TATL awards
 

I have a lot of Chase UR and Amex MR points, which both transfer to AF FB.

So I did some searches for J awards for late August, early September.

First thing that jumps out are those fees. Looks like $200-300 each way, about $600 for a trip with two TATL segments.

The miles requirements are comparable to the lowest J TATL awards on other programs. But of course the fees completely blow out the value proposition.

Also some inconsistencies in miles pricing. For instance, from SFO to VCE there are a number of 57k miles awards but if you go to say SFO-VIE, it jumps to 72k miles as the lowest-price award for the dates I'm searching.

I just checked a multisegment, SFO-AJA, NCE-SFO. The outbound has 57k awards but the return are 72k or greater.

So some markets just have a higher floor on the award price?

I'm curious how FB members with status who regularly earn and redeem on FB view the state of FB award redemptions. I know that they run promos for specific pairs of markets but those are mostly Y awards?

Or maybe the particular search results I've gotten is not representative of FB premium awards pricing?

It's not an inconsistency. Different routes = different markets = different price, as for revenue tickets.

Yes, definitely.

Yes. Usually it's much more than that ! :D
FB has moved to dynamic pricing for awards and the redemption rates have become crazy.

Perhaps you should do some basic research on a programme before posting a thread which only indicates that, by seeing results that don't confirm to your unsubstantiated expectations, you are unfamiliar with how the programme works!

I had no expectations but the results compared to other programs are notable.

That's why I ask the questions, are these results representative of FB redemptions.

You may not be comparing like with like. The fees that you mention, for example, are pretty standard for most European frequent flyer programmes.

You should also be aware that we have had numerous reports down the years of people having their Flying Blue accounts suspended/audited as a result of transferring miles from credit cards (inc Amex and Chase Rewards), particularly to FB accounts that have never seen any miles earned by flying. Several people have reported having to visit an Air France ticket office in order to have their previously-booked Award Tickets reinstated.

FB doesn't seem to be the right choice for you for this trip.

It may not be.

Yet they partnered with as many of these credit card programs as any other carrier so apparently they like selling miles or awards to the banks which issue these credit cards.

So what am I suppose to do, not look into this as an option for using my points? Until they end their partnerships with the banks, people are going to see if there's good enough value there.

I'm sure there are lots of other things you can do with your credit card points.

But that's going ever further off topic!

I think it has been a while since we heard of a rogue suspension of an award obtained by transferring credit card points to FB, so they might have calmed down. In any case, I don't see it being a major issue if the award is issued in the name of the account holder.
Anyway, to get back on topic, 57k from SFO to VCE is actually pretty great considering how difficult it can be to find J awards out of SFO.

What you can do to reduce the cost is look for an option with DL on your outbound segment. Not super easy to find but they exist. And the surcharges are tiny out of the US. Out of Europe it makes no difference, you'll be stuck with the same surcharges unless you fly on Aeromexico (I think...).

Is it necessary to talk to people like that? It's condescending and unnecessarily combative. You tend to do this quite often.

The point of this forum is to share experiences, help and learn from others, not to berate them for not meeting your presumed level of enlightenment.