As reported yesterday, Air France KLM Flying Blue‘s Promo Rewards are offering 50% off KLM economy class from Montreal to Europe, North Africa and Turkey. In our initial searches last night using the KLM Netherlands site we also found 50% off Air France economy class reward flights!
The Promo Rewards
April Promo Rewards – Save 20% to 50% on the Award Miles usually required for a reward ticket to/from various destinations worldwide. Book by Apr 30, 23 for travel until Sep 30, 23. Click here for more details
This month’s Canadian cities:
Montreal: 50% off KLM (and surprisingly Air France as it was communicated to us it was only KLM) economy class to Europe, North Africa, Turkey
50% off Montreal to Europe
We see the best Promo Rewards offer possible of 50% off for economy class departures from Montreal!
Economy class flights will start at only 7,500 miles one way. Round trip will start at exactly double that at 15,000 miles. The mileage amounts will vary depending on which destinations you choose in Europe, North Africa or Turkey. As well the dates play a big part in finding those lowest amounts. My initial searches earlier this week showed April and September as the best months to find flights at 7,500 miles. The busier months of May to August had a few here and there but for the most part many of those range from 10,000 to 45,000 miles or even more per direction.
Here’s an example of some the availability between Montreal and Amsterdam in April 2023.
Some examples:
WARNING: The KLM and AF sites have been really finicky – they like to bring up errors stating no flights available. Especially when trying to find round trip flights. Searching availability as one way flights seems to work better and does not bring up the error. Also note their calendar is sometimes off by one day, it will show 15,000 miles for September 5 but it is actually for September 6. I think this arises from the front end showing Sunday to Saturday but the back end system using Monday – Sunday.
Here are some routes and dates that we found 7,500 mile availability. Note the screenshots were taken before the offers went live on the Canadian site so the fees show up in EUR. You should be able to find these on KLM’s Canada site with the fees in CAD. Check back every so often as any other availability we or the Rewards Canada community comes across will be added here or in the comments below!
Other dates for Montreal to Amsterdam where we found 7,500 miles: April 9, 10, 13, 17, 19, 23 and quite a few dates in September
Return flights out of Amsterdam are few and far between, June 20th was one date we could find:
Here are a few more examples we found in either direction
You can fly Montreal to Warsaw or Zurich round trip in September (searched as two one way flights)
Booking and travel dates:
You can book these rewards starting on April 1st right through to April 30th on the Air France or KLM websites. You can travel on these offers anytime between April 1, 2023 and September 30, 2023.
You may have to get creative with booking as return flights seem hit and miss across Europe. Look at flying one way into one city and then returning from another. For example you could fly Montreal to Brussels on September 6 and then fly from Nice or Warsaw to Montreal on September 22 all for 15,000 miles in total.
Transfer from American Express Membership Rewards
Even though Air France KLM have launched their own credit card in Canada now, it is still quite new that if anyone was just starting out with it you most likely will not have enough miles from your spending to book these flights. That means if you don’t have enough Flying Blue miles or any at all, your best option is to convert American Express Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue Miles. The transfers are typically near-instant but American Express does state they can take up to 3 days.
Membership Rewards points transfer at a 1 to 0.75 ratio to Flying Blue. Which means you’ll need to transfer as little as 10,000 points for a one way KLM economy class flight out of Montreal or 20,000 round trip.
Even with the 1 to 0.75 ratio these represent great redemption options for your Membership Rewards points. This especially true for the American Express Cobalt Card if you earned most or all of your points at the 5x level. If you can score a round trip economy class flight for 20,000 Membership Rewards points (15,000 miles) it represents only $4,000 in 5x points spending. You wouldn’t come even close to getting a redemption like thay with any other credit card in Canada.
For comparison Amex’s own Fixed Points for Travel requires 60,000 points for round trip economy class flights to Europe and with base fares always being low you still have to pay insane fees and taxes. With Aeroplan you’d be looking at ~70,000 Aeroplan points which equates 70,000 Membership Rewards points so you can see how this Flying Blue offer makes for a great conversion from Membership Rewards.
Wrapping it up
Air France KLM Flying Blue’s Promo Rewards have returned for Canada this April. They feature 50% off economy class flights out out of Montreal and with those flights starting as low as 7,500 miles each way including the discount it can be entirely possible for travellers with low mileage balances in Flying Blue and even Membership Rewards to travel to Europe!
Click here to learn more about Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Rewards
Talk to us
Help the Rewards Canada community out! Let us know what you book or what availability you find in the comments below