flying Blue promo awards (and in general) is that you can transfer points from all major transferable programs including Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, and SPG Starpoints. If you have the Barclays Arrival Premier card, you can even transfer Premier points to Flying Blue—though, it’s at a poor 1.4:1 ratio.
One thing to watch out for is if you want to book a round-trip promo award as the taxes and fees on the return flight will significantly increase your out of pocket cost. For example, a round-trip promo award ORD-CDG will cost 22,000 Flying Blue miles but the taxes and fees will be $206.03.
While this could still be a great deal, you’ll want to consider whether a cash ticket might be a better choice. Even better than that, if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve (learn more), you might find a cheap cash fare that you could book with Ultimate Rewards points at 1.5 cents per point through the Chase travel portal.
Think about it. If you find a $500 cash fare in the Chase travel portal and you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve, your total points cost to book this would be 33,333 Ultimate Rewards points—that’s 50,000 cents divided 1.5.
When booking through the Chase portal, the 33,333 points would cover the entire cost of a $500 ticket including the taxes and fees.
(Chase Sapphire Preferred: Learn More)
Now, this isn’t meant to discourage you from booking one of these Flying Blue Promo Awards, but it’s important to be aware of other options before diving in head first. My guess is that this promo will be a great option for economy flyers out of Chicago.
In fact, even the 25% off promo from San Francisco could work really well for many folks. At 21,750 miles for SFO-CDG and SFO-AMS for only 19,500 miles.
Clearly, economy flyers are having all the fun with this month’s Flying Blue Promo Awards. If you’re able to book one, our Friday Brags thread in the 10XTravel Insider’s Facebook group is calling your name.
Happy booking!
See you in the sky,
Spencer