Stephen is an established voice in the credit card space, with over 70 to his name. His work has been in publications like The Washington Post, and his Au Points and Awards Consulting Services is used...
Edited by: Keri Stooksbury
With years of experience in corporate marketing and as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Qatar, Keri is now Editor-in-Chief at UP, overseeing daily content operations and r...
17 comments
Kerri Hartfield
August 23, 2019
I honed in on your article because I live in a Delta hub market, have Delta miles and am flying (one way, cruising back) to Rome in October of 2020. Unfortunately, your article left me very confused. In your Delta section, you reference using “Flying Blue” miles but later state that miles cannot transfer between partners. How then can I use my Delta miles to get lower mileage awards for flights to Europe? I know I cannot book anything yet (more than 330 days) but if I cannot find a business class flight using a reasonable amount of Delta miles I will fly Premium economy using the cruise air plan (Oceania). Can you help me out by being more specific as to what I can do?
Thanks, -Kerri
Stephen Au
August 23, 2019
Hi Kerri,
The unfortunate thing about airline miles is that you must use them at their set prices. With Delta, they often charge exorbitant amounts of miles to fly on Delta in business class. To combat this, the best strategy is to accrue these points called transferable points such as from Chase, American Express, Citi, Capital One, or Marriott. That way, you’re able to pick which airline partners to transfer to depending on your best use case.
You will need to be flexible to find attractive prices on Delta using Delta miles.
Ed
October 20, 2019
I’m searching for award tickets on Garuda for CGK – LBJ. All I can find is 80K miles business class. Is there other search engine I can use to find economy class awards? Or Garuda only publishes business class awards?
Thanks.
Stephen Au
October 21, 2019
Hi Ed,
It depends on whose miles you’re using. You can use ExpertFlyer for these flights. You can also call Garuda Indonesia directly and reserve your awards over the phone. Thanks for reading.
Jeremy
December 22, 2019
I’ve been trying for some time to figure out if I can use Skymiles for a domestic Indonesian flight on Garuda. Nothing comes up in searching on Delta.com, but it has to be possible, right? No idea how many miles it would be, either. The route is CGK-SOQ.
Andrew Kunesh
December 23, 2019
Hey Jeremy, I recommend that you check if award space is available on Garuda Indonesia’s website and then call Delta to book. Delta will give you a mileage quote when you call.
Duncan
February 02, 2020
Does any know a secret to Flying Blue partner award availability? I have tried dozens cities on the Air France and KLM websites for Asia and Europe and can’t find a single flight not on Air France or KLM metal. This makes their points useless because of the high fuel surcharges.
Stephen Au
February 04, 2020
Hi Duncan,
Are you asking to find Air France/KLM metal flights on Flying Blue’s website? You asked about “Flying Blue partner award availability”. Finding Flying Blue availability is straightforward. You just need to play around with some dates and use the calendar to search.
Duncan
February 02, 2020
Does someone know how to search partner awards on the Air France or KLM websites? I have tried dozens of cities (Asia and Europe) and dates (from 3 to 10 months out) and can only find flights on Air France or KLM metal. I have also tried one way flights. No luck their either.
mbh
February 07, 2020
I’m not seeing this “around these dates” message at all and am sick of searching date by date. Any tips? Thanks.
Michael McHugh
February 09, 2020
Hi mbh! Look under the departure and arrival dates, and you will see “You are looking for a flight around these dates”. Select this box and then run your award search to see a calendar view.
mbh
March 02, 2020
nope. No such box on my Google browser searches. Repeated attempts. 🙁
mbh
March 02, 2020
Ahhh, just figured it out. The screen you are speaking of is only accessible on AF’s site. Neither KLM nor Flying Blue have that search option. Which is unfortunate, since the flights I want are a better deal via KLM, but I have no way to compare dates/rates. But, thanks for the info and sorry for my confusion. Maybe my experience will help the next person trying KLM/FB sites.
Seth
June 04, 2022
There is absolutely NO BOX that allows you to search around these dates. It is date specific only. Any suggestions?
Stephen Au
June 07, 2022
Hi Seth,
We recommend planning as far out in advance as possible to have the best chances of booking flights at the lowest price. You can also call Flying Blue to inquire about award availability directly.
DEL
July 03, 2023
My wife and I both have Flying Blue accounts and we log in via Air France. The “around these dates” box does no show up. Are you seeing that box currently or the screen shot in this article is very old. We book business class tickets from US to Europe quite frequently on Air France awards.
Jarrod West
July 05, 2023
Hi Del,
You are correct that the “around these dates” box no longer appears during the search, and instead you receive look at award availability by week. We are currently in the process of updating this article.
Any thoughts or questions? Comment below!
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