Flying Blue discount redemptions for January and February released

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Flying Blue, the Air France / KLM loyalty scheme, has launched a new batch of discounted redemption routes.

There are actually two sets of deals currently available. One block of destinations must be booked by 29th December for travel by the end of March. The second group cannot be booked until December 30thand are only valid for travel up to 28th February.

The Flying Blue promo awards website is here.

Some of the interesting long-haul deals include:

Europe to Toronto (62,500 miles return, business)

Europe to Montreal (62,500 miles return, business)

Europe to Atlanta (93,750 miles return, business)

Europe to Santo Domingo (75,000 miles return, business)

Europe to Dubai (75,000 miles return, business)

Europe to Tokyo (100,000 miles return, business)

If you know your Avios reward chart by heart, you will have spotted that – even with a massive reduction – the Atlanta and Dubai routes are only just cheaper than a standard Avios redemption. Such is the poor value that Flying Blue now represents ….

However, on the upside, taxes are now capped on redemptions. Whilst I cannot access the detailed tax data, as I don’t have an active Flying Blue account, you should find that the numbers look better than the equivalent Avios redemption.

How to earn Flying Blue miles from UK credit cards (December 2021)

Air France and KLM do not have a UK Flying Blue credit card. However, you can earn Flying Blue miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards. These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with two free airport lounge passes.

The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 30,000 Flying Blue miles

American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 5,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 5,000 Flying Blue miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Flying Blue miles which is an attractive rate. The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Flying Blue mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Category

Air France KLM and Flying Blue, SkyTeam alliance partners

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

goglobalnz says:

16 Dec16 December 13:07

Bookings are still hit hard by fuel surcharges on Air France and KLM. Delta flights are generally much lower, but to be honest Flying Blue miles are hard to get value with (apart from maybe a 50% promo). Shorthaul flights on short notice within Europe can be value too because there’s generally late availability

FYI I’ve just carried out a dummy business class bookings on the Dubai flight

LHR-DXB outbound taxes/YQ
– 291 € on KLM
– 386 € on AF

DXB – LHR inbound taxes/YQ
– 192 € on KLM
– 195 € on AF

with the breakdown for the AF one being

Carrier imposed surcharge 320.00
UK air passenger duty 160.26
Passenger service charge 34.37
Passenger service charge international 22.33
Airport fee 16.30
Passenger service charge 14.85
French airport tax 12.06
Other taxes 1.98
goglobalnz says:

16 Dec16 December 13:14

I should say – Business booking are hit by the fuel surcharges but economy is spared

For comparison’s sake – here’s the same booking but in Economy on AF

UK air passenger duty 80.13
Carrier imposed surcharge 40.00 (280 € saving!!)
Passenger service charge 34.37
Passenger service charge international 22.33
Airport fee 16.30
Passenger service charge 14.85
French airport tax 12.06
Other taxes 1.98

153 € KLM Outbound
166 € AF Outbound

52 € KLM Inbound
55 € AF Inbound
- Rob says:
  
  16 Dec16 December 13:21
  
  Thanks for this, very useful. Given that BA would charge around £500 in fuel surcharges for Dubai in Club World, the modest discount via FB doesn’t merit the poorer seat / service or the diversion required to get there in my view.
- goglobalnz says:
  
  16 Dec16 December 14:03
  
  Lots of people on Flyertalk seem to be in a similar situation to me. I racked up loads of FB miles travelling to West Africa for work, but there never really seems to be a justifiable use for them so just chipping away at the balance.
  
  Best I’ve had has been a trip to Palma, Mallorca on Air Europa over a bank holiday weekend (Easyjet/BA were crazy expensive, so it was an easy decision) and also flying trans-tasman AKL-SYD on China Airlines (again on a busy weekend around Christmas).
  
  Living in the UK (well, London), there doesn’t seem to be any point in loyalty towards AF/KLM
signol says:

16 Dec16 December 13:22

It is a shame, DXB used to be 40k in Business. I’ve built up just that over the years, now considering letting the miles lapse (or burn them on short haul), even though KL is the only network operator from NWI. By comparison, in just a year or so I’ve amassed over 100k Avios thanks to this blog Raffles! Naturally I do all my Amazon shopping through your link.
Tiger tanaka says:

16 Dec16 December 20:04

If the redemption opportunities on AF/KLM are poor then the earnings are not exactly great in Europe. I regularly pay £500 for UK-Amsterdam-Stockholm in economy and this normally only earns about 1000 standard miles. I get nearly 3000 on BA via Heathrow AND the ticket is normally about £150 less.
Idrive says:

16 Dec16 December 22:44

i do not know about all this actual redemption tables at KLM/AF but can simply tell you that I booked 2 economy tickets with AirFrance London-Paris-Fort de France for a nominal value of £1638 spending 100k Milemiglia expiring miles and less than £675 in total. the flight is direct to Martinique and my OH is happy, being it the only airline flying there. considering the low demand on that route and the “exotic” place, i can not complain. I have been gathering those miles for years with flights and daily plastic expenses. Considering i also grabbed a EUR771.06 flight for £226 and 37,5k miles at Christmas time (last 2 seats in the whole country on the routes to UK!) when Ryanair cancelled my return flight…well i can have a drink to FlyingBlue/Millemiglia saying goodbye for good! I will never ever again fly with them unless strictly necessary! I also cancelled a Delta LHR-BOS where the value was equal to zero and will be happily spend my money on a cash ticket with AA/BA or Virgin where I know a part of the ticket will come back on my awardwallet balance!! byebye Alitalia!!
- Rob says:
  
  17 Dec17 December 09:30
  
  They are good for places like Curacuo (sp?) and Martinique, in the same way that BA is good for Barbados and Antigua! Not sure any other non UK airline in Europe flies to Barbados!