Flying Blue has released its promo awards for October which cover travel through 31 March 2023 but while the wide travel window is welcome, the fact that it’s not easy to see what (if any) premium cabin awards is not welcome at all.
I have no idea what’s going on with the Flying Blue promo awards this month because either the program has decided not to publish any premium cabin awards at all, or it has handed over the design of the Promo Awards page to someone who really hasn’t thought things through.
Historically, it has always been easy to see what routes were offering discounted Premium Cabin deals in the monthly Promo Awards but if you head over to the Promo Award page now, the information that you’ll find displayed offers no such insight.
The only pieces of information that we’re now being given are as follows:
- The routes on which Promo Awards are available
- The percentage discount on offer by route
- The “book by” date
- Valid dates of travel
- The cost of the cheapest award available
If all you care about are Economy Class awards (often a terrible deal when paying with Flying Blue miles) then this isn’t an issue. If, however, you’re interested in actually getting good value out of any Flying Blue miles that you have and are looking to book a premium cabin award, you have no way of knowing which routes are in play. Or if any routes are in play at all.
That’s bad design (even if there are no premium cabin awards on offer, the page should say so) and with US routes making up 100% of the long-haul destinations in October’s Flying Blue Promo Awards, it’s more than a little aggravating.
Here are the long-haul destinations included in the latest Promo Awards:
- Chicago
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- New York
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Washington D.C.
I’ve searched for Business Class awards on all of these routes and haven’t spotted anything that would suggest that good deals are available but as I haven’t checked every date in the booking calendar, I can’t be 100% sure that no such deals are on offer.
Having said that, premium cabin Promo Awards are most often offered for travel to/from destinations in the Caribbean, Africa, and Canada (destinations in the US only appear every now and again) and with none of those regions making it into this month’s Promo Award list, it’s likely that Flying Blue has decided not to offer any premium cabin deals at all.
Promo Awards key terms
- Book by 31 October 2022
- Travel by 31 March 2023
- Promo reward tickets must be booked via www.airfrance.com or www.klm.com (except for bookings for minors travelling alone or when travelling with an infant under the age of 2, in these cases bookings must be made by calling customer service).
- Promo reward tickets can be changed free of charge until further notice in view of coronavirus situation.
- Promo reward tickets can’t be cancelled or refunded.
- Promo reward tickets are subject to the operating airline’s general conditions of carriage.
- Promo reward tickets are available for one-way and round-trip tickets paid with Miles (Promo reward tickets are not available for purchase with Miles & Cash).
- Promo reward tickets are subject to availability.
- Displayed Miles Fares for Long Haul destinations are for flights to/from Paris or Amsterdam.
- Promo reward tickets for long haul-flights depart from or arrive in Europe, as defined by IATA as the following countries: Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Balearic Islands, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, West Russia.
- Due to COVID-19 we have an updated rebook policy for Promo rewards, which you can read here: https://www.flyingblue.com/en/news/rebook-policy
Full terms and conditions can be found on the Promo Awards page
Bottom line
Flying Blue has released details of October’s Promo Awards which cover travel through 31 March 2023 and which need to be booked by 31 October 2022. As things stand, it looks like there may not be any long-haul premium cabin awards included in this month’s deals so if you’re looking for a great way to use your Flying Blue miles, you may have to wait another month.
If anyone spots any premium cabin Promo Awards in their searches, let me know in the comments and I’ll update this article.
