Amazing 12,500 Miles To Europe: Q&A - Open Jaws Allowed On Round-Trip Flights

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Wow, there is a lot of interest in the new Air France promo award where you can basically get a one-way award to Europe for only 12,500 miles with Air France. But can’t blame people when you can get a one-way flight to places like Moscow, Tel Aviv, Athens, Istanbul and even northern parts of Africa for only 12,500 miles plus taxes and fees.

As a result, I’m getting a lot of questions via email so I thought I”d answer them here. If you don’t see your question below, feel free to leave it in the comments.

Promo Awards Offer Details

The Flying Blue (Air France / KLM / Air Europa) loyalty program offers heavily discounted Flying Blue awards called Promo Awards for certain routes throughout the year.

The current discounted promo awards from North America must be booked between April 1, 2014 and April 30, 2014 for travel between June 1, 2014 and July 31, 2014. There is a 50% off coach flights from Boston and a 25% off coach flights from Houston. These flights are operated by Air France, so the connection point in Europe will be Paris.

Terms And Conditions

Reservations must be made exclusively on airfrance or klm (except for bookings for children, infants and minors, who are not authorised to book an award on the website).
In the event that a technical problem occurs when reserving the promotional fare or if the reservation cannot be finalised, the Flying Blue member must log on to the site and repeat the procedure.
This award ticket may be used on connecting flights within Europe and on connecting flights from Europe to long-haul flights and vice-versa.
These promotional Promo Award@ may not be modified, cancelled or refunded.
Promo Award@ are available for one-way tickets and round trips.
Flex Award are not included in the Promo Award@ offer.

Questions And Answers

We’ve included some of the common questions from readers below. If you don’t see your question, or want to expand on one of the questions below, feel free to leave a question or comment in the comment section of this post. We’ve got a lot of great readers who will also be happy to chime in with answers to common questions.

How Do I Search Award Availability?

The best way to search for Air France award availability is by using the Airfrance.us website. It is easy to use and shows availability on a monthly calendar when you search.

How Do I Get Air France Miles?

You can earn miles from flying Air France, using one of their Flying Blue program partners, or by transfering points from a loyalty or credit card program. Two of the quickest ways to get miles into your account are to transfer from Starwood Preferred Guest hotel program or the American Express Membership Rewards program.

Both the personal and business Starwood Preferred Guest card from American Express offer 25,000 bonus points after signing up and meeting minimum spending requirements. Once you have these points you can transfer points over to a Flying Blue Air France account. Starwood Starpoints transfer to Flying Blue (Air France) at a 1:1 ratio. But if you transfer only 20,000 points, you’ll get a 25% bonus for a total of 25,000 Flying Blue miles.

Link to apply for Starwood Preferred Guest card from American Express

Link to apply for Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express Open

If you have an American Express, or were considering getting one, Air France Flying Blue miles can be transferred from American Express Membership Rewards. American Express Membership Rewards program allows members to earn points with everyday spend on select American Express credit cards like:

Platinum Card® from American Express

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

Business Green Rewards Card from American Express

Here is a detailed walkthrough of how to transfer American Express points into loyalty programs.

How Many Air France Miles Do I Have?

You can check your balance on the AirFrance us site mentioned above. However I check in on my Air France balance with AwardWallet.

If you don’t have an account, you can signup for one here. Then you simply enter your Air France information so that when you log in, the balance is updated automatically.

How Long Does It Take To Transfer Points From SPG?

Based on experience, it takes about 24 hours to see miles in your account when transferring points from Starwood Preferred Guest account.

How Long Does It Take To Transfer Points From American Express

Based on experience, points will show up immediately after completing the transfer request from American Express to an airline partner. But each partner airline is different.

How Do I Book The Flight When I Have Enough Miles?

Once you find your heavily discounted award flight, select the option you’d like, and purchase the ticket. You’l see the “Promo Award” at the top of the mileage requirement for the flight. The promo award flights from Boston should require 12,500 miles plus taxes and fees.

Does This Work In Business Class?

Not this 50% promo award. But there are other promo awards that pop up regularly that offer heavily discounted Business Class award tickets.

What Is The Cancellation Policy?

These promotional Promo Award^@ may not be modified, cancelled or refunded.

Does This Work With Open-Jaws And Stopovers?

Promo Award^@ are available for one-way tickets and round trips. With regard to Open-Jaws or Stopover, you can use a stopover or an open jaw only on a round-trip flight. Per the general terms and conditions:

Awards tickets shall be issued for (i) a one-way flight, (ii) a return flight or (iii) an “open-jaw round trip flight” on Air France, KLM and/or the Airline Partners following the most direct route in both journey directions in accordance with the schemes and conditions specified in FB Communication. Subject to the conditions specified in FB Communication, there may be a break in the journey (stopover). An “open-jaw round trip flight” is a round-trip flight in which points of departure and arrival are different but within the same award zone, or where the originating station for the return flight is different from the arrival station for the outgoing flight but within the same award zone. Furthermore, Award tickets may also be issued for a “round the world trip” on Air France, KLM and certain Partners defined in FB Communication and shall in principle be in the same travel class of service throughout the journey and must include a half trip point, this being a point where the outward journey ends and where the homeward journey begins, unless otherwise provided for in FB Communication. The number of possible breaks in the journey (stopovers) for such “round the world trip” shall be specified at the time of booking. All Award tickets are subject to changes in air traffic rights, or decisions taken by the aforementioned airlines in their reasonable discretion to close any flight segments.

I did a quick attempt at an open-jaw and it was successful at pricing out the discounted 50% off award. This was a round-trip coach flight departing Boston and arriving in Istanbul, with a return from Moscow through Paris back to Boston.

In this case, the round-trip ticket uses an open-jaw by flying into Istanbul and out of Moscow. The ticket still prices out at the 50% off promo award price. So this is good news.

Do Other Cities Besides Boston Get 50% Off?

Yes, but not from North America. There are currently other promo awards that offer 50% off, but none of them are included in North America. To see the other offers by region, click here.

Can You Use Delta Miles?

No. This is a Flying Blue promo award. So you need to use Flying Blue miles.

Do you have any other questions?

Bottom Line

There is exceptional summer availability between Boston and Europe for the low level discounted awards requiring only 12,500 miles plus taxes and fees. We’ve learned that you can use stop-overs and open-jaws on the promo awards as long as they are booked as round-trip awards.

If you are interested in this promotional offer yet don’t have any Air France points, consider some of the options below for future promo awards.

Starwood Preferred Guest:

American Express:

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