Flying Blue (Air France & KLM) - How to use miles in Australia

Am currently in Perth and logged onto my account this evening to find that my 98,000 miles are expiring this month (even though last activity was July 2008?).

What is the best way to use up these miles. It says on the spending miles tab that an intra Pacific fare costs 30,000 miles on a sky team airline. I can't see how there are any Skyteam flights in this region.

On the non Sky Team award section there appears to be good redemption rates on Qantas domestic flights. How hard is it to get flights here?

As you know, you can spend miles on some FB partners that are not SkyTeam partners. Malaysia is one provider that flies to and from Perth.
You can spend Miles on all Malaysia Airlines-operated flights with an MH or KL prefix.
*You cannot earn or spend Miles on Malaysia Airlines-operated flights between Tawau and Tarakan and between Kuala Lumpur and France or Italy. You also cannot earn or spend Miles on domestic Malaysia flights operated by Malaysia Airlines, MAS Wings and Firefly.

As you mentioned, Qantas looks a possibility.
You can spend your Miles on all scheduled Qantas flights within Australia that are operated by Qantas, QantasLink or Jetstar.
Domestic Australia Return flight
Economy Class 25.000
Business Class 40.000 (My emphasis).

My reading of this is that you cannot spend FB miles on a Qantas international flight - domestic only.

Of course, the FB Miles Finder contradicts the information given on the partner details about the amount of miles needed for Qantas flights, but we expect that :>)

I do not know how easy it is to get FB award tickets with these airlines, but I am pretty sure you would have to contact FB in any case, as it would be an FB award ticket.

Not sure if that is of any use, but maybe you didn't consider Malaysia Airlines, so might be some help.

Thanks: problem with MH is that I cannot find any details of redemption rates for particular routes.

QF looks good but reckon that availability will be a major issue.

Other choice is CO CNS-Guam?

You can call FB in business hours 02 8223 9835 and they're quite helpful, can book awards (except for the promos). However, since the April 1 massacre FB redemption rates are awful, as bad as QF.

FB does do quarterly promos (http://www.flyingbluenews.com/promotions/spendingmiles/promoawards.html), only available on AF and KL metal unfortunately. eg KUL-Europe in biz for 40,000 miles each way.

MH awards to/from Aus are overpriced at 50000 Y / 100000 C.

Have never tried to redeem on QF but if a domestic biz return really is 40,000 that sounds reasonable value and you can check award availability easily on the QF site. Even better if they allow one-way awards which are normally ok.

Otherwise KE - Korean - fly SYD/MEL to Seoul and CZ - China Southern - SYD/MEL to Canton, not forgetting Delta SYD to LAX.

Watch for FB's notorious tax-grab on awards, don't be afraid to dispute the taxes.

Domestic Australia Return flight
Economy Class 25.000
Business Class 40.000
Another victim of the FB massacre. New rates (http://www.airfrance.com/X07/en/local/voyageurfrequent/flyingblue/fblue_profiter_aeriens.htm) for QF domestic return awards are
Economy Class 25.000
Business Class 50.000

Another victim of the FB massacre. New rates (http://www.airfrance.com/X07/en/local/voyageurfrequent/flyingblue/fblue_profiter_aeriens.htm) for QF domestic return awards are
Economy Class 25.000
Business Class 50.000

As I mentioned, there are contradictions on the FB site. 25,000 and 40,000 are currently showing here:
http://www.klm.com/travel/nl_en/flying_blue/partners/index.htm?intcamp=flb.partners&intchan=fb.partnersmenu&inttype=txt.partners

[QUOTE=Perth Flyer;12501099]Thanks: problem with MH is that I cannot find any details of redemption rates for particular routes.



I wish you luck....I've been trying for ages to get a couple of seats on MH using my KLM 'miles'....no luck to date.