Rewards Canada is once again pleased to bring you an early heads up of a Canadian city being featured in the next set of Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Rewards.
50% off economy class rewards from Montreal to Europe
April’s Promo Rewards will feature 50% off economy class reward tickets on KLM from Montreal to Europe. The flights need to be booked between April 1 and 30 for travel April 1 to September 30, 2023.
What is significant about this offer is this will include 50% off their amazing minimum redemption amount of 15,000 Flying Blue Miles one way (30,000 round trip). If you can find availability it will mean you would be able to fly round trip between Montreal and Europe for only 15,000 miles + ~$300 in taxes and fees. Remember as well Air France KLM includes your first checked bag for free on these reward tickets!
I did a quick spot check on availability (this was on March 28) and there were a good amount 15,000 mile rewards available in April and September between Montreal and Amsterdam. The higher season months from June to August however did not. I also randomly checked Montreal to Vienna (via Amsterdam) and it also showed availability at 15,000 miles.
However the return wasn’t looking so good. I could only find two or three days between Amsterdam and Montreal with 15,000 miles between April and September. There were a few more days in the 20,000 to 30,000 range though. I didn’t check other cities as those may have more availability. Hopefully the airline will release more seats when the promotion goes live. I will have a follow up post on Saturday and will mention if more availability options come up.
Transfer from American Express
Your best option to top off your account if you don’t have enough miles (or zero for that matter) in your Flying Blue account is to transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards. The points transfer at a rate of 1 MR to 0.75 Flying Blue Miles which means you would only require 20,000 points to receive 15,000 Flying Blue miles should you be able to find availability at the 7,500 mile level each way.
While American Express states in can take up to three days for a transfer to Flying Blue, most data points show that transfers only take a few hours. This is where some gambling comes into play. Do you transfer right now so the miles are in your account ready to go as soon these offers go live sometime in the overnight period tonight. Only to find the routes and/or dates you want aren’t available. Or do wait to see what availability pops up tomorrow, find something you like and then do a transfer. You are gambling here as well in the hopes that availability doesn’t disappear before the miles show up in your account.
Ideally you’ll want to spend time today searching availability on KLM.ca to see what they show right now as it should be an OK indication of what will be available tomorrow at a minimum. Of course we hope they will release more seats! Remember to leave the ‘Travel Dates’ field blank to bring up availability across the month as you see in our examples above. You’ll also want to note however that the calendar view isn’t always accurate. I’ve clicked on a date from the calendar that shows 20,000 miles and when the results come up there are 15,000 mile options!
Wrapping it up
Air France KLM Flying Blue will feature Montreal as a 50% off city in their Promo Rewards that will launch tomorrow. The discount is for economy class and those reward flights start as low as 15,000 miles one way. That means with the discount you could potentially fly across the Atlantic for only 7,500 miles each direction! Now we need to keep our fingers crossed we see the airline release more availability at these lowest amounts for this promotion!
The promotion is also ideal if you need to travel during the peak summer season. With flights running 20,000 to 50,000 or so miles each way you’ll be able to get them for half that amount. Sure it is more than those 15,000 miles but being able to cut your planned high season reward flight mileage cost in half is ideal.
April 1 12:00am Update
Here’s some availability as pulled from our post that will go live a little later on April 1:
