30+ days covers dates that are even 360 days out, so not sure how “waiting til only 30+ days out to book is imposing a severe constraint on one's self”.

“825,000 AF-KL miles + €356 for a one-way US-Asia AF-AF business class trip 30+ days out. With rewards like that, who needs penalties.”

Flying such routes in business for a lot fewer miles is possible even sub-30 days out, but it doesn’t make the AF-KL miles hugely rewarding even as there are alternatives.

AF-KL has this scale of rip-off “reward” flight prices for flights across the calendar spectrum.

Let’s see how soon it is until the AF credit card in the US comes with a 150k mile SUB. That’s the kind of thing mileage devaluations result in happening, as the airlines and their bank card partners try to keep the loyalty program hamster wheel in motion.