hfly

I'm not happy. For the flash promo award thing...............I took a chance as there was a destination that I wanted..............and suitable dates were available (Can you believe it! In all my years looking I almost never see a promo that has dates that I could use!).........and when I tried to book, I got an error, then another error, and the same 2-3 errors many times. I tried through the app, and got further in the process, and then different kinds of errors............I contacted CS, explaining everything and got a ridiculous answer. Contacted them again, and it looks like there was not in fact availability the dates I wanted and that it was ghost availability. Talk about a tease!!!!!!!!!!! Very frustrating and a total waste of time!

irishguy28

Promo Awards are only available on the specific carriers indicated for each route on the website.

For transatlantic flights, this is always either:

• Air France only;
• KLM only;
• both Air France and KLM

Sometimes only one carrier is available because it is only served by one of AF or KL, or, for Premium Economy promo awards, because only AF operates this cabin. If a destination is served by both AF and KL and offered in either business or economy, the offer is usually - but not always - available on both carriers.

There are never Promo Awards on Delta, or Alitalia, or any other airline flying over the Atlantic. Don't expect that, when Virgin Atlantic becomes a Flying Blue partner, that Promo Awards will be available on VS metal.

There are rarely Promo Awards on Kenya Airways. And I can't recall ever seeing TAROM, Aircalin or Transavia included.

irishguy28

Yes! Book a short- or medium-haul (i.e. within Europe) trip.

Please note that the "promo" reduction is only ever applied to the mileage amount - and the price of booking as a Promo is that it makes the booking completely non-refundable (standard awards can be cancelled at a charge of €50 per person per ticket). Full taxes, fees, and charges are payable on all Flying Blue redemptions.

Goldorak

I booked the 22K RT promo to JFK. Great deal even if Y

hfly

Not totally correct above, I do recall seeing Air Europe offers including across the Atlantic in the past.

Goldorak

I remember that too.

Xandrios

Since the FB breakup with UX I haven't seen any of those promos though. And that makes sense as UX now has their own FFP rather than using FB.

Theoretically we could have promos on KQ and RO too, since they are part of FB. Havent seen those in a while either though. I *think* we did have KQ promos at some point?

Concerto

Indeed, and I would have used it for a friend if I could have booked for the last week of October. I have been trying to get the Los Angeles one (for 14,000 miles per direction), but from Geneva it was quite tricky, very very few dates left. Taxes were a reasonable EUR210 RT, and if you booked them as one ways (somehow the only way to make an open jaw, e.g. out of GVA, in to ZRH) the taxes were not any higher. But I found a paid ticket for EUR419, which is pretty good too.

nwflyboy

I ran into lots of errors during this as well. At first I found lots of availability on several routes that interested me. After discussing options with she-to-whom-all-things-must-be-justified, I went back and started encountering errors every time, on every itinerary, including those that had appeared bookable a couple hours before. I tried multiple browsers, multiple computers, all pulled up the same errors. I noted on the front page for Air France that there was a notice about a major IT failure at Orly which was impacting their systems. I called in and spoke to an agent who advised me that the Promo awards could not be booked currently because of this IT issue. He suggested I wait until the next day and try. That seemed like a guarantee that all the good bookings would be gone, but I shrugged, hung up, and went to get something to eat. After dinner, I came back and tried it again (about an hour later). This time, I got no errors.

I ended up booking 2 seats in Business class on Air France from Seattle to Istanbul via Paris, and back, for 36K points each way (plus fees, which were non-trivial but not astronomical). Wife is happy, we're now planning a spring trip to Turkey.

Lessons learned: when websites yield nothing but errors, take a break, then try again. Be ready for whatever happens (or doesn't).

Fabo.sk

The mileage value in 22K is pretty good indeed, though I can't quite justify the 180 in taxes, seeing as I can commonly find flights to NYC from the region for well under 300EUR.
Only thing that's really bugging me at this point is that it looks like KLM seems hell-bent on not offering the good fares on their 747 flights, which are available in the mileage promo...