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We’ve seen quite a few good Promo Awards offered in the past 4-5 months and with last month’s deals offering a couple of nice awards for travel across the Atlantic (and a good deal between Europe and the Middle East), I had high hopes for the awards released this month. My hopes were misplaced.
I’m not going to going to into great detail about the March 2020 Flying Blue Promo Awards because they’re not going to be of all that much use to most TFM readers but, on the off chance that someone can find value here, I’m going to list out what’s been made available.
The March 2020 Flying Blue Promo Awards cover just three long-haul regions, must be booked by 31 March 2020 and cover travel between 1 May and 30 June 2020.
North America
There are no Business Class awards available this month and while Air France’s Premium Economy offering is pretty good, the surcharges that accompany Flying Blue awards mean that the deals to/from Seattle and Mexico City are not very good at all.
Caribbean/Indian Ocean
If you thought that just three North America Promo Awards was bad going spare a thought for anyone who had hopes of a good deal to/from the Caribbean or the Indian Ocean this time around.
Only two Promo Awards have been posted for this (rather broad) “region”, neither is for Business Class and only one is for Premium Economy. 81,000 miles for a roundtrip Premium Economy fare isn’t too bad considering the distance being traveled but, once again, the surcharges that you’ll find added to the award make it unappealing.
Central/South America
We finally see some Business Class Promo Awards in this category but that’s just about the end of the good news.
I’ve seen roundtrip Business Class fares from Europe to Quito for under $1,900 recently so the 118,500 miles + surcharges that would be required to book that particular Promo Award is not a good deal at all (the less said about the Premium Economy deal the better!) …and while Fortaleza may have some great beaches, 114,000 miles + surcharges for roundtrip Business class from Europe is just not attractive.
Bottom Line
There’s really nothing here worth booking unless you absolutely have to travel at a time where cash fares are sky high and a Promo Award is available.
Between Marriott’s terrible new promotion (see here) and now these Promo Awards this is not turning out to be a very positive day on TFM…I’ll try to dig up some better news for later in the day!
Fortaleza Might have good beaches but you can only enjoy them if you aren’t killed first.
Maybe I’m being simplistic here but given the substantial recent downturn in business, wouldn’t it make sense to have better offers rather than worse ones? If nothing else they could clear some miles off the ledger while filling some empty seats.
I agree. I’m struggling to understand why these offers are so bad.