Incredible!!!! Flying Blue lowers the cost of award tickets, and it's not an April Fool's joke
The news hit the entire world of frequent flyers like a bolt out of the blue, if we are usually used [...]
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The news hit the entire frequent flyer world like a bolt out of the blue, if usually we are used to overnight devaluations, this time it is a sudden unexpected gift for this even more welcome that the loyalty program of Air France and KLM brings to all members and is confirmed as the best in the market.
Cheapest award tickets
As we have repeatedly explained the program Flying Blue has dynamic pricing, this means that you can find the same ticket at 55k points or at 600k. The news of the change, which is unique in the entire global frequent flyer scene, is that award tickets will cost less and the price will be reduced significantly. FLying Blue Ben Lipsey's #1 says this.
Specifically:
- In business class, the 71% of flights will require fewer miles
- In premium economy, the reduction will come to 68%
- In economy class, the average savings will be 66%
I am not talking about the monthly offers, which discount the tickets of even the 50%, but about lowering the minimum price structurally on all routes and all classes
Some examples
As always to find the best prices I recommend take advantage of the "secret calendar" for faro to appear just go into the search and search for a ticket without entering the date of travel.
One will have access to the monthly calendar and be able to jump from month to month looking for the cheapest flight, also seeing the minimum price within individual months. Above the search for a business ticket from Milan to New York, you can fly to the U.S. for as low as 50K FB points + taxes each way.
The premiere is accessible at the reservation only if you are a Platinum member, so real FF from the Franco-Dutch duo, and again the savings are huge. Before it was impossible to find a ticket for less than 305K points, now you can fly to Tokyo or Mexico City for less than 250K points, basically we get a biz from the US to Italy for free.
Flying to Brazil from Italy starting at 70k points is almost a savings of 30k from the previous price list.
With just under 100K points you can fly to Bali, taking advantage of one of KLM's 5th freedom routes. A double flight that among other things He also gives away two souvenir cottages.
You can fly In Japan with in economy with only 25 thousand punti and 100euro tax, really a space thing.
Let's hope it's not a flash in the pan
Write-downs are the nightmare of serial accumulators of points and miles, and in recent months we have seen one deterioration after another that I can hardly believe my eyes. AF and KLM are absolutely going against the grain and continuing a path that recently added the first classes of Garuda and China Eastern, free stop-overs, and better rules for monthly bidding.
All it would take to make everything perfect is an FB credit card for the Italian market, with the Volare program ready to migrate to Star Alliance I am convinced that there would be thousands and thousands of potential serial accumulators ready to apply for this new card. At the moment the only (and excellent) option is to use Mooncard but it's only for VAT holders Or transfer from Amex.
Where is the catch?
We Italians are wont to think wrong and to look for the catch hidden in the folds or around corners. Right now I think FB's move is 100% honest.. Having the dynamic table allows the price to fluctuate. With algorithms, the company can predict flight fill rates with reasonable accuracy and make choices where to put discounted seats.
At the end of the day this will cost practically nothing, in fact. If the seat remains empty, the carrier loses money; if it fills it with an award ticket, it will gain money. With this move and recent offers such as 10K points to new members, triple miles for Italian passengers on routes competing with ITA many more people will sign up for the program and thus the program will make more and more money.
Now let's see if this move by Flying Blue will be a sign of change or remain unique in the market.
- 6,000 Mile Registration Bonus
- Collect miles WITH EACH PURCHASE
- Your miles with no expiration*
- No fees for ATM withdrawals and foreign purchases
- Without having to change banks
- Autonomous card activation
- Multi-function mobile application
- Free travel insurance
- Free credit for up to 7 weeks
- Contactless Payment
- Mastercard® SecureCode
- 20€ discount directly in your statement by spending €60 in one or more transactions with Carta on Italotreno.it
- Free fee the 1st year. From the 2nd €5.50 per month
- You can choose to pay in full or in installments
- Premium level of the Italo Più program
- 4 Vouchers per year for access to Italo Club Lounges
- Preferential Access to Italo's Fast Track at the station
- For every 5 purchases of Italo ticketing and/or onboard services made with Italo American Express Credit Card you will receive 1 voucher for room upgrade
- Welcome bonus of 100,000 Volare points upon reaching 6 thousand in spending in the first 3 months after card issuance
- Accumulate 1.5 qualifying Volare points for every euro spent, accumulate an additional 3 non-qualifying Volare points ( for a total of 4.5 Volare points) for every euro spent on ticketing purchases and other services offered by ITA Airways
- Access to the Premium Club of ITA Airways' Volare program.
- ITA Airways Lounge Access
- Free excess baggage
- Points Back