Air France-KLM Flying Blue is one of the most useful frequent flyer programs for redeeming miles. Not only does the program have great award pricing for travel on Air France-KLM, but it also has lucrative award pricing for travel on partner airlines.
Well, the Flying Blue program has just increased award pricing, particularly for travel on Air France-KLM, as flagged by Travel on Points. I’ve confirmed with Flying Blue that this devaluation is intentional, unlike the glitch one that we saw several weeks back, around Christmas. However, there is a silver lining, in the form of more award availability… or so I’m told.
In this post:
Flying Blue increases award costs on many flights
As of January 13, 2025, Flying Blue has increased award costs across a variety of flights. Flying Blue doesn’t publish an award chart, but up until now, there has essentially been consistent “saver” pricing for travel on Air France-KLM flights, for situations where that inventory has been available.
For example, between the United States and most of Europe, one-way award tickets started at 20,000 miles in economy, 35,000 miles in premium economy, and 50,000 miles in business class. With this change, award costs now start at 25,000 miles in economy, 40,000 miles in premium economy, and 60,000 miles in business class.
As you can see, this translates to increases of 14-25%, depending on the class of service. This devaluation isn’t limited to transatlantic travel, as there are similar increases in other regions.
Some partner award costs have also been increased, but for the most part, the changes are fairly mild. For example, a one-way award from Seoul Incheon to Abu Dhabi on Etihad has increased in cost from 26,000 miles in economy and 51,500 miles in business class, to 28,000 miles in economy and 55,500 miles in business class.
A one-way award from Toronto to New York on Delta has increased in cost from 7,000 miles in economy and 18,000 miles in business class, to 7,500 miles in economy and 19,500 miles in business class.
Some award costs didn’t go up at all, but for the most part, the above is pretty representative of the changes that I’m seeing.
Flying Blue promises there will be more award availability
Now, there is a silver lining to this devaluation. Flying Blue has shared with me that this award pricing change was in part to address a common concern among members, regarding the difficulty of finding availability at the lowest award levels.
The claim is that by rebalancing the entry-level pricing, the program is able to significantly increase entry-level award availability, making it easier for members to book flights at the lowest mileage levels. The folks behind the program acknowledge that no one likes price increases, but that this change ensures better access to rewards for all members, avoiding the frustration seen in some programs, where limited availability undermines member benefits.
Now, at first glance I can’t say that I’m seeing a huge difference in award availability. However, I have faith in program management, so I’m curious to see this play out over the coming days and weeks.
My take on these Flying Blue award pricing changes
Obviously no one likes a devaluation, and I’m disappointed to see the cost of award tickets increasing. That being said, as far as devaluations go, this is hardly the most unreasonable one that we’ve seen. Furthermore, if award availability actually does improve materially, then I might even call this a positive change.
When it comes to flights on Air France-KLM metal, the program had among the lowest award costs out there, so I don’t consider these increases to be that bad, especially for premium cabin travel. Even at 60,000 miles, it’s still among the best pricing out there (though there are some mild carrier imposed surcharges).
Arguably the bigger issue with Flying Blue has been the lack of saver level award availability in premium cabins. A one-way transatlantic business class award for 50,000 miles sounds great, but if it’s only rarely available, that’s of limited value. If we actually see more availability at 60,000 miles, then I’d be a happy camper.
What I find interesting here is that back in October 2023, Flying Blue lowered award costs for travel on Air France-KLM metal. Up until then, the airline charged 55,000-80,000 miles for a one-way saver business class award across the Atlantic. With the change, the price was brought down to a standardized 50,000 miles. Now we’re seeing it brought up to 60,000 miles, but (hopefully) with more award availability.
When it comes to partner award costs, we’re talking about truly mild changes, ranging anywhere from 500 miles to several thousand miles. Of course I don’t like to see them, but we haven’t seen many changes with those otherwise.
While credit cards aren’t as lucrative in Europe as in the United States, Flying Blue leadership has done a good job leveraging the loyalty program to generate revenue and increase engagement with the program and the airline group. Flying Blue management understands the program needs to continue to remain competitive to be interesting to consumers (especially with the flexibility afforded by transferable points currencies).
Bottom line
The Flying Blue program has made some significant award pricing changes as of today. Air France-KLM awards have seen the biggest price increases, with one-way transatlantic awards increasing in cost by 5,000 miles in economy and premium economy, and by 10,000 miles in business class. The good news is that there will reportedly be more award availability, which would be awesome.
There are also some partner airline award cost devaluations, though they seem to be milder than for travel on Air France-KLM, with increases ranging from 500 miles, to several thousand miles.
What do you make of this Flying Blue award pricing change?
I’m gutted by the change. I was going to book award fare for my family to celebrate my wife’s birthday, open jaw from ORD-ZNZ, JRO-ORD. That was originally quoted at 280,000 total miles. It’s now 320,000.
I can almost never find any flying blue availability for north america routes. I read all the great FB reviews burt my points go unused. What am i doing wrong?
Have you tried MEX or CUN?
What I can say out of LAX the number of points required are now double to triple what they were 2 years ago....just looked at their recently loaded dates and the minimum is 3x and often now 5-8x what they were….rediculous.eg 400k + to CDG one way
Yeah, one way LAX-CDG on several dates I’m viewing in April are 400,000 miles one way. SkyMiles looks like a bargain at those prices!
I was able to get a CDG-LAX in early May for about 100K… that’s the best I’ve been able to find.
I booked LAX-ARN for 80k in june on AF.
What they promise and what they'll do are 2 different things. ANA for example devalued and promised they would lower the tax. We'll they did 1 of those things and it's not lowering the tax. I had to rebook my flight from lax to haneda from last year to later this year. The points went from 85k to 115k and the tax remained at around $500. I saw no difference in tax on any routes that I searched.
I’m sorry but where do you see these cheap flights? The points are astronomical! Tested a month ago biz class GIG-CDG-GVA return 9 April to 26 April…337,500 miles?? An outbound on the 6th of 700,000!! Il hoping these are return mileage fares. How is this even remotely normal…? Have I missed something?
GRU tends to be a bit better. UX redemptions might also work my- I think they have a couple of additional destinations in Brazil, plus ASU and MVD.
ugh. guess last summer when i snagged 56k across the atlantic to CDG was the last time i get to have that. For that, I booked in Feb to fly in July.
sad!
Glad I booked 2 J tickets on AF CDG-IAD for 50,000 each a couple of weeks ago. However, I agree that 60,000 is still a bargain compared to many carriers pricing. BTW, to get the 50,000 I searched every East and Midwest gateway within a 3-4 day range and found these on 1 day to IAD. I'm taking positioning flights from CLT (leaving out of BOS on VS for 35,000 miles each in J (or...
Glad I booked 2 J tickets on AF CDG-IAD for 50,000 each a couple of weeks ago. However, I agree that 60,000 is still a bargain compared to many carriers pricing. BTW, to get the 50,000 I searched every East and Midwest gateway within a 3-4 day range and found these on 1 day to IAD. I'm taking positioning flights from CLT (leaving out of BOS on VS for 35,000 miles each in J (or 25,000 with the 40% Amex transfer bonus which is a steal)) so where the flight ended didn't really matter. Have to be very flexible to get best value from all these programs)
Oh please that is such a pile of horseshit! Searching RIGHT NOW the lowest possible one way Business Class is 151k from SFO to CDG.......ALL YEAR NOTHING......MOST of the time it is 214K or 375K ONE WAY!
So for Air France to claim that they are honoring the pricing they lied to you about is JUST A LIE!
And after moving to Paris there is no way I am going to use them in Europe as opposed to the superior TGV..............
Good luck taking the TGV to SFO
Flying blue don't have good redemption out of either sfo or lax. Been that way for years especially sfo. Neither does delta, ual etc. AA is ok. There are the occasional deals. You will do better departing Europe into lax. I did however get sea to ams this xmas for 50k in business before this devaluation.
AF fly to a large collection of cities in North America. MEX is, what, 3 hours from SFO? I found 40k premium economy availability from there for a random date I checked in November.
I'm also not seeing any more saver fares than before today, so I'm very interested in seeing how much more they release going forward (though I am highly skeptical.) What is more than practically zero?
Interestingly, I have never had real issues with award availability on FB, I could find transatlantic business class seats even around the Christmas period.
It looks like availability issues might have been confined to routes to N. America, and it's a shame they went for an across-the-board devaluation instead of just leveraging dynamic pricing to absorb that additional demand.
It's rather ironic that, instead of trying to pinch the customers ditched by BA, AFKL...
Interestingly, I have never had real issues with award availability on FB, I could find transatlantic business class seats even around the Christmas period.
It looks like availability issues might have been confined to routes to N. America, and it's a shame they went for an across-the-board devaluation instead of just leveraging dynamic pricing to absorb that additional demand.
It's rather ironic that, instead of trying to pinch the customers ditched by BA, AFKL have decided to undermine the value proposition of their FFP at this point in time.
It's also rather amusing that the much maligned DL miles end up being worth a lot more than Flying Blue ones when it comes to flying AF in business (e.g. Europe-Francophone Africa: 65k DL miles without surcharges or 85k+surcharges on Flying Blue).
I'll stick to keeping a small balance and using FB as my backup programme for short haul redemptions on the likes of GOL and COPA.
Congratulations
Thank you, although avoiding large mileage balances is not really rocket science, especially when it comes to dynamically-priced programmes.
So mad. I practically had a flight booked last night at the old 20k rate. I just lost the 20% transfer award in an instant! :(
One thing I wish Flying Blue didn't have and which they devalued in the last year was the €70 change/cancel fee (used to be €50). The US carriers are the best with allowing for more flexible plans after the pandemic with virtually no change/cancel fees on award flights and also being able to get flight credit back if booking cash fares.
Honestly, this is something I don't mind too much. There are people that sit on 3-4 different award itineraries, knowing they will cancel most of them. I think creating some friction and some disincentive to sit on multiple award flights helps with availability. I know things happen, but I cannot remember needing to cancel more than a handful of flights in my life, even with significant advanced planning. If you can't commit, don't book. Re-booking...
Honestly, this is something I don't mind too much. There are people that sit on 3-4 different award itineraries, knowing they will cancel most of them. I think creating some friction and some disincentive to sit on multiple award flights helps with availability. I know things happen, but I cannot remember needing to cancel more than a handful of flights in my life, even with significant advanced planning. If you can't commit, don't book. Re-booking should have a cost, and I understand why programs find it to be a big hassle.
Now, the Etihad rules on this have probably gone too far...
This is the problem with a no notice devaluation. It sounds like a good story, if a slight alteration sees more availability, but why not come out and say it rather than leaving it to you to chase up? And just makes everyone panic in the meantime.
However your speed in updating this developing story must be commended. Well done.
I mean, if you are a loyal flyer of the program, then this might be a reason to shift away to something different. But if you are transferring points to FB (as many in the US are) rather than crediting flights, then the story doesn't really matter. Unless there are real seats for reasonable rates, people will book through another program (or collect cash back). If more availability opens, then people will be happy. If...
I mean, if you are a loyal flyer of the program, then this might be a reason to shift away to something different. But if you are transferring points to FB (as many in the US are) rather than crediting flights, then the story doesn't really matter. Unless there are real seats for reasonable rates, people will book through another program (or collect cash back). If more availability opens, then people will be happy. If it is still too sparse, then people will eventually stop searching the program first. It is a very transactional relationship.
It's worth noting that you will often ONLY see the lowest AF-KLM pricing if you're searching for destinations that are not non-stop to/from CDG / AMS. For example, say you want a biz class flight from IAD on Nov 28. If you fly IAD - CDG it may be 500K. Search the same flight but go on to LIS i.e., IAD - CDG - LIS and it may price at 60k. But if you choose...
It's worth noting that you will often ONLY see the lowest AF-KLM pricing if you're searching for destinations that are not non-stop to/from CDG / AMS. For example, say you want a biz class flight from IAD on Nov 28. If you fly IAD - CDG it may be 500K. Search the same flight but go on to LIS i.e., IAD - CDG - LIS and it may price at 60k. But if you choose the same flight and go on to FRA (i.e., IAD - CDG - FRA) and it'll be 150k. Yet the whole time, the IAD-CDG flight segment is the same plane/flight. It's bizarre.
Married segment logic.
@Never In Doubt ......
"Married" and "Logic" in the same sentence when referring to something that does not make sense.
That is definitely something that has always bugged me about FB awards, even if I'm generally connecting through either regardless. I really hate hidden city shenanigans.
Let the train take the strain!
I would argue the impact of the devaluation is not so much the saver awards, but more with the 'normal' awards. Availability for saver was pretty sparse to begin with anyhow. 50 to 60k is not that bad.
However when booking normal awards the impact seems a lot bigger. (I guess they did percentage increases across the board). I.e. I often booked ~90k awards, which with a transfer bonus was not a bad deal...
I would argue the impact of the devaluation is not so much the saver awards, but more with the 'normal' awards. Availability for saver was pretty sparse to begin with anyhow. 50 to 60k is not that bad.
However when booking normal awards the impact seems a lot bigger. (I guess they did percentage increases across the board). I.e. I often booked ~90k awards, which with a transfer bonus was not a bad deal and availability quite good. Now those all went up by 20-30k, making these quite expensive.
I see savers 50k ->60k; 90k awards up to 110k, 150k awards up to 185k.
Looks like La Première award prices also went up, ugh...
I haven’t seen any of the “normal” 70,000 mile FB award flights from IAD-CDG that I’ve booked many times in the past . The lowest I’m seeing, even a year out, is 116,00 miles.
I got 50,000 J from CDG-IAD for 2 tickets on November 11 this year. Transferred about 22,000 Chase points to go with the 78,000 points I earned with the SUB (spent a little more than necessary) on their $95 Bank of America credit card. Basically a free trip so loving it
PPT-LAX just went from 92K to 113K. I wouldn’t call that a mild devaluation.
Came straight here when I saw the one available saver date from RDU during the latter part of this year jump from 50k to 60k. While I'm not averse to hunting for availability, saver seats are way down from last year.
Ben,
I've been looking for a trip that'll open up in the next 6 weeks.
Manchester to Kuala Lumpur. It's gone from 77k to 85k points. In itself not good, but also, through the second half of the year there were generally 5+ days available at saver rates most months, as of yesterday. Now, nothing at all. Cheapest is 200k. This looks like a more substantial adjustment than what you've seen so far.
Let's get the other Ben to explain why they felt this was necessary.
The 'from' values in the ready reckoner on the FB website haven't gone up, so, given the recent IT cock-up, it may be slightly premature to conclude that there's really been a devaluation.
They'll probably leave like one super-leisure route at the old pricing so they can still claim the floor hasn't changed.
Ben, I can’t find any saver seats availability anymore in LAX to Europe. Used to be there st the booking horizon
Where are you seeing availability, even a year out?
I’m lucky enough to be going in May for 200k rt lax-Cdg-ams but starting to look for 2026.
“Arguably the bigger issue with Flying Blue is the lack of saver level award availability in premium cabins.”
+1000
@Ben- is it really a devaluation, or would it be fair to refer to this change as pointflation (points inflation)?
Po-tay-toes.
Po-tah-toes
When you post photos of AF 777-300s, could you be sure to only use ones for planes that have La Première?
Thank you.
what is that?
The ones with La Premiere have the older (at this point, the oldest in the longhaul fleet) business class seats.