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Flying Blue–the loyalty program of Air France/KLM, Air Europa, Kenya Airways, and TAROM Romanian–has released its newest Promo Awards that let you fly from select US cities to anywhere in Europe for as little as 12,500 miles each way with only modest fuel surcharges.
Flying Blue is a 1:1 transfer partner of Membership Rewards and Starpoints.
These Promo Awards must be booked in July 2014 for September and October 2014 travel. You can fly from Dallas to anywhere in Europe roundtrip for only 25k Membership Rewards or 20k Starpoints + $264 out of pocket.
- What cities are these Promo Awards good for? What if you don’t live in one?
- How do you book a Promo Award?
- How do these awards compare to awards with lower fuel surcharges?
- What Promo Award routes can you fly without fuel surcharges?
- How can you eliminate the out of pocket cost of the award?
Flying Blue Promo Awards Explained
Miles Price
Every two months, Flying Blue releases a new list of Promo Awards, which allow travel from specified American cities to anywhere in Europe for 25% or 50% off the normal miles price.
The current list of promo awards is available for booking through July 31, 2014 for flights between from September 1 to October 31, 2014.
There is only one American city on this list, Dallas.
Flights from Dallas in economy are 50% off and only 25,000 miles roundtrip to anywhere in Europe.
Dallas is an American Airlines hub, so direct American Airlines flights cover much of the country from Dallas. You can get on those flights (and in on this deal) for as little as 4,500 British Airways Avios each way.
Out-of-Pocket Cash
Promo awards have the same out-of-pocket taxes and fuel surcharges as normal Flying Blue awards. The taxes are the same as you would pay on any award ticket. The fuel surcharges are listed on this table:
For the US to Europe, the fuel surcharge each way is 50 euros in economy, 110 euros in premium economy, and 180 euros in business or first.
That works out to a modest $136 + taxes out of pocket on roundtrip awards to Europe in economy, but a punitive $490 + taxes out of pocket on roundtrip business class awards to Europe.
Booking
To book a Flying Blue Promo Award, go to the Flying Blue Award Search and sign in or create an account. You can search with zero miles in your account, but you need to be signed into an account.
Everything on the form is standard except selecting the number of passengers. You have to manually add each additional passenger by age in the “Who’s going?” section.
In “Where to?”, you can select one way or return. The promo awards are valid one way or roundtrip.
In “When?”, leave “My dates are flexible” checked to get a helpful calendar.
In “Which class?”, select your cabin and leave “Show Flex options only” unchecked.
In your search results, the discounted Promo Award prices are already coded into the price displayed on the calendars, which will display the one way price.
Example from Dallas to Madrid
Here was a roundtrip economy class search from Dallas to Madrid. The green dates are days with Promo Award space available for 12,500 miles each way.
The return is nearly as good.
As you can see, the Promo Award space is good, even for an ideal Saturday-to-Sunday trip, though the out-of-pocket cost of $264 roundtrip is not.
Using a Promo Award, the roundtrip cost between Dallas and Madrid this summer is 25,000 Flying Blue miles + $263.
About half of that is fuel surcharges.
How Good of a Deal are Promo Awards?
For fall travel, Promo Awards are an incredible deal. Let’s compare Dallas to Madrid for 25,000 Flying Blue miles + $263 to other options:
- You can book a similar award from Dallas to Madrid on Lufthansa planes for 60,000 United miles + $122.
- For departures after October 15, you can book Dallas to Madrid for 40,000 American Airlines miles + $176 (a little less if you don’t route through London either way.)
- You can pay $1,176 for the flights. This is the cheapest price I found on the ITA Matrix.
Of these four options, the Flying Blue Promo Award is clearly the best deal even with $263 out of pocket.
Compared to the cash ticket, the Flying Blue award gets about 3 cents of value per mile. Compared to the second-best award ticket–the American Airlines award–the Flying Blue award saves 15,000 miles for only $87 extra out of pocket.
Getting the Miles
Flying Blue is a 1:1 transfer partner of Membership Rewards and Starpoints. And as usual, increments of 20k Starpoints transfer to 25k Flying Blue miles.
You can get the Starpoints from the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express with 25,000 bonus Starpoints after spending $5k in six months.
You can get Membership Rewards from several cards. My favorite personal card is The Platinum Card from American Express Exclusively for Mercedes-Benz with 50k bonus Membership Rewards after spending $3k in three months. The card has a $475 annual fee that is totally worth paying.
Bonus
The drawback for the Promo Awards is the out-of-pocket cash needed to book them. You can eliminate the out-of-pocket cash needed by paying for the Promo Award with your Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard®.
The Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard® comes with 40,000 bonus miles after spending $3k in three months, and the Arrival miles are worth 1.14 cents toward any flight, hotel, car rental, cruise, or other travel expense.
The $263 out of pocket for the roundtrip award from Dallas to Madrid could turn into zero out of pocket by redeeming about 26,300 Arrival miles.
Application Link: Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard®
Double Bonus
In “Incredible Trick: Flying Blue Promo Awards with No Fuel Surcharges,” I explained that Brazilian law prohibits fuel surcharges on all tickets including Promo Awards.
Sao Paulo and Rio to Europe are on the current Promo Award list for 30,000 Flying Blue miles each way in economy.
If you want a triangle trip to South America and Europe this summer, this is an unbeatable deal for the hypotenuse of that triangle.
Recap
Book by July 31 and fly in September or October, and you can enjoy half price awards from Houston or Brasilia to all of Europe with Flying Blue miles.
Roundtrip economy awards are only 25k miles + $136 + taxes.
Get Flying Blue miles by transferring points earned on the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express or American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card and avoid the out of pocket expenses with Arrival miles from the Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard®.
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!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.
Hi Scott,
Can use the SPG nights and flights so I will have 5 nights of hotel stay also?
Thanks!
Yes, but do you want 50k Flying Blue miles?
I see, I would use for my husband and I, but will still have 10K Flying blue miles left.
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.
[…] Flying Blue (Air France): 25k mile roundtrip awards from the US to Europe […]
[…] Everything you need to know about booking Promo Awards. […]