KLM advertises with 'real deal days' and pretends it has discounted fares for around 80 city pairs. I wondered if these fares are really lower then a few days ago and would like to put them to the test. Since I can't figure out myself fully, I wondered if anyone is willing help

- AMS-BER is now available on KLM.com for �142 all-in (fare basis: GYS72ULA & ticket price �28). But on ExpertFlyer and ITA Matrix, I can't find this fare basis at all. Only the more expensive GYS72BSA for �95 shows.
- AMS-CUR is now available on KLM for �709,52 all-in (ticket + taxes �492) & I can find this fare on ExpertFlyer and it seems this fare was even lower by �20 in early December. For this city pair, it seems the fare is now �20 more then a month ago. Would you agree?

Can anyone suggest me how I could check if the promotional fares are indeed 'new' and lower then older fares? Thanks a lot for any help


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As you can imagine KL has no interest to make historical data publicly available and no business has been setup for this purpose

So i recommend to check your frequent routes on a regular basis (avoid high peak periods of course) , then you will learn to spot real sales deals

Another source of past data is google flights , but to a limited extent and minimal prices might come from OTAs

Thanks for you insight! I thought ExpertFlyer would show historical fare data, if I would set the ticketing date in the past.

If you're not able to recognise the fares as being "good value" then they're not good value.

At least for European destinations, the "Real Deals" are rarely anything much better than what you can normally find, if you are clued-in for your city pairs of interest.

Just over a month ago, I booked a return to BER for later in January for �144.
In August, I booked a return to BER, flown this past weekend, for �138.
My previous purchase was for �162, the one before that again �138.

Your price is "typical" for the route.

(by the way, the cheapest return for AMS-BER in the Real Deal Weeks is �135.95. It was not that many years ago where you could regularly purchase the route for �98; that price point made a return briefly during the pandemic years!)
EDIT: it actually went much lower than even that. Here's one purchased in April 2020 - and the price shown was NOT reduced using any EMD or voucher!!!

Totally agree. My quest is not so much to find out if I find the deals attractive, but more to check whether KLM is misleading the public with fake deals.

They're not.

They will have raised the fares for a week or so in advance, just so they can be reduced again.

The "Real Deal Weeks" are not something you should get excited about - at least not for the ex-NL fares, I can't comment about other countries where there may actually be decent savings included - but you should know when they occur, and not book immediately prior!

That is the urban myth I would like to proof correct/wrong. Would you have a clue how I could do so?

Expertflyer can't tell you what availability was in the past.
It can also only show you published fares, any sale fares can be private fares available only through direct channels, and that's not even getting into the whole NDC/Offers and Orders thing.

Get yourself prepared, and conduct your research in the week BEFORE the Real Deal Dagen occur.

(They happen twice a year; early January and early September has been the pattern for the last several years)

The taxes went up like crazy in both Germany & Holland, making the total price much higher now. I would like to compare current prices with recent prices, say last month.

Well, I can tell you that the price for this one particular KLM AMS-BER flight dropped by �8 between Monday Jan 6 and the launch of the Real Deal Dagen on Tuesday Jan 7

Let's be reasonable though -- the "real deals" are never going to be on short hops like AMS-BER, despite them being in the list. There's only so much you can discount a sub-�200 ticket.

Surely though, even back then, taxes ex AMS plus taxes ex BER where over 54 euro's Taxes for just AMS are now 70 odd Euro's, and I don't think BER would have been under 20-30 either back then?

As stated before , if no market for that , then no one will do it = when have you seen history paying off in such way ? If providing such data would make someone rich trust me dozens of players would pop-up and airlines would love make a piece of it

As IrishGuy said , you need to study to recognize if a deal is a good one and i would , as you are an AMS based flyer , ask you to remember that KL has little incentive to offer competitive prices as they are the sheriff in town and see you as captive customer , quite often i seat on same flights as ducth KLM customers and they are shocked to see how much less i paid compared to them by starting from central europe

So check similar competition (please compare apples to apples only) on same routes for a long period of time and then compare with next big KLM sales to know if KLM is lying or not (spoiler alert = its not urban legend , just business 101)