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Flying Blue’s latest Promo Awards—click that link if you don’t know what Promo Awards are–are complete stinkers for most Americans. Indeed, there are no discounted awards from the US this month, only from Toronto and Mexico City.
But two awards, really caught my eye as great deals if you want to take a big trip in February or March.
The Deal
If you book now and fly in February or March, you can fly between Aruba and Europe, Morocco, Tunisia, or Israel for 12,500 miles + $100 one way or between French Guyana and Europe, Morocco, Tunisia, or Israel for 12,500 miles + $137 one way
- AirFrance/KLM’s definition of Europe includes Israel, Morocco, and Tunisia
- One ways are half the price of roundtrips for Promo Awards
- Fuel surcharges are tiny on these routes
- Flying Blue miles are a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, and SPG Starpoints
The Why
These awards open up an interesting opportunity to take a big trip to the Caribbean or South America plus Europe plus potentially other places for very few miles.
You can use American Airlines, Delta, United, British Airways, or Arrival miles to book a one way flight to Aruba; use Flying Blue Miles to get to Europe, Israel, or North Africa; and use United miles to get back home. Or you can go even more places after Europe; check out this post for the cheapest awards out of Europe.
Aruba has a lot more flight options than French Guyana. Taking advantage of the deal out of Cayenne would probably involve flying to Martinique or Guadeloupe on Norwegian, then onto French Guayana on Air France, then on to Europe on this Promo Award.
Or you could go to Brazil and fly from there to French Guyana on Azul.
The details are up to you (unless of course you hire the MileValue Award Booking Service), and there are some very interesting ways to fill in those details.
How to Book
Head to airfrance.us and perform an award search. The site automatically shows the discounted awards for travel in February and March.
From Aruba to Zagreb, Croatia, the price is only 12,500 miles + $100. From Cayenne to Zagreb, the price is 15,000 miles + $137. Note that the Cayenne flights inconveniently fly into Paris-Orly, not Charles de Gaulle, which means you have to get to Charles de Gaulle for most connection options.
After finding award space, transfer your Citi, Amex, Chase, or SPG points to Flying Blue, and then book online.
Getting the Miles
You have tons of options to get Flying Blue miles since they are a 1:1 transfer partner of all four major transferable points programs.
Credit card links have been removed from posts and added to the menu bar at the top of every page of MileValue under the heading Top Travel Credit Cards.
Bottom Line
I’ve already discussed a BIG TRIP idea for myself for February and March that goes through Fiji, Australia, the Philippines, and Qatar between Hawaii and Croatia. Maybe instead I should head to Aruba or French Guayana before spending 12,500 or 15,000 Flying Blue miles to Europe.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
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You’re suggesting Norwegian to BWI-FDF on revenue ($148 from the article); and then FDF-CAY or FOR-CAY on revenue? (looks like a fortune, $547, $618) And then CAY-ORY on FlyingBlue? Seems like FDF-CDG on FlyingBlue might be a better option
i take it back. azul wasn’t in search engine and has $125 flights from FOR
maybe do BIG TRIP in reverse
The Norwegian flights are much cheaper US-Carribbean than v/v.
[…] could couple the cheap flight between Baltimore and Guadeloupe ($49 for that southbound leg) with Flying Blue’s Promo Award between French Guiana and Europe for only 15,000 Flying Blue miles in economy or 56,250 in Business […]