How to find the cheapest redemption rates using Flying Blue miles

Flying Blue, the frequent flyer program of Air France and KLM, could be the perfect loyalty program for your next redemption.

Recently, the program announced standardized saver-level transatlantic redemptions from anywhere in the U.S. to anywhere in Europe:

• 20,000 miles in economy
• 35,000 miles in premium economy
• 50,000 miles in business class

This means you could book a business-class ticket from the West Coast of the U.S. to the far-flung corners of Europe for just 50,000 miles in business class each way when there’s availability, which would be an excellent value redemption.

Related: Private suites and high-tech touches: What it’s like flying Air France’s new business class

Unfortunately, these attractive rates are for the limited saver-level redemptions, with all other flights priced dynamically. As a result, you may see rates significantly higher than this, potentially with an extra zero added.

To book redemptions at saver-level rates, let’s look at how Flying Blue prices redemptions.

How Flying Blue dynamic pricing works

Several major loyalty programs price their awards dynamically. They argue that redemption prices should rise when cash fares increase (generally during periods of higher demand).

With Flying Blue’s new standardized rates, the program offers awards starting at those rates, but individual tickets can (and often do) increase sharply from there.

And there are some important trends to note.

Flying Blue does not guarantee any minimum number of award seats at saver levels

Although other European loyalty programs, such as British Airways Executive Club, will load a guaranteed minimum number of seats on every flight when schedules open, Flying Blue makes no such promises. Even if you search 12 months in advance, the seats may only be loaded at prices far above the saver level.

Flying Blue has published a worldwide award chart showing the saver-level pricing between different zones for Air France-KLM-operated flights and partner airlines. However, our searches found no partner redemptions at these levels.

The new standardized pricing recently announced is only for flights between the U.S. and Europe.

The carrier sometimes reduces seats to saver levels at the last minute

While low-priced awards may not immediately appear in your search results, they can pop up closer to departure. These last-minute reductions are more likely to happen on off-peak dates, outside the Northern Hemisphere’s summer period and major holidays, and may be limited to flights at less appealing times, such as the first or last flight of the day.

However, last-minute saver seats are less common with Flying Blue than they are with some other programs.

Dynamic prices are not tied to cash prices

Many airlines align cash and award ticket prices very closely. For example, Delta Air Lines will sell you a round-trip flight in Delta One business class to London for $7,099 or 670,000 Delta SkyMiles plus $333. This gives you almost exactly a 1-cent-per-mile redemption value compared to the cash price.

Flying Blue is different. An award for a flight departing at 9 a.m. could cost 200,000 Flying Blue miles, while a flight two hours later that same day could cost only 100,000 Flying Blue miles, with little difference between the cash fares of the two flights.

It is easier to find economy and premium economy saver awards than business-class saver awards

Like most programs, economy and premium economy awards to Europe are plentiful, while business-class awards are much harder to come by. In general, it is not difficult to find business-class awards from the East Coast outside of summer, but it’s often hard to find these awards from the West Coast, no matter when you plan on flying.

Flying Blue uses married segments when pricing awards

Just because you find availability on one itinerary doesn’t mean that one (or more) of that itinerary’s flights will carry over to other routings. This is due to “married-segment logic,” which essentially means that the price is based on the specific itinerary, not individual segments.

For example, say you are looking to fly to Ireland next year, and you see several dates with saver-level availability in February from New York, connecting through either Amsterdam or Paris.

You might assume that if these prices are available, including the extra short-haul leg to Dublin Airport (DUB), saver prices would also be available for just the New York to Paris or Amsterdam legs; after all, it’s only one flight rather than two.

Unfortunately, Flying Blue uses married-segment logic in pricing city pairs differently based on what it believes to be the demand.

While you don’t need to worry too much about how married segments work, the lesson here is that if you can’t find a flight to a hub available for a decent redemption price, consider searching with an additional short-haul leg added. You could find a much lower price, and it could be worth the short detour.

Related: 10 mistakes to avoid when redeeming frequent flyer miles

Always check the monthly Promo Rewards

Every month, Flying Blue publishes a list of city pairs with discounted award pricing for a set travel period (usually a few months), provided you book during that month.

It’s hard to overstate how valuable these Promo Rewards can be. For example, this month, the program is offering premium economy awards from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to Europe for a reduced price. Instead of paying the usual saver price of 35,000 Flying Blue miles, you’ll only need to use 26,500 miles. This means you could fly to Paris and then to Spain for a very reasonable price.

When you see prices even lower than the standardized saver levels, it’s likely because they are Promo Rewards. They typically display as brown in the monthly search results rather than green.

How to find saver-level space

The easiest way to search for saver-level space is to use the Flying Blue website on your preferred route and class. However, you’ll want to leave the date field blank as you conduct your search.

Doing so will cause the monthly view to show, allowing you to easily see which months have seats at the saver level, plus which dates of the month they are available.

You can then click your preferred date to see the flights available, with prices starting from the price indicated on the calendar.

Remember, too, that Flying Blue does allow you to add stopovers on award tickets for no extra charge, but you’ll need to call to add one.

Also keep in mind that paying the taxes and fees on Flying Blue award tickets should qualify as an airfare purchase, so you should use a card that earns bonus rewards. Some good options include:

How to earn Flying Blue miles

You can earn Flying Blue miles with the Air France-KLM World Elite Mastercard®. This card earns 3 Flying Blue miles per dollar spent on SkyTeam airfare purchases bought directly with a SkyTeam airline and 1.5 Flying Blue miles per dollar spent on everything else.

The card also has a solid welcome bonus of 50,000 Flying Blue miles after spending $2,000 on the card in the first three months of account opening. TPG values Flying Blue miles at 1.2 cents each, so this bonus alone is worth $600.

The information for the Air France-KLM Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

The program is also a transfer partner of:

So, if you have a card like the American Express® Gold Card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card or the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (among others), you can transfer your points or miles to Flying Blue.

Related: How (and why) you should earn transferable points

Bottom line

Unfortunately, beyond the limited saver-level awards, there is little logic to how Flying Blue prices its redemptions. An award that costs 30,000 miles on one day could cost 300,000 miles on the next.

It’s very frustrating that there may be no low-priced seats in premium cabins for months at a time, and prices of 250,000 miles for a seven-hour flight in economy that might otherwise cost $400 is not uncommon.

Fortunately, it is easy to view prices by month across an entire year to find those valuable saver-level awards. You can try adding on a short-haul flight to see more availability, and the monthly Promo Rewards regularly offer spectacular value, even on popular routes.