Flying Blue (the frequent flyer program of KLM and Air France) runs a program they call Promo Awards. I have discussed these awards before, but here is an overview. These promo awards are award routes that offer a 25% – 50% discount off of normal award mileage requirements for certain city pairs. The promo awards last for two months for those particular cities. I generally do not cover them that much do to the fact that these flights must take place on those airlines within the Flying Blue program. As a result, these awards come with large fuel surcharges/taxes. However, a couple of months ago, Flying Blue announced a devaluation of their award program. With that devaluation came them dropping that fuel surcharge on economy award tickets. Now, these economy awards come with a flat 50 euro surcharge each way (plus any taxes). This makes the economy promo awards a lot more enticing if you live in or near the targeted cities.
The following awards can be booked between August 27 – October 29 for travel between September 1 – October 31. I find the best deals to be Chicago and Dallas to Europe for 25,000 miles round-trip (and about $150). It is especially useful since Flying Blue classifies Tel Aviv as part of Europe. That makes the least expensive way to reach Tel Aviv from the US.
A great use for this promo would be to get to Europe for some fall marathons – some of them are the Frankfurt Marathon (October 27) and the Amsterdam Marathon (October 20). Both are easily accessible with these airlines (in fact, you can get non-stop flights from Chicago and Houston to Amsterdam). So, if you are in the Chicago or Houston areas (or can easily reach them), this deal could be for you!
Getting Flying Blue Miles
American Express Membership Rewards transfer to Flying Blue at 1:1 ratio, except when they have transfer bonuses. Last year, they had a couple of the promos – one at 25% and one at 35%. In addition, SPG points also transfer to Flying Blue at a 1:1 ratio with a 5,000 mile bonus when transferring in 20,000 point blocks.
