UPDATE: These will actually launch on May 2 as May 1 is Labour Day across much of Europe.
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. As first mentioned in our live This week in RWRDS broadcast on Friday, Flying Blue members will be able save 25% on business class rewards out of Montreal.
25% off business class rewards from Montreal to Europe
May’s Promo Rewards will feature 25% off business class reward tickets on KLM from Montreal to Europe. The flights need to be booked between April 1 and 30 for travel May 1 to October 31, 2023.
The minimum redemption amount without a discount for KLM out of Montreal is 55,000 miles one way. With the discount this will work out business class rewards starting at 41,250 miles each direction. Round trip you are looking at 82,500 miles – that’s a pretty good deal for business class!
I did a quick spot check on availability (this was on April 30) and there were a good amount 55,000 mile rewards available in July August between Montreal and Amsterdam as well as Montreal to Madrid. Availability should be similar to other cities as well.
Montreal to Amsterdam
Montreal to Madrid
However the return wasn’t looking as good in July with only a few dates at 55,000 miles. August did look a little bit better. Hopefully the airline will release more seats when the promotion goes live. Keep in mind Air France KLM has some of the most fluctuating reward availability that I have found out of any programs. One minute it could showing close to nothing and then few minutes later there are lots of options. So I would keep checking back and searching for rewards if you don’t have any success in your initial searches. I will also have a follow up post on Monday and will mention what availability options I find.
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 55,000 points to receive 41,250 Flying Blue miles should you be able to find availability at the 55,000 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!
As I also mentioned in our live This week in RWRDS broadcast on Friday you can also find the actual promo reward availability sooner by searching KLM’s Netherlands site KLM.nl as they get earlier access to the rewards. You can even book with them however you’ll be paying the fees in Euros instead of Canadian dollars.
Wrapping it up
Air France KLM Flying Blue will feature Montreal as a 25% off city in their Promo Rewards that will launch tomorrow. The discount is for business class and those reward flights start as low as 55,000 miles one way. That means with the discount you could potentially fly across the Atlantic for only 41,250 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!