For years, one of the least expensive way to get to Israel with miles has been with Air France/KLM Flying Blue Promo Awards. Those awards have been valid from rotating cities for travel to Europe or Israel from just 12.5K miles in economy.
Air France/KLM Flying Blue switched over on Friday from an award chart based program to a calculator based award chart.
Some things got better, such as lower potential business class award rates for JFK to/from Tel Aviv:
Unfortunately availability at that level is more sparse than before. Making matters worse, Air France has removed their flexible award calendar so you need to search every individual day to find the lowest rates. Talk about being costumer unfriendly!
Saver awards to Tel Aviv do exist though, which is more than their partner Delta can say, though they are still coupled with fuel surcharges as before:
Air France said that Promo awards would remain and technically that is true. There are new promo awards from Chicago and San Francisco to Paris.
In the past that would have been valid to and from anywhere in Europe or Israel. Unfortunately that is no longer the case. For example Chicago to/from Paris is available for travel in August and September for just 11,000 miles each way, but it’s not valid to any other cities. Chicago to Tel Aviv is the same as the regular non-promo rate.
Another one bites the dust…
HT: Yaalili, via DDF and Lucky
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18 Comments On "Air France/KLM Flying Blue Kills Promo Awards For Israel Travel"
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not such a reliable airline after all their strikes this year
Hi dan whats the least expensive way to fly back tlv to America with points one way
Ba is 23 k
Even less with a sale, but you do pay fuel surcharges:
https://www.dansdeals.com/airfare-deals/mileage-deals/save-50-select-british-airways-avios-coach-redemptions-london-jfk-london-6-5k-avios-jfk-tel-aviv-16-5k-avios-plus-fees/
If we want to take advantage of the ORD to Paris deal. which is better to fly with it, KLM or AirFrance?
Book on AirFrance.com
Can someone tell me whats the best way to credit paid flights on air france or klm in economy to flying blue or delta? thanks
Depends on the fare class.
economy klm l and v and af l and v. thank you again
L gets 50% credit on Delta and V gets 25%.
As Delta miles don’t expire, that’s probably where I’d stick them.
thank you dan tavaoi aleihem bracha
Why would anyone take one of these flights after factoring the fuel surcharges?
Would probably be cheaper booking a paid flight.
Just FYI, I discovered that the amount of points needed for a rewards flight are 5500-6000 lower when calling Flyingblue on the phone vs. what’s shown online. Just booked my family for Pesach via Air France 4/15 JFK-TLV only 33,500 ea. outbound (39,000 online), returning 4/28 44,500 ea. (50,500 online). Taxes come out to $250 ea. That + 78K points for Pesach is a pretty good deal.
yea so does anyone know if the bilkelach they give out are pas yisruel?
I just flew KLM ex NYC and ex AMS and the food was all CY, Glatt, Pas Yisrael etc.
Chassidish Hashgacha ex NYC and Vaad of Amsterdam (which is a Mehadrin-type hechsher) ex AMS.
Does anyone know what hechsher Air France uses TLV-JFK or Neward -TLV?
The Vaad ha-Kashrut of Passaic-Clifton
Hi Dan-
It’s not related but I’m trying to help someone find a flight to Israel this summer and the cheapest was like $1200. He is flexible and was thinking I can fly ny to anywhere in Europe than a low budget to Israel both round trips Or even all one ways. Would you have any recommendations s of cheapest major hubs to fly to or best days to look to fly out and back on?thnx!