Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.Flying Blue, the frequent flyer program of Air France, KLM, Air Europa, Aircalin, Kenya Airways and Tarom, runs frequent award redemption promotions. These flights can be extraordinary values, especially since Flying Blue is an American Express Membership Rewards direct transfer partner. This means anyone with Amex points can take advantage since Amex to Flying Blue transfers are nearly instantaneous.Another advantage of Flying Blue rewards is that they allow one-way awards, so you can mix and match easily.However, not all of these redemptions are good deals. Flying Blue has pretty high taxes and fees, which can effectively erase the value of coach awards. For example, I chose Paris to JFK Feb 3-7 and there were 25,000 mile options, but the taxes came to $411. To purchase a coach fare, I found a $531 fare on US Airways, so spending 25,000 miles to save $120 is a horrible deal- especially since you don’t earn miles on award tickets.However, the business class awards can be great, point-saving values. Check it out for yourself- 50,000 points and a couple hundred bucks for business class internationally is a pretty good deal, no matter how you slice it. These awards price out on the Flying Blue award calendar, so play around to see if any work for your travels.[card card-name=‘The Platinum Card® from American Express’ card-id=‘22504813’ type=‘javascript’ bullet-id=‘1’]
