September 29, 2024

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The New Trick to Find the Cheapest Air France/KLM Flying Blue Award Flights

Low award rates, easy-to-earn miles, and the ease of finding availability even to book business class have made Air France and KLM's Flying Blue mileage program one of the best […]
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Low award rates, easy-to-earn miles, and the ease of finding availability even to book business class have made Air France and KLM’s Flying Blue mileage program one of the best for booking flights all over the world with points and miles. 

Flying Blue’s dynamic pricing means award rates are all over the map – especially in business class. You could book one-way lie-flat seats to Europe for as few as 50,000 miles … but you’re more likely to see rates of 200,000 or more. But using a simple trick, you could easily pull up a month’s worth of fares to zero in on the cheapest rates. Until recently.

Flying Blue appears to have removed that option. When trying to pull up Flying Blue’s flexible price calendar using the old trick of leaving the date field blank when searching, you’d be met with only blank dates on the calendar. That’d mean you’d have to search day by day, making searching for the best award fares far more time-consuming. 

Blank Flying Blue award calendar

Blank Flying Blue award calendar

But the calendar isn’t gone for good – at least not yet. As first flagged by a handful of Reddit users, there’s a workaround to pull up that handy price calendar.

Say you’re looking to score a one-way flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) in either KLM business class or Air France business class. Type in your departure and arrival cities and select business class …. but rather than leaving the departure date empty as you once would, scroll to the absolute last date on the calendar Air France or KLM will let you select. For me today, that’s June 30, 2025. 

Air France KLM Flying Blue award search

Air France KLM Flying Blue award search

Then, simply hit “search flights.” The airline’s site will pull up a month’s worth of award availability. Since most airlines only sell flights 11 months in advance, the first available fares are in May, in this case. You won’t be able to click on each individual month, but you can use the arrows on either side to quickly tab over to another month. 

Flying Blue flexible price calendar trick

Flying Blue flexible price calendar trick

If you’re on the hunt for a business class fare, look for months that show business class flights available for 50,000 miles – like in January flying from Minneapolis to Paris. Once you select a month, it’ll list out dates in green to display the lowest rates. 

Flying Blue MSP-CDG award flight business class

Flying Blue MSP-CDG award flight business class

Note: This only applies if you’re searching for the lowest rates on Air France or KLM award flights. Just as with the old blank date trick, it won’t work if searching for flights on partner airlines like Delta or Virgin Atlantic – you’ll have to search day by day for those partner award redemptions. 

Select a date to see the available flights and click through to book as normal. 

MSP-CDG award flight flying blue

MSP-CDG award flight flying blue

Read next: The Best Ways to Use Air France/KLM Flying Blue Miles

Bottom Line 

Air France/KLM Flying Blue recently removed the ability to see a month’s worth of award fares to easily zero in on the cheapest rates. But as is usually the case in the world of travel, there’s a workaround. 

At least for now, you can use this trick to pull up a month’s worth of fares and find the flight you want to book with Flying Blue miles, whether you want to fly economy or up front in business class. 

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This article has been archived by Slow Travel News for your research. The original version from Thrifty Traveler can be found here.

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