A really exciting change has just been made to the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program. In late 2022, Flying Blue introduced free stopovers for awards on Air France and KLM, and this functionality has now been rolled out for travel on all partner airlines. This is huge!
In this post:
Flying Blue adds free stopovers on all awards
Nowadays very few airline loyalty programs allow good-value stopovers on award tickets. The two most popular exceptions are Air Canada Aeroplan and Alaska Mileage Plan.
Now another valuable program has added stopovers on a widespread basis — Air France-KLM Flying Blue has rolled out free stopovers on award tickets, and this is the most generous policy we’ve seen from any program. Here’s how Flying Blue’s stopover policy works:
- In order to ticket an award with a stopover, you need to book by phone, though the goal is for this functionality to eventually be rolled out online (though I wouldn’t expect that anytime soon)
- Stopovers are allowed even on one-way awards
- Stopovers can last between 24 hours and up to a year (the maximum validity of a ticket)
- Stopovers aren’t just valid for travel on Air France and KLM, but also for travel on any of Flying Blue’s partners, ranging from Aircalin to China Airlines
- Stopovers are allowed on any combination of airlines, as long as the origin & destination are otherwise valid for an award
- Stopovers don’t have to be at a carrier’s hub, as long as the origin and destination combination are otherwise valid
Do note that while Flying Blue states that call center training is being increased regarding the stopover policy, don’t be surprised if all agents aren’t properly trained on this yet. So you might have to hang up and call again. However, the head of Flying Blue has officially confirmed this new policy.
Is this a game-changer for Flying Blue miles?
Flying Blue is an incredibly useful frequent flyer program. Not only does the program have access to the most Air France and KLM transatlantic business class award space, but the miles are also easy to come by. Flying Blue is transfer partners with all major transferable points currencies, including American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou.
The opportunities here are awesome:
- You could fly from Chicago to Nairobi with a stopover in Amsterdam, on a combination of KLM and Kenya Airways
- You could fly from Washington to Mauritius with a stopover in Paris, on a combination of Air France and Air Mauritius
- You could fly from New York to Beirut with a stopover in Paris, on a combination of Air France and Middle East Airlines
- You could fly from Los Angeles to Singapore with a stopover in Taipei, on China Airlines
- You could fly from Tokyo to Auckland with a stopover in Noumea, on Aircalin
It’s fun to be able to break up a long trip with a stopover, especially if it’s in a city you want to visit. For travel on partner airlines, this should be pretty straightforward. Either there’s saver level award availability through Flying Blue or not, so as long as the origin and destination are otherwise a valid city pair, you should be able to plan a stopover.
Admittedly this is a bit more complicated for travel on Air France and KLM, though. That’s because Flying Blue is known for using married segment logic for awards, which at times could impact pricing. Furthermore, since Flying Blue has dynamic award pricing, only certain types of awards can be combined.
My understanding is that if you find award options at the lowest award costs (per the Flying Blue miles price estimator), then the stopover should price correctly. In other words, if you’re flying from New York to Paris to Johannesburg and find award space for 55,000 miles and 81,000 miles respectively, then the whole itinerary should likely price at 95,000 miles.
Bottom line
The Air France-KLM Flying Blue program has rolled out stopovers for award tickets, including for travel on all partner airlines. This is a game changer, and is now the most generous policy in the industry, at least on paper. Getting free stopovers on all partner airlines at no cost is simply awesome.
Are you excited about Flying Blue adding stopovers on awards?
Anyone knows if this can be done retrospectively? I have ticket for December EWR-PRG via CDG and would like to stay in Paris for 2-3 nights...
I have a one way award booked on AF from ZNZ to CDG to IAH. We need to fly from NBO to ZNZ a week before our AF flight. Would adding NBO to ZNZ with a one week stopover in ZNZ be a valid ticket? Looking on AF's website, there is Kenya Airways award availability...
Note that similar to Air Canada, Flying Blue does have a telephone booking fee, which is not waived. In practical terms I don't think that this really costs Flying Blue much - they get to collect an additional cash fee and stopovers are so inconvenient to book that most people won't do it.
This is insane for people based in ams/cdg. You can threat a one way with stopover as the in/outbound if 2 diffrent trips... Last week I booked scl-ams-del, wich was online 6k milles more expensive then just scl-ams.
At some times you even get an actual discount. Wonder one they nerf this...
Alaska has allowed this for years.
While this is welcome news, FlyingBlue has very uncompetitive pricing on most partners... There may be concrete examples where it isn't too bad, notably international delta flights, but overall the rates are not the most competitive in the Skyteam ecosystem. This becomes especially true on non-alliance partners, where pricing is insane (JAL and Qantas are example). I suspect that even with these changes, the best deals will be with AF KLM
What are Flying Blue's routing rules and do they allow stopovers in regions other than your origin/destination?
So, could you fly, say, CDG-LAX-NRT with a 3-month stopover in LAX and have the whole thing price at the Europe to Asia price?
As far as I am aware it has not been confirmed that stopovers are possible outside of the AMS and CDG hubs. Do you have a source for this information?
The source is Ben Linsey, director of flying blue who posted this on flyertalk a couple days ago.
On a related topic, @Lucky do you know how long it typically takes AF to load awards for a new route? I haven’t been able to find a single seat in any class for the new nonstop RDU-CDG route in either direction on any dates in the winter/spring. Just keeps offering me connecting flights through ATL or JFK.
Good stuff. More useful for people willing to book close in (typically) on SkyTeam for saver.
The examples you give aren't relevant to me and I'm guessing many others. Here's what I would like to know. Can I fly from Paris to NYC on Air France and then months later continue on from NYC to Los Angeles on Delta?
@ JoeSchmo -- If you can find Delta saver level award availability, yes.
Does this include 5th freedom routes or just at the airline hub?
I’m thinking AMS -SIN -DPS on KL.
@ Adam -- It doesn't have to be at the hub. I'll update the post to reflect that.
Makes transferring those Bilt points to AF-KLM at 100% rate earlier this year more worthwhile— even on spec.