Air France-KLM Flying Blue Makes It Easier To Search and Book Partner Awards Online

Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue program is one of our favorites for booking SkyTeam award flights, thanks to its decent availability, reasonable taxes, more favorable rates compared to alternatives, and ease of acquiring miles through a plethora of transfer partners.

However, Flying Blue’s website and search engine are known to be … finicky … to say the least. A recent update won’t change some of the quirks of using the site, but it will make it easier to find award tickets on alliance partners that wouldn’t have been previously found.

Here’s what you need to know.

Flying Blue Expands Award Search Capabilities

While we’ve always been fans of using Air France-KLM Flying Blue to book award tickets on SkyTeam airlines, searching for them has been less than fun.

While the program has allowed for award searches with a monthly view of availability, it’s only been accessible via a “hack” (leaving the departure date blank) and only displayed results for Air France and KLM flights.

Now, as first reported by Thrifty Traveler, Flying Blue has incorporated SkyTeam partners into this monthly search capability — though you’ll still need to use the blank departure date hack to find it.

This may seem like a minor update, but it’s actually a big deal for award travelers, as Flying Blue is usually the place to go to find the best possible award pricing on SkyTeam airlines like Delta, Korean Air, China Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and more. Before this update, you’d have to search one date at a time to have any hope of finding a partner award for the flight you were looking for, but now these flights are much easier to find in the monthly calendar view.

Let’s look at some examples of what’s possible with this new functionality. First, take a look at this domestic Delta economy flight between Salt Lake City (SLC) and Maui (OGG), bookable for just 19,000 miles one-way.

Meanwhile, Delta charges 31,700 SkyMiles for the exact same flight. The new Flying Blue functionality is a great way to ensure you’re getting the very best award prices.

Here’s a look at available nonstop business class flights on Delta metal between New York (JFK) and London (LHR). You’ll pay 63,500 miles each way. Take note of the minimal taxes and fees, thanks to the flights being operated by Delta, as opposed to Virgin Atlantic, which charges hundreds of dollars in taxes and fees for business class flights to London.

Delta will charge you a staggering 395,000 SkyMiles for the same flights!

And here’s a look at business class pricing for China Airlines‘ new route between Taipei (TPE) and Phoenix (PHX). As Thrifty Traveler points out, Flying Blue is the best program for booking China Airlines flights.

Although you may still encounter the quirks of the website, such as frequent errors, this functionality is genuinely helpful for award searches. It’s made even better by the fact that Flying Blue maintains transfer partnerships with every transferable rewards program, including American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Final Thoughts

It’s not often there’s positive news coming out of airline loyalty programs, but this is undeniably a helpful development from Flying Blue. The ability to use the calendar view to find partner awards makes searching — and finding the best award prices — much easier than before!