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At the beginning of every month Flying Blue (the loyalty program for Air France/KLM) releases discounted mileage awards for Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class travel on Air France and KLM and the latest deals are now live.
These “Promo Awards” can offer flyers up to 50% off award travel but, while some awards may be discounted by 50%, we’re more used to seeing discounts of between 20% and 25% on the awards most of us would like to book.
Well, we’re at the beginning of a new month so the May 2019 Flying Blue Promo awards have now been published and they cover travel between 1 July and 31 August 2019
Bookings must be made by 31 May 2019.
Flying Blue May 2019 Promo Awards
As usual I’m going to concentrate on the premium cabin long-haul deals and I’m pleased to report that they’re significantly better than the deals released last month. They may still not be stunning but there are some good saving to be had if you can make the dates and routes work for you.
Note: Don’t forget that Promo Awards can originate in Europe or in any of the destinations mentioned.
Asia/Middle East
There are just three Promo Awards available for the Asia/Middle East regions and all are for Business Class bookings.
The biggest discount on offer here is the 50% discount on the Wuhan route but, as that’s quite a specialised route and not exactly one that a lot of casual travelers will be interested in, the 25% discounts on offer on routes to Dubai and Xiamen may be of more interest.
Dubai frequently as a Flying Blue Promo Award destination so if you’re not really loving the idea of flying to the Arabian peninsula in the middle of the summer I wouldn’t feel to much pressure to jump on this deal – it will be back in slightly cooler months.
Caribbean/Indian Ocean
There’s just one Promo Award available to/from these regions and it’s a 25% discount on a Business Class redemption to/from Cayenne.
For anyone wondering where Cayenne is…here’s a map:
Central/South America
The low number of Promo Awards in each region continues here with just two Promo Awards covering Central and South America.
Both Promo awards are offering a 25% on the usual cost but neither deal looks particularly tempting – over 130,000 miles to travel to Santiago in Premium Economy is unlikely to get many pulses racing.
North America
Lastly we come to the category I suspect most readers will be interested in and here we have a couple of very good deals.
84,000 miles for roundtrip Business Class between the US and Europe (or Europe and the US) is a fantastic deal and is definitely one of the better North America Promo awards we’ve seen for some time….and 90,000 miles for the Toronto route doesn’t look too bad either.
The only downside here is that Air France operates its Airbus A330-200 aircraft on this route and these don’t come fitted with the airline’s latest (and very good) Business Class seats – the business Class cabin features older seats in a 2-2-2 layout.
Bottom Line
If you see something that interests you, I suggest booking sooner rather than later as I expect availability to dwindle quickly…especially on routes to the more popular destinations.
If you’re based in the US and you’re short of miles don’t forget that you can transfer points to Flying Blue from all three major credit card currencies.
