Ben Lipsey (director of Flying Blue) has confirmed that Air France/KLM’s flying blue program is reducing the pricing of some award flights.
- Business class, 71% of markets will require fewer miles
- Premium economy, 68% or markets will require fewer miles
- Economy class, 66% of markets will require fewer miles
New pricing is still being rolled out so you won’t see the changes across all markets yet (especially on fifth freedom flights). Flights from the United States to Europe have been standardized for saver levels as well:
- One-way economy for 20,000 miles
- One-way premium economy for 35,000 miles
- One-way business for 50,000 miles
Might be worth checking routes now to try and nab some award availability while it is still there. Rare to see flights actually get cheaper.
Hat tip to OMaaT
There’s an awful lot of people who don’t use Flying Blue commenting on these changes. I use them regularly and everyone I know who does has also had their pricing go up on average. Why would an airline implement a change like this, especially with no fanfare, unless it made them money?
The meat and potatoes east coast -> Europe flights are now +33% more expensive, 20k+$164 for one way in economy AMS-NYC vs 15k before. For me personally and everyone I know that uses FB this is a 33% devaluation which is pretty hefty to spin as a positive thing!
It’s a classic – let’s say you have ten markets, one where people fly award tickets all the time (east coast to Europe) and nine that are rarely used (flights to Madagascar anyone?) You can raise the cost of the one market and lower the cost of the nine and boom, 90% of markets require fewer miles! Wow! But on average over all the flights, flights require more miles, and your miles are worth less, just like practically every single change ever made by an airline… Sure, the one guy that flies to Madagascar is happy, and good for him… but on average, we all get screwed.
As a newbie using transfer partners, I was browsing flights to China and compared to 2020… times have changed. I remember I could get economy seats from NY->Beijing for about $650 through the chase travel portal. Now.. it’s about $1,500-$3,000 per ticket. Absolutely insane.
I have about 240k chase UR pts and 114k virgin Atlantic pts to book a ATL to PEK flight for feb 2024.
I compared virgin, delta, united, Korean air and finally flying blue and flying blue was by far the least in surcharges. It was about $400 per ticket + 66k pts through flying blue, I believe virgin was $800 in fees.
And Even though Korean air has a direct flight and I’d rather choose that option, I have not been able to figure out how to use any points to book the flight, from what I read, Korean air points can only be transferred from Marriot points but I only have about 70k marriot pts so that’s a no go.
UpgradedPoints have a good article about using CC points to redeem Korean Air business award flights.
China specifically does not have the same number of flights as pre-COVID. There is significantly less supply than demand.
I actually ended up booking ATL->PEK through Air France and was able to get 2 adult + 1 child ticket for 176k UR pts + $900 in fees. Good news is, I Believe the price on those tickets were $3,000.. but the 25+ hr flight with a child isn’t something I’m looking forward to…
AF/BA need to lower their bogus ripoff “fees” on award tickets
The main issue remains with Flying Blue: most award flights still charge hundreds of dollars alongside the mile redemption. Booked a United transatlantic flight recently and it was nice to only pay $50 out of my pocket with my award flight
Change fees/policies are steep as well.
ORD still has many promos bookable until Tuesday for 11K coach and 22.5K PE.
They raised the coach savers to 20K from 16.5 and raised the PE savers from 30K to 35K There’s plenty of both most days except for peak peak if you use the 6-month calendar. They did lower the biz from 55K to 50K (it was 57 before) but they have fewer biz savers and none in peak peak season. (I’m in DC). Virgin is now cheaper for FB coach awards (12K) to EU. FB is cheaper for fees on awards on Virgin in Biz class to London. EU airlines awards programs are just a lot cheaper.
They raised economy and PE redemptions for east coast, but lowered them for west coast. Works for me.
2 weeks ago I booked for May and June next NY-CDG and NY-ZRH OW for 15,000pts +$81
Welcome improvement. East Coast to Paris is 100k + about $600 in fees
At 1cpm, that comes to about $1600 which while good, is not unheard of for off-season TATL. Best to think of it as a cheap Biz fare or a 50k each way upgrade to a Y fare.
Of course if you get those prices in summer, its a great deal
Wife and I have found TATL J fares on BA and AF for $2.4k round trip, ex-SFO. For summer travel and New Year’s travel. The key is (1) booking way early and (2) connecting onward from LHR and CDG
This is exactly the way to look at it. In fact, as long as one can stay on the Amex Bus Plat (and Gold) gravy train, one can generate the AF miles (via MR points) at south of 0.5cpm, making these more like $1,000 J roundtrips.
How about a reduction in taxes and fees for Flying Blue awards?
Hmm… I guess when I fly Delta I’ll be choosing Flying Blue miles over Delta’s miles. We already know where Delta’s currency is heading in the not-so-distant-future. Meanwhile Flying Blue is increasing the value proposition of their currency? Unheard of.