Flying Blue (Air France, KLM, and Other Partners) - Booking C class award TLV-SFO

Hi,
I have 200k miles on FB and would like to book two business class round-trip award tickets TLV-SFO connecting in AMS and/or CDG for travel in October 2012. I called FB and they said that there is no availability for the CDG-SFO leg yet, and I should call again in May. Is that true? Is it possible to actually book a biz class roundtrip award TLV-SFO for only 100k miles? Keep in mind that I no longer have FB status. Any recommendations on when I should call to make the reservation?

Thanks,
Alon

You don't need to call to make an Award booking - you can do this online.

Sign in using your Flying Blue number and pin on either the Air France or the KLM websites, and use the links to book an award ticket (the link via the KLM website is here (https://www.klm.com/travel/nl_en/flying_blue/earn_and_spend_miles/spend_miles/book_an_award_ticket.htm)).

Signing in, and going through the booking process, will allow you to check as many, or as few, dates for travel as you wish (I expect call centre staff dislike open-ended queries like this) and the award booking tool returns a calendar of 1 month of dates with the cheapest rate shown for each day.

For what it's worth, as a Platinum member, I am seeing no availability in Business Class on any date in October for the TLV-SFO segments; although there are only 2 dates for which Business Class is unavailable in September, on all other dates, it's only available in September at the more expensive "Flex" rate of 100k one way. I'm only seeing availability in Economy on the following dates in October for TLV-SFO: October 6, 7, 20, 22, 24, 26, 27, 31. On all other dates in October, there is no availability in any class.

http://i44.tinypic.com/iwllab.jpg

Rather than ringing back in May, I'd check the website frequently. However, having played around with a few random dates, I wasn't able to find much availability at the 50k one-way rate (only May 15 of the few dates I checked) so it may not turn out to be possible to book an award at the standard 100k rate on this route...

For what it's worth, I'm seeing some very limited availability at the standard rate when searching TLV-LAX return in October, in case this may be of some use to you...in fact, October 30 is the only date with seats at this rate for the return and there are only 3 left (some dates available if you can go out into November).

http://i39.tinypic.com/20grq8.jpg

Thanks for your help! I have noticed I get more travel options on the phone compared to the online booking tool, which seems to show no flights at all.

You are correct. The web tool can be completely useless at times when it comes to showing the correct availability. They make you call so that you can give them an extra 20 euros.